Playing catch-up 2

Playing catch-up 2

Began filling in rock on back of deck 2. The molds are great but any gaps or overlaps require work to smooth out.

Tried a mixture of molding plaster, dental plaster, plaster of paris. The dental plaster is great as it dries faster, but much harder to carve. The molding plaster varies by company so pick a type you like and stick to that brand.

It takes a lot more plaster than you might think. What you see in below 2 pictures took 50 lbs of dental plaster and 22 lbs of molding plaster (plus a little used on deck 1).


This is front of deck 2, rock work about done.


This is the backside just about all major castings in, beginning fill-in (see lower right).

Fill-in can be done many ways:
1. Easiest is sculpt-a-mold, but as a I mentioned before if you are going to stain, it is much more difficult to blend in. Over in HON3Chat they suggested using scuplt-a-mold only where dirt or scree would cover. Using Les's method of painting first eliminates this problem. I've sorta of went in the middle using both strong stain as a "paint" and thinner stain on the raw plaster. If you take your time either method will work, it becomes what you like the best.
2. Molding plaster, this is my preferred way, it is harder to position but once in place you can carve easily and stain takes roughly the same as the castings. A word of caution, the carved and even the castings don't all take stain the same. One of the main advantageous to Les's method is his painting the rock first eliminates this variable. If you use the stain only method you will need several passes to get what you are looking for.

Note on carving: just try it. If you goof, place new casting over old and try again. I use a pairing knife, a serrated steak knife and an old x-acto with #11 broken blade. I have read dental picks work really well, but don't have one yet. Carving down seems to work best for me. Use surrounding rocks as a guide and make it blend in. Also a little sprayed water or even better lite stain makes seeing easier and it carves better. Keep a paint brush handy to brush carvings to remove junk. Also, word to the wise, don't do what I did, cover your track and anything else below, both the castings and carving will make plaster that will stick to anything and ruin your scenery.

On to coloring and carving hanging rock.

This is both the first spraying of the plaster with raw sienna and the carving of hanging rock. In an earlier post there was a picture of the un-carved casting made from a Woodland Scenics dry mold.


This is an upgrade shoot showing most castings and fill-in.


Lastly a picture of the Beaver Brook station area as rock work progresses.

That's all for now - Thanks Cameron