Hello again! It has been a while since my last post about my british stems era rifle case layout (new case is 54x15x6) that I moved into OO scale as a shunting layout. I’m back looking for more advice since I’m still a noob to the hobby haha Now to the topic of this post. It has come across to me that the hobby is a very pricey and that to get good quail it’s things (specifically made for the hobby), you need a decent amount of $$$. Now not to dash the government much, but I don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on my military pay not to mention to relax- I shouldn’t have/need to spend that much. The only fault I do have with the hobby is the price. Moreover, there’s tons of free stuff lying around in nature around here and around base. I have gotten very fond of the pebbles of the beaches in the Great Lakes where I’m stationed. I wanted to make rock walls out of them and maybe even buildings with some work done to them. All done within a reasonable cost of a tool or two but the actual product costing much less than the $25-$20 you can pay for the same thing. It would also add realism to the layout. I know people usually put real stones in there rivers and such, but I was thinking of doing a bit more like I suggested. I’m not sure on several things: •how to make them stick together well while undergo regular transport •if it’s feasible/worth doing •how easy they could fall apart over time vs the plastic or rubber mats the model manufacturers provide. I have a bunch of stones around me, a heap of cement bags the station doesn’t need, and tools ready to be loaned out from shipmates. So the cost really is just my time/effort vs spending money. Has anyone dipped their toes into making their layouts, or parts and pieces of it, from real things like this? And how did you do it? Would you consider it a valuable option? Thanks in advance for the responses!
Really don't have a good answer for you but that does sound interesting. I would think there are some adhesives out there like liquid nails, latex caulk and the such that might work well for holding natural materials together or in place.
One way to get a miniature stone wall out of "miniature" stones and, i do not remeber if actual cement for binder, or resin or other is to create a mould and cast the stones and the binder together, then when stones need to appear, carefully scrape the binder.
Yes I was thinking about liquid nails or maybe even plaster if it holds, not too sure. I saw one video on YouTube talk about it, but didn’t explain it any.
Ah I didn’t think of that! That would make sense. I’m not sure if actual cement is the best way but in my mind it seems the most heavy duty maybe. I’m active duty and the layout will be stored in a gun case and be moved around a lot. I’m not sure if it’s feasible to use real stuff if I’ll just have to repair it constantly. Thanks for the comment!
I use a lot of found things in my modeling. Benchwork lumber can be harvested from alleys for instance. Anything I can do to make my hobby dollar stretch I will do.
I used a lot of scraps when I lived closer to Milwaukee. I helped a group that did home repairs and remodels for lumber and the rest from the Southern Kettle Moraine Forest Park. I used some kind of plaster soap for shaped stone walls.
What kind of wall are you trying to build? Do you mean a freestanding wall or more of of a retaining wall with sediment or an embankment behind it? Some kind of thick glue, maybe even just white glue, would bind them together enough. You want something rubbery and not brittle to withstand setting the layout down, closing the lid, etc. I was reading up on river scenery just because that is where a lot of rock-work shows up. Most people are gluing talus down with white glue, although in your case we are trying to build vertical, so I don’t know if we need new techniques. For a rock wall, you want to fill in the gaps, so you could try to make a ‘model-scale’ concrete by mixing glue and sand just to give it some more grit. This might take some experimentation and research. This isn’t something I’ve ever tried before.
Use white glue for the primary binder, but then put some sanded grout in the visible joints. Plaster, by itself, really doesn’t have the strength, especially if there will be a lot of transport. And, don’t think just about pebbles as rocks. I’ve used dried (and baked — to sterilize) dirt; dried twigs as deadfall; etc.
Well so I plan on having a harbor scene on the layout, so it’d use some of the rocks from the water to make up the retaining wall for the docks. Then I’d use some of the local more land type of rocks to make and actual quarry and a few small retaining walls for the hilly areas. I have been thinking of just making a concrete type of paste to use but I like the idea of the rubber. That way it might withstand some of the transport. Thanks for the input! I’ll probably end up doing a test of the suggested materials to see what works best.
So sanded grout might work better in this case then? I figured plaster isn’t too strong but I was lost as to where to start from. I was thinking of using concrete at first but I think you’re right about the grout since it’s a little more flexible and will hold up during transport. Thanks for the comment!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Another way of approching this might be to assemble your natural products, bind them with one or more of the methods described, then make latex casts of them for purposes of reproduction and mass production. This way, the assembly of the natural materials doesn't have to be made to actually stand up to transport, they only need to be strong enough to hold together for the purposes of casting. I have dozens of molds that I've made of purchased materials, like tunnel portals. They're damned expensive to just have them consumed on the layout! So, I bought two and made molds. Now I cast $10 tunnel portals for pennies. I've done the same with rocks that I've gathered. I make a large mold covering those features of the rock or rocks that I like, but when I go to throw my castings, I might only cast smaller portions of that larger mold. This way I have almost endless variation and diversity in my casted product. I'm building rock walls by adhering these casted features onto styrene and foam and then standing those assemblies up vertically. The down side is, of course, that I have to paint these casts to replicate nature. So, either method has it's pros and cons... if you bind your materials together and use them, they're consumed in that usage and can never be replicated. Making casts of them provides some repeatability in being able to duplicate those features, especially if you have a lot of space to cover, but you have to paint them before you can use them.
Either way you have to spend some money. You either buy models and kits, or you buy tools and supplies to harvest materials.
I've been known to scrape down deep in gravel parking lots for ballast with a salt shaker I got for the purpose. When it "dries up" I know everything left inside is too big, so I dump that the next time I'm in a gravel patch prior to refilling it. Any casual observers probably think I'm crazy exchanging a shaker if gravel. If anyone were to ask, I'd just explain I'm a model railroader. Then they'd know I'm crazy, and would probably leave me alone. I use white/wood glue to apply it. Little sticks to stone, but that sticks to cork roadbed and encircles the grains. I'd recommend you look for a "mortar" that sticks to whatever is underneath, and doesn't dry or cure too rigid.
