Building a Rock Formation

Sean,

that's perfect rock formation!

The color is very unique.

Andre.

Nice work.

Very cool looking. Can't wait to see it full sceniced! Please post more pictures when done!

super job with your rock formation. too bad your hiding one heck of a nice cloud

Looks great!  Thanks for the explanation and photos.

Well done!

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Harry - I'd be happy to post some pics when the shrubbery and trees are all in place. Hopefully I won't mess up that part!

Great way to hide a corner!

Chief Bob (Retired)

That's it! You just inspired me.... time to get down to the cave and finish my rock walls!

Nice job keep us posted.

Very nice job. Look forward to seeing the rest.

There are not enough like buttons to push.  Great Job!

Would you be able to show the tools and explain a little further how you went from picture 3 to picture 4?

Thanks!

Ron

Thanks gentlemen!

Ron - sorry for taking so long to respond, but the weather's been nice to so it was time to tear out old bushes/plant new bushes/clean siding/clean deck/mow the yard and all that good stuff.

To answer your question, I used an old steak knife and a scraper to do the shaping:

There's no magic to it or anything, you just scrape and cut (mostly scrape) until you get the rough shape you want. To make gouges, I held the knife sideways and used the tip to dig in and scrape away the styrofoam:

Sorry the picture's a little blurry, but my old point & shoot doesn't do well with closeups. It does show the basic idea. Just scrape until the gouges are as shallow or as deep as you want.

I highly recommend you do this out in the garage since the styrofoam pieces make one heck of a mess, but it's worth it in the end. Don't forget you can always glue some small scraps together and do a test piece just to get a feel for it. 

Hope that helps!

Thanks for sharing.  I will be trying this.  Like you, the nicer weather changes the way we work on the layout.  Cold, Rainy and Snowy days, mean lots of time on the layout.

Ron

Nice job, fantastic.

I thought I'd put up a quick update on the scenic effort (obviously, there's a lot of work left). I started with the typical earth-colored paint, sprinkled-on dirt and light green turf foam. Then I added some fall-colored turf and leaf residue.

Most of the trees so far have come from a dead bush that was removed from our front landscaping. The branches make for halfway decent tree forms after a little trimming and shaping. I spray the branches liberally with adhesive and apply small pieces of lychen, which is then trimmed if necessary. Another coating of adhesive and then leaf flocking is applied. The trees aren't perfect but I think they're fine for a back corner like this.

When I got tired of making tree with leaves, I would just stick in a few bare branches to represent dead trees. I snapped one close to the ground and laid it on its side to add a little variety. 

I'm still not sure how I want to handle the sides, but decided to start with some bushes and vines.d 

These two trees were make by simply stretching pieces of Heki foliage over the branches. Really easy to do and the trees have a nice "airy" appearance. I plan to get some more sheets in fall colors and make more trees like this. They look a little better than the lychen trees in my opinion.

So far, so good I think. I'm hoping to get more done this weekend.

Your work rocks, Sean!

(The rolling-eyes are for my being so corny, but the compliment is for real, of course.) FrankM.

Be as corny as you like, Frank!  Receiving a compliment from someone so skillful means a lot. Thank you!