Creating a rock wall

[Stug]

Here are two pictures of my first rock wall carved into styrofoam. It was supposed to be just a test but I think I may use it after all. On the first picture, I just used different colors of grey and beige and drybrushed one beige color at the end. On the second picture (we don’t see very well) I have added black wash and added a little bit of dark green and light green in the cracks to mimic the mosses growing between the rocks.

Any idea of what I should do to base this rock wall section and what to do to improve it?

Also, what should be the ideal dimensions for such a rock wall?

[irishserb]

Your test looks pretty good.

Assuming 1/285 scale, a three foot wall would be about .126″ or about 1/8″ tall, 6 foot is twice that, eight foot  would be .336″.  Thickness could be anything from about ten inches up to a couple of feet, or more.  A ten inch thick wall would be under 1/16″ in scale and really hard to work with.

If I were to use foam for that scale (I would likely make masters and cast them in resin), I might base them on strips of .03 or .04 inch sheet styrene plastic maybe 1/4 to 3/8 wide, sanding the edges of the plastic to blend into the base terrain.

I would probably give the foam a coating of either an acrylic paste or matte medium to make it a little more resistent to damage; these will dry with varying degrees of “rubberyness”, which can be a little forgiving  if the wall is snagged or something is dropped on it.  You could also use a white glue, which will try hard and resistent to impact.  I find that the chipping with a hard surface is less favorable than being somewhat flexible.  either will extend the life of your wall sections.

The wall sections could be coated on the bottom with matte medium and then superglued to the bases, or glued with matte medium or white or tacky glue.

A problem with the foam walls is that they are very light weight, so can easily be diplaced with a light touch.  I’d be looking for ways to add some weight to the sections, though at this scale, there isn’t a lot that can be done.  Resin can be impregnated with metal powder, bases could be made of brass strips, etc.

 

[Stug]

irishserb wrote:

Your test looks pretty good. Assuming 1/285 scale, a three foot wall would be about .126″ or about 1/8″ tall, 6 foot is twice that, eight foot would be .336″. Thickness could be anything from about ten inches up to a couple of feet, or more. A ten inch thick wall would be under 1/16″ in scale and really hard to work with.

I might base them on strips of .03 or .04 inch sheet styrene plastic maybe 1/4 to 3/8 wide, sanding the edges of the plastic to blend into the base terrain. I would probably give the foam a coating of either an acrylic paste or matte medium to make it a little more resistent to damage;

The wall sections could be coated on the bottom with matte medium and then superglued to the bases, or glued with matte medium or white or tacky glue.

A problem with the foam walls is that they are very light weight, so can easily be diplaced with a light touch. I’d be looking for ways to add some weight to the sections, though at this scale, there isn’t a lot that can be done. Resin can be impregnated with metal powder, bases could be made of brass strips, etc.

Wow thanks for all the info. I am posting a new picture of my wall once cut to give an idea of its height compared to some of my vehicules.

I need to find some materials to create a base and also a way to add some weight to this base because, like you said, it’s very light. The base should be thin and add some weight. Maybe I could glue some dried clay on top of the base (see one of my earlier thread about using real soil to create terrain).

We don’t see as many color variation in the bricks as the photos I posted before because I used too many paint while drybrushing. So I shoul repaint my wall again because of my mistake. I also need to do the other side but first, lets find a proper base to glue my wall.

[Mike]

Lollipop sticks?

[Jim Webster]

As somebody who has had to do a bit of walling, remember the stones aren’t normally as big as a vehicle wheel 🙂
For scale, think of them as averaging about the size of a head of a figure at that scale 😉

But seriously it looks good. Go for it

https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

[Patrice]

Very good!

The coulour of stones may depend on the area. In some places (as where I live) you could have stones of slightly different colours, some may be blue-ish, others red-ish, or almost yellow… It would not do good to exaggerate this, but some slight shades can help.

Jim Webster wrote:

As somebody who has had to do a bit of walling, remember the stones aren’t normally as big as a vehicle wheel For scale, think of them as averaging about the size of a head of a figure at that scale

Yes.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Stug]

Mike wrote:

Lollipop sticks?

You mean the rounds sticks or the popsicle kind?

Jim Webster wrote:

As somebody who has had to do a bit of walling, remember the stones aren’t normally as big as a vehicle wheel For scale, think of them as averaging about the size of a head of a figure at that scale But seriously it looks good. Go for it

Thanks for the info. Yes you are right. Next time, I should be more cautious about the size of the stones. It was just a test so I wont use this piece of wall finally.

Patrice wrote:

Very good! The coulour of stones may depend on the area. In some places (as where I live) you could have stones of slightly different colours, some may be blue-ish, others red-ish, or almost yellow… It would not do good to exaggerate this, but some slight shades can help.

Thanks. Next time, I will add more color variation. I was thinking about adding also a bit of green to make it looks like mosses were growing between and on the stones.

[Mike]

Like this.

 

[Stug]

Mike wrote:

Like this.

Ok I will try that next time. Thanks for the tip.

[Kitty Hay-Whitton]

Looks good as it is, but perhaps a small flowering plant growing between the cracks here and there?

[Deleted User]

I like the wall before wash. With wash it looks too dark almost like its been covered in exhause smoke. If you really want to wash it maybe do another test with brown wash for vomparison? Also maybe another test with wash before drybrushing?

[Author]

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