What I am posting isn't new, nor do I claim to have "discovered" it, but when it comes to making mountains the way I am going to suggest works much faster than the old hydrocal and brown paper towel strips. If you have a large area to do, try this method; if you have a small area to do, then hydrocal and strips of paper work well. Newer faster, more efficient, easier method to use for making mountains, etc. 1) First, using strips of card board about 1" wide, lace the area you wish to make the mountains. I use a hot glue gun, this works better than staples. If you need longer strips, just hot glue the ends together. Hot glue the ends onto the plywood or whatever, when using the card board strips. Cardboard is used from detergent boxes and cereal boxes (start hoarding). Lace over and under, just like on a lawn chair. 2) Buy cheese cloth (really cheap) and just glue the outer edges (perimeter) using hot glue on plywood and strips. I have done one layer of cheese cloth , but I will probably use two layers of cheese cloth in my next attempt. I bought the cheese cloth from a hardware store, like Home Depot, other places might be a better source. The cheese cloth is really cheap, in Canada about $3 for 3 yards, by about 30 inches wide. 3) After all the cheese cloth is installed and perimeters are secured, spray the whole lot with spray glue and let it dry. This secures the cheesecloth so that it is tighter as you will understand in the next step. Also the tighter your weaving of cardboard (I do about 2 inch open square, nothing in the center) the tighter your cheese cloth. 3) Using a mixture of hydrocal and pottery plaster 50/50, two cups of mixture to one part water (as cold a water as you can use - let water sit over night in fridge - slows down setting). And about two table spoons of vinegar (slows down setting time). 4) With a really cheap paint brush about 2 inches wide, paint on the mixture once it has set just beyound a really thick soup. Make sure you have an excellent drop cloth, newspapers, what have you underneath, some will leak through. I find that the first area I do isn't that well done, so when the next new bathc of mixture is still a bit thinner, too thin to add to bare cheesecloth, I will paint on the new stuff over the old, then when the new batch sets up more, I use that on my second area, not yet painted area. I leap frog like this and may do 5 or 6 batches in one sitting. The paint brush cleans up amazingly well. I clean the brush between each batch. 5) And to those of you who are new to this, don't throw your water that is in a bucket out in your sinks or anywhere in the house. Can you say "plugged pipes" really fast. And don't clean any hydrocal or plaster paint brushes, mixing tools, etc, in your sink - again, say "plugged pipes" really fast. 6) Lastly, print this out as you will never remember it all - I didn't from when I first read about it and had to do a long search for the formula.
<font color="336633">I have only had the chance to make one mountian. That was on a club layout. We just used the polystyrene blocks that come in packaging. was quick and very cheap (free) but was REALLY messy when we shaped them...... If I ever get the chance to build another I will be sure to try a different way!</font>
