At the last train show I went to, I bought a mold and some paints from a dealer who specialized in rock molds (http://www.bragdonent.com). Rather than use my standard woodland scenics mold and painting style I thought I would try the method the dealer recommended (with some exceptions). The mold I bought was for a standalone rock formation and I went with my standard plaster of paris for the rock itself vs the resin recommended.

Poured the mold and carved out a space to insert a LOTR chess piece. Found a nice piece of bark in the yard to offset the larger rock.

After the mold is dry, the dealer recommended covering it with Gesso, which is designed to accept paint easier. With the three different types of material (PoP, bark and plastic) I was using, I felt it was best to cover all the elements with the same material hoping the paint will be consistent across all of them.

That is as far as I have gotten so far; good day plus for the plaster to dry, carve the mold, and cover with gesso. As this project will involve several steps with a days drying time in-between, I can work on this as I continue on with my other project(s).

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I still use the Woodland Scenic pigments for model railroad style projects.I have to use paint to match Dwarven Forge. I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

I'm curious to see what covering the plaster with Gesso will do. I use WS pigments to soak into the castings. I'm wondering if the Gesso with stop the plaster for absorbing the pigments.

I've never used paint on rocks. Curious to see how this turns out.

After allowing the Gesso to dry, it became a harden shell on the bark and the plaster. For the plaster, that means paint won't soak in or if I didn't clean it well enough, having paint come off with plaster dust. On the piece of bark, it will provide a more even painting surface, and again, no loose parts coming off when painting.

The next step for the border statue is to provide shading into the crevasses of the statue rock and bark. This method suggested was taking black powered tempera paint and brushing the dry powder on with a dry brush onto the dry Gesso. This was rather messy so I was glad I did it on a piece of newspaper and when I was done, I stepped outside and blew on it gently to get rid of some of the powder.



Next recommendation is to mist with water and then remove most of the tempera leaving it in the cracks. That will have to wait for another day.

FYI - The piece of bark took on an interesting shape from what I picked up off the ground - it was still damp so I put it into the microwave to dry it and kill any creatures inside of it. The microwave caused the damp bark to expand and when I took it out to dry the rest of the way it didn't collapse totally. Was quite lucky to get the "wolf's head" shape I got.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I like the idea of a wolf's head!

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Painting the plaster with gesso seems like a big waste of time to me. And then dust paint??

I could have zip textured that rock in 20 minutes...... start to finish.... and it would look spectacular
I don't get it Map? What's the advantage to gesso?

Old Man Willow.......You're probably the only other person here who knows what zip texturing is. LOL LOL

The Woodland Scenic pigments would also take far less time.

zip texturing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsnxnHTzMyE

Gesso is very much like pre painting with wood glue or PVA. A good product to understand but usually a waste of time. Painting the bark with wood glue could be helpful if you need to stabilize it. It is often an unnecessary step.
A lot of modelers use powdered pigments. I find they are best suited for display models.The pigments rub off. Sealing them adds numerous steps that often spoil the effect.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

This is the storm Giant I created from Pine bark.

I am looking forward to seeing the wolf's head shaped pine bark used.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Nevinsrip - I agree, it seems to be more complicated than necessary and more than what I usually do. The only advantage I see to Gesso on the PoP is that is makes it harder - that said, if I wanted it more durable I would cast in dental stone. Part of the reason I cast in PoP is that if it breaks or chips, I just repaint that area and call it weathering or throw it out and do again - no big loss in my mind.

The instructions I am "following" claims the powder better defines the creases without darkening the rest of the cast. I think judicial use of washes, etc would do just as good of a job. This seems to be the only powder used also, the rest of the paints are pigments. But this is why I am trying this method, to try something new that I may or may not use in the future.

Old Man Willow - thanks for sending me down the rabbit hole of terrain videos.

You have made me rethink using that piece of bark for this project, it might be better for a Carrock type feature for my wargs.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Microwaving your bark to kill creepy crawlies. I have a funny story about that. I found some driftwood in BC that I liked and wanted to use for Arnor trees like in the book. I brought it all the way home before I realized an army of tiny ants were coming out of a knothole. Needless to say, I never made those trees.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Ants nuke em to they glow

snap crackel pop

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Ants, don't want to nuke Them!....

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Map Home Depot and the like have color powders that you mix into plaster. That way if it chips, no big deal because it's the same color underneath. Plus, starting off with a "stone" gray moves the ball quickly.

3 spray bottles filled with watered down WS pigments would do the job in less than a half hour.

http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics. ... Techniques
Mapper
Best way to make rock castings. You can skip the first half of the video which is about casting. The second half will show you how to make excellent rocks.

Fantastic work folks (I am jealous)

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I have used brick dye. A little goes a long way. Also take care 35 years ago my brother stepped in a brick dye spill and tracked it in the house. The carpet had to be replaced.

An what do you burn besides witches?



Burn Them burn Them all

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Between holiday and yard work, finally had time to wash off the pigment on the statue - yep, doesn't make sense to put it on just to wash it off when you can define the cracks so much easier.



Haven't washed off the bark yet, still trying to decide what to do with it - took some shaper sheet and tried out a sphinx look. Might have to play with that more.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I think it looks cool. Budget way of doing things, I suppose.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Hey Map, Ever think of making a mold of that Wolfs head?
Rock casting molds are easy to make with Latex Rubber.

You can jazz up that Wolfs Head a bit with an Exacto knife and make a nice latex mold out of it.
Something to think about.
Hey, I was right about the Gesso, wasn't I?

Couldn't find a piece of rock/bark I liked to replace the "wolf's head" so I took some shaper sheet and made one. This border statue will be between Gondor and Harad and I wanted some room for the patrol to go through.

The patrol is definitely in the preliminary stages regarding painting.

Didn't bother with the powder, just spray painted it grey. I did add the gesso to the sheet to stiffen it a little and to cover up what I had done before.

Not sure if I should have assembled the piece before painting as it will be harder to hold but I thought I would be able to get a more consistent painting if I did it this way.

The 'wolf's head" I am tinkering with so it should show up in a future post.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."