Hi

Just like I promised on the Building forum, here's a short post on how to create a rock wall. First of all create a small frame out of balsa wood or something similar. It really doesn't matter what you use, make sure it is more or less rectangle shaped. Use some dental plaster to cast a wall panel. Here you can see some photos showing a simple mould (made form balsa wood, I'm also using some styrodur for the base, those balsa wood beams are held in place using pins)and a mould with some plaster already poured in:



After about 6min (it really depends on the kind of plaster you're using) scrape the mould using a piece of plasticard (or a scraper). This picture shows the mould already scraped and ready for drying:

After about 25min, make sure the plaster is fairly dry and remove it from the mould (I had to decompose the whole frame to get the cast out). Here's a photo showing a panel removed frrm the mould, it's still wet so leave it for about a day to dry:

The next thing to do is to take a fairly uneven rock and press the rock against the panel's surface. This way we will create a cool texture which will be similar to a real wall. Unfortunatelly I haven't got a picture showing this process but you can see the final effect on a finished piece at the end of this post.
The next step is to scribe the wall to create all the rocks. I used some dental tools for this and I guess it is the best thing to use. You should be able to buy such tools at your local dentist store. After scribing some simple rectangle rocks which you can see here:


try to make them a little bit more oval (but not too much), making sure you scribe all those corners and edges, so the rocks is a bit smoother (normal rocks that are being exposed to a lot of rain and other factors tend to lose all sharp edges). Here you can see a row of rocks that shows what I'm talking about:

After that you just have to take a brush with some hard bristles and use it on the panel to bring out the details and remove any visible sharp edges. And that's pretty much the whole process. Here's a finished wall piece:

Hope this will help you with your next wall project:) The next thing I want to create is a corner piece which will allow me to connect similar wall panels. I'm still thinking about it, but will try to post some pics as soon as I take some. Cheers!!

dsc.

PS. Happy Easter Holidays!!

Yolu make it look very easy. Thanks for sharing this with us dcs.

Looks great, I'm gonna give it a try!

thanks for sharing!

Martin

DSC,

that's a nice and easy step by step. I most sure this will help some builders to create an excellent wall without having to use expensive aftermarket kits.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge !

Thanks for your kind words guys. I'm having some trouble with those corner pieces I've mentioned earlier. I'm considering two methods:
- make the corner piece rocks the same hight as those in the wall panel
- make the corner piece rocks two times higher than the rocks in the panel

The second idea might look nicer but it's a bit tricky, cause it's harder to actually hide the places where the corner meets the panel. Here's a photo to explain what I'm talking about:



I would have to cut away smaller pieces of the wall panel to make it interlock with the corner that I'm about to create. The red rectangles show the possible cut-aways. But such operation leaves me with a bunch of smaller, very narrow rock pieces, one of which is highlighted on the photo with a blue color. I have no idea how to eliminate this problem, so if anyone has anything usueful, please leave a comment, I would be more than grateful. Thanks in advance for any help.

dsc.

u make it sound so easy...btw, wat abt polystyrene? can it b made into a wall too? how?

This is the same method I use for the walls. Plaster is a great material. Thanks for sharing with us dsc

I know exactly what you mean. There is an easier method of joining corners, that looks natural enough. If you look at a lot of Verlinden or Custom Dioramics houses they all use this easy system. I borrowed this picture made by Graywolf, so you can see for your self. It would be easy to make one of these and cast it for all your corners and even pillars for extra detail

Another way to hide joints at house corners to add a drain spout down the wall.

I used your method of "cast and scribe" to create a wall base for a 1/16 figure. Instead of using four straight sides, I made a 3-D mould for extra depth. There will be an article on the site in a week or so .. it has been allready sent in.

I'm a bit surprised (positively surprised) that there are new replies to this topic. I've really thought that it was dead, but I guess I was wrong, which is pretty cool:).

Danial: I think slodder has already answered your question in a similar "wall" topic, somewhere in the scratchbuilt section of the forum.

Wampum: thanks for your comment and I agree with you that plaster is a great material.

Plasticbattle: in the end I have used the second idea. It turned out pretty nice, you can see it here:



Your suggested method is a bit easier, but I think it looks a bit better when the corner pieces are overlapped by smaller wall rocks. I don't know if you understand what I'm trying to say, but in my opinion using identical corner pieces, gives an impression that the corner is a bit unstable (all the corner pieces stand on top of each other and except mortar aren't really connected with the surrounding walls). I guess that the "interlock" idea is a bit more realistic. It doesn't change the fact that the building on Greywolf's picture looks really cool.

Cheers,
dsc.

I have to pick up some dental plaster!


Thanks for the inspiration,
Eddie

hi Tom,
Thanks for the SBS,i always love to see posts about plaster in the forums and I see you are really good on that. Lets keep sharing info on making plasterwork.
I absolutely agree interlock idea looks more realistic especially for medieval structures.
best regards

The best thing is that I've got into that whole "plastermania" action only a few months ago (thanks for the inspration Plasticbattle!!). I didn't think that I can achieve such great effects with only plaster and dental tools. The whole construction process can be a bit long, but if you do everything right the final effect is pretty stunning:) Plus it's much cheaper than buying stuff and you can make pretty much anything you need. So as you said: "Lets keep sharing info on making plasterwork"... now everybody get to work:)

cheers,

dsc.

tnx for the tip...by the way how thick is the wall...

Well it really depends on how thick you want it to be. The one used in this tutorial is 1cm thick, which is usually too much. It's totally up to you, you decide how thick or thin you want it too be, but remember that bigger pieces (bigger surface) will tend to break more easily when too thin. Cheers and happy scribing

dsc.

That's a really great "how to" article Tom , thanks for sharing it with us! Very cool project, may have to give it a go even if I don't need a wall at the moment. lol