ROCKS & CLIFFS
Producing realistic looking rocks can be a difficult task particularly on
layouts where they may be a dominant feature. The methods used will depend upon
the nature of the rocks required i.e. are the rocks part of a cliff face or are
they forming individual rock features. Rock faces can be natural or the
result of quarrying. The images below show the use of texture and colour to
produce a realistic quarry face when viewed from distance and close up. This
quarry face was produced using tile cement on construction foam. The technique
is described below and can be used for natural rock faces as well as quarried.
Cliff faces can be produced using several
techniques some of which are detailed below.
- Small areas of rock can be produced using commercial products from a
variety of manufacturers. These products include cork bark which looks
remarkably like natural rock when used carefully, rubber latex rocks
produced by several American manufacturers and also rock moulds to
manufacture multiple items using modelling plaster e.g. Woodland Scenics.
| The
image to the right shows a simple rock face manufactured using cork bark cut wafer thin on a band saw allowing it it
to become more flexible. The cork is fixed to the plaster base terrain using a
glue gun. If larger and thicker pieces of cork bark are used, they can be set
into the scenery before the mesh wire or similar is applied. Once in place
bring the base scenery coat up to the edge of the cork before disguising the
edge of the cork with coarse turf pressed into PVA adhesive overlapping the
cork. Polystyrene blocks can also be carved to shape before
painting with textured paint and then finished with paints as above. |
|
- Large areas of exposed rock in the form of cliffs can be expensive to
produce using commercial products. Realistic rock faces can be produced
using a variety of products including layers of polystyrene, plaster and
as we prefer waterproof tile adhesive. The images below show how tile
adhesive can be applied on top of either polystyrene sheet (expanded or
construction) or plaster
bandage to represent exposed rock. The tile adhesive is applied using a
small pointing trowel or filler spreader using vertical strokes. This leaves a thicker upper
edge to the tile adhesive which adds more realism. Once dry the surface
can be weathered with a water wash as the middle image (water with black,
grey brown or a suitable base colour paint added) before highlighting and
detailing. Remember to disguise the join between rocks and the surrounding
scenery with a coarse turf as described above.
Once complete some realistic effects can be achieved. The image left
below shows the baseboards shown throughout the scenic section of this
website
at their delivery degree of finish ready to be detailed by the client.
The right
image shows the importance of colour blending using water colours to
achieve the
final finish together with the careful use of scenic effects e.g.
vegetation and
talus.
| 
