Beautiful work, very impressive....

Regards

Alan

So, first cliff is done.
It's made from old boxes, and based upon the parts I got from pepakura. I used tape to hold it together and then covered it all with papiermache and white printpaper instead of newspaper.
I thought it would be easier to draw my diorama plans on it later, without having to paint it white.

But it is the wrong size.
Sigh!!! And aaaargh!!!
Not sure what happened, but I think the scaletool in Pepakura fooled me into thinking it was automatically importing the scale info from the 3d-program I use.
Well well. You learn.
I can still use it as a reference to get a better idea of what it all will look like in the end.

And I assembled most parts of the ship and put it on the table next to the cliff to get that better idea. It works pretty well.
I was afraid the ship would cover much of the base of the cliffs so the viewer wouldn't be able to see whatever I put there. But that will not be a big problem I think.
The original crew of the Falcon is standing on the edge. They ARE to scale.

I will build another cliff instead, a smaller one. Have to get the scaling correct.

What to do with the iceberg that sank the Titanic?

I’m sure you will get there, very nice work though.

Mark

Coming on great, looking forward to seeing more soon.

Mark

Have been tinkering in 3d today. Fleshing out a few of my sketches to see what it can look like.



I am gearing up to build a fullscale testcliff with some buildings and parts of the "antfarm"-interiour to better understand and get a feeling for the cliffs.
I can't do much more in 3d.

One thing I have noticed is that I have one opening between the cliffs in a corner.
I can't have that, because there will be a piece of wood there, a part of the table, holding up the glass.

It will be great to see how this turns out, looks a bit like an inprint you get from the dentist.

Mark

I have made a first test cliff.


Started with pink styrofoam. Here in Sweden it is used as insulation under concrete floors, between the ground and the concrete. A lot of material for almost no money.

I carved it into a rock pillar, and then brushed wallfiller onto it, and let it dry over a not very warm radiator.

After that I mixed some plaster and used a spatula to add a layer of plaster. I tried to put it on with rocks in mind and at the same time enhance the shapes I already had in the carved foam.

When the plaster was dry I used a sharp pointy knife to remove all parts where the plaster didn't look like rock. Like smooth droplets of plaster and round surfaces.

Flat shapes with edges look more like rock than organic shapes. Or it's just easier to make them look good.

I am very happy with the result. It turned out they way i wanted it to.
The pillar, with filler and plaster is hard enough to handle, and it doesn't crumble.
But I need to study real rocks a bit more to get better shapes. And work on my spatula technique.

Next thing is to paint it and see how the plaster handles the paint.
Sometimes when plaster gets moist by paint hard edges becomes soft and smooth by the brushstrokes. I don't want that.

My new test cliff is full height, about a foot or 300 mm.
Did it the same way as the one before. First carved the foam and the brushed wallfiller on it. I still have to sculpt the plaster on to it.
Will be fun. I have a day off soon.

Since I have never used them I went and bought one of those rock molds by Noch.

I wasn't that happy with the result. The surface of the plaster rocks were very uniform in the surface noise. There were no flat and smooth parts for instance. Maybe you are supposed to work the surface to get that. I don't know.
And they are very small. I need big cliffs. That would mean I have to cast many small parts and create the big cliff from them. I imagine the end result would be something similar to the bark on a pine.

So, I am a clever and practical person, why don't I make my own molds.

Found a good rock in my neighbours garden, of course in the middle of a bush of stinging nettles, I brushed all sand and dirt off and got to work. It had some cracked parts and some smooth. And it was still warm from a day in the sun.

I brushed on several layers of latex milk, let every layer dry up a bit between each brushing.
And then I used paper tissues that I placed in the wet latex. I did this for a few layers.
And then brushed on a few extra layers of latex to seal the paper.

The paper will reinforce the latex and add thickness. It will still be bendable and stretchy.
After that I used baby-powder to remove the stickiness of the latex.
It's very important when removing the latex parts from whatever one is trying to cast.
The latex can fold and immediately stick to it self and can only be separated with a scissor, and by that probably destroy the mold.


The result. Like a bit of skin.
It's about a square foot. Very thin, but stable enough to handle and use as a mold.
It picked up some dirt. Doesn't matter, but I might use water and a proper brush next time to remove more of the dirt and moss.

I got a good and interesting mold in a few places where the rock had broken apart. And the noise, or rock texture is not even, it changes. There are parts that look like the Noch-rocks, but there are also parts that has been eroded and are smoother.

Using silicone is also an option, but more expensive. I wanted to try the latex first.

I am happy with this test. It opens up a new way to make the cliffs.
A bit thicker so the weight of the plaster isn't going to press the mold flat, and much larger so I can drape the mold into the shapes I want and then cast larger parts of the cliffs in one go.
It's an idea anyway.

Another small experiment. Took about 15 minutes.


I used small rocks, shards and pebbles and pressed them into soft clay. The clay didn't stick to the pebbles. The clay is wax based. And it's temperature was perfect.
Turned out pretty good.

The control is so much better than the dripping plaster and spatula. The clay stays in place.
But I will need to make a mold and cast it.
Maybe I can use clay that dries in the air. I have used only once and I can't remember how it was to work with. If its anywhere close to this clay I might have a winner.

And I need better stone tools!