Bragdon Rock Molds

Ray,

They are excellent. I particularly like the larger molds in the 18"x24" size range. You can do an entire cliff face in one casting, or fill just sections of it to get a variety of castings from the same mold.

They are made with the Bragdon's geodesic foam system in mind - so many are very shallow.  But, if you place a few pieces of wood under the mold around the edges, you can give it more of a concave shape to hold plaster. I use them exclusively with inexpensive plaster-of-Paris with good results.

I have about 4 or 5 of these molds and can produce literally dozens of unique castings depending on how I fill them and orient them on the layout.

As with any castings, the trick is to blend them into the hillside - not make them look like chunks of plaster glued to the cliff. Keep the edges irregularly shaped, and use Sculptamold or Structolite to "sink" them into the surrounding scenery.

Jim

I have a couple of them. I've made rocks with their foam and hydrocal. The foam method is a little messy but make some nice lite weight molds which are mold able. I also use them to make smaller rocks, I just pour some hydrocal into sections of the mold. They are very realistic and have a DVD toutorial which helps. I'd post a pic but I can't from my iPad or iPhone. Hope this helps

I use them on my layout and really like the effect. They are larger and when creating larger rock areas you don't get the goose bump effect on the rock face. Here I used 3 mold to do this rock cliff face.

Thank you all for your quick replies. We are very interested in your experience with the molds and what material used. More pics would be greatly appreciated.

Ray Marion

Ray, I use Bragdon's system of casting the rocks with the 2 part resin. It doesn't crack like hydrocal and is waterproof. I also like that when you first apply onto your base scenery it is soft and pliable , so you can conform the rocks over your scenery the way you want.  People say it is expensive but I find that the product goes a long way.

Here is the same cliff with the fresh castings applied. They are adhered to the layout using hot glue.

I use them all the time.  I bag them up when not using them so they don't get brittle.  I like the larger ones because even if you just need small pieces you can do a multi pour into a large mold and make four or five little pieces.  I do not use his resin stuff just the molds with hydrocal.  Russ

I am new, and haven't used them... BUT have been researching them as well.  Eric Seigel has some excellent tutorials on them over at his site.  Just select "videos" and it's under the tutorial section.

http://www.ericstrains.com

I, too, have been using Bradgon's molds exclusively  since discovering them.  But, I fill them with their two part epoxy.  It is more costly, but has several advantages.  First, the pour is thin, about a quarter inch thick.  Then, epoxy lets me cut it to fit the specific location.  Also, I can heat it with a hair dryer and bend the piece to fit curved locations - which is more the rule than the exception.  

So, with thin pours, you don't have to worry about the "rock bumps" that you have with thick plaster pours and don't have to worry about accidently breaking a mold.

I have used the same molds many times, they are really well made and you can now buy a mold release from Bradgon which makes setting up for a pour much easier.

Finally, as you can see from their website, they offer a fantastic variety of molds, to match almost any rock formation you could imagine.

So, I can add to the list of folks who highly recommend their molds.

Thank you all for the info. Now I have to decide which ones to work with. i suspected the larger size would be better.

Ray Marion