About 6-8 months ago, I had a pile of that white polystyrene stacked up, the type you get when you buy any new electrical or white-ware goods. You can't recycle it, so it just goes in the bin... (not eco-friendly!)
Determined to do something with it, I set to work.
Out came bread knife and hot wire cutter, and I cut it up into various shapes.
I then glued these to a 5mm thick MDF base board, filled any gaps with filler & decorators kaulk. Let it set and painted the whole thing with a 50/50 mix of black paint & PVA glue to seal it.
That was the easy bit done.
I then started adding chunks of bark chip (sourced from my gardens mulched borders - but available from most garden stores or composting supply outlets).
The bark chip gives an excellent stone effect once painted.
This bit is quote laborious, gluing it on with PVA chunk by chunk, one side at a time, and leaving to dry before working on next side etc etc.
But once all glued on, the gaps were again filled with decorators kaulk.
Once this dry, the kaulk was covered with a mix of black sand-textured paint.
See below examples:
To give an idea of scale the height of each structure is about 6-7 inches.
I wanted these to represent something from Moria Dwarrowdelf, so lots of differing levels, ramps and cave mouths.
Then all bark painted again with the black 50/50 paint/glue mix again to seal the bark surface.
Once dry, whole thing was dry-brushed in progressively lighter shades of Grey.
More pics to follow of final models...
Project finished. Photographed with Fellowship models pursued through the Dwarrowdelf by goblins, to give idea of scale...
looking forward to seeing more pics.