Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Establishing Mountain Landscapes

Using Plaster to Create Mountains

Last time I finished using newspaper wads to built up some elevation for the mountain area of the landscape. To cover up all that newspaper wads, first up I tried using plaster cloth. At my local art shop, they sold plaster cloth which I believe is the medical version, which is the one you would use to create casts to immobilise body parts (for example to treat broken bones).

It was good and not messy. Simply cut small pieces, dip in water and position in place. However I finished up the whole roll after only covering less than a quarter of my landscape... not good since they are 8 dollars a roll. This is how much coverage I got:



So, on to plan B, off I went to the local hardware store and I bought a 3 kg bag of plaster of paris for just a little over 10 dollars. Also bought some paper towels.
Although this method is more economical (as in cheaper), it is also a lot more messy.
After mixing the plaster of paris with water (I used 1:1 ratio), I dipped pieces of papaer towel and they would drip everywhere. And also when I didn't get it properly saturated, the result wouldn't look good.

Because of the mess, I had to do it in the garage. Luckily it came out rather nice, see pics:


Posted by Andy at 9:15 PM  

6 comments:

  1. Artificial Science Says:

    Looking good!

    But that must have been one small roll! Or one very expensive roll! Do you still have the package? Does it say how many square feet?

  2. Andy Says:

    I don't have the package anymore, I was looking for the photo that I took of the package but I couldn't find it. Luckily there is the internet, and I found exactly the one I used here:

    http://www.barnesonline.com.au/images/gyproll6.jpg

    It doesn't say anything about the coverage area though ...

  3. Jerry Says: This comment has been removed by the author.
  4. Jerry Says:

    Well, I can already tell those are going to be beautiful mountains! I am getting jealous! :-0 Keep up the great work!

    By the way... Serenity Valley would not be an allusion to the infamous last stand of the browncoats by any chance? ;-)

    (sorry, had to repost given too many errors in my original! I type faster than I think!)

  5. Andy Says:

    I just realised the height of the tunnel entrance is a bit too low now that the layers of plaster has hardened ...

    And yes, go browncoats! ;)

  6. Artificial Science Says:

    Hey Andy, any updates!?

 
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