How to finish mountain - update

Looks good, Don. Glad the Structolite worked out for you.

I usually look to the more vertical cliff faces as good sites for rock castings. Areas where the land slopes less steeply would probably be covered with soil and vegetation. The steeper areas would more likely have exposed rock and just a small amount of vegetation clinging to the rocks.

You can never go wrong with gray as a base color and evergreens to model an eastern area. But don't be afraid to add touches of tan and brown to warm up the overall coloring and to add variety.

Jim

Thanks again Jim for your guidance.

Don, I was a novice also and just jumped in and tried some things. I added molds to my structolite mountain. I painted the base gray, but as Jim said, added color. Then added trees and vegetation. Here was my project at about yours is and a few more pictures showing its progress to completion,

Rick

Thanks Rick. Looks good.

Don

Boothe Memorial Railway Society

bmrailways.com

Don,

My best results came when I just took the fast set drywall mud mixed at a peanut butter or bisquick consistency and put it on the back of the rock castings and then plopped them on the mountain.  Looked like Rick's when I was done.  Then I colored the rock faces, then painted the mountain around the rock faces.

Try heading over to You Tube, to Eric Siegel site (sp)? Or www.ericstrains.com Not sure if that is the right addy, but quick search will put it on your desktop easily. He has several tutorial videos of what you may be interesting it. Nothing else, you'll have a blast looking at his other videos. Very informative!!

Kenny

Here are some ideas these are hand carved from a soft mixture of plaster and sand

they were carved as the mix was setting up 

Eric is doing some amazing stuff.  Those are some great videos.  Probably when I build a permanent Layout I'll look at that system.  For now, the fast set drywall mud and shop towels are inexpensive and fast.

Don,

I also use the Bragdon foam & resin casting method for my rocks, like Eric Siegel did.

Very nice everyone. Thank you for the great information.

Don

Boothe Memorial Railway Society

www.bmrailways.com

That's beautiful work, Dusty.

--Pete

The New OGR magazine has a great article by Jim Policastro for making rock faces.  I take the electronic subscription, but between that, Lee's Superstreets Article and Alex's Trestle Article I think I might go pick up a hard copy at my LHS

Here is mountain with a base coat of slate gray.

Here I added some rock mold outcroppings.

Nice job working in those moldings.  Going a little overboard by adding a lot of extra moldings can be a good thing - you can add greenery that overlaps onto them and get a more natural-looking appearance that way.

Thanks. Are you saying to put more rocks or are the ones I put in sufficient?

I'd add a few more, and bunch them in close to the ones you've got.  Especially on the left, where it appears you've got some vertical and overhang.

Noted. thanks again.

OK. I added some additional rocks to the left side. Do I need more?

I don't know if it'll help or if you want help but this is what I do for mountains.

I first spray the whole thing with Val-Spar Manhattan Mist textured paint . This gives the whole thing the look of granite then hot glue on your rock formations
I use a dark gray dye for the rocks with a dab of burnt umber for that yellowish look(Most rocks aren't all gray)
Use Charcoal between the rocks for shading and in the cracks. On top of the rocks sprinkle real dirt and 50/50 glue in place with elmers.  lightly sprinkle fine burnt grass on top of the dirt and 50/50 with elmers again.
On the crest do the same as the top of the rocks using dirt and the burnt grass to get the desired affect
Remember use short trees on top of the mountain they usually don't have tall trees at the top because of the wind and lack of water.
Short ugly pine trees and hard woods are the norm in real life.
I would probably put 3 more in those open spaces you have but Hey it's up to you it's your mountain.
Hope this helps.
This my N scale layout but give you an idea of what I'm talking about

David

Thank you David.

Yeah, the extra rocks look good.  Tha'll give you a lot more flexibility, and make it easier to blend them in by covering their edges with scenicking.

Don,

Looks good!

The trick is to place the castings and surrounding vegetation so that it is difficult to see where the castings begin and end.

Jim

Thanks Jim. I just added some additional rocks to the right side. I have some dark green ground foam but I need to buy some other colors and some foliage material. I do have evergreen trees.  Is there any particular foliage material that is good around the rocks?

Don,

Usually, I start by spraying some hairspray over the hillside, avoiding the castings. Then I sprinkle some fine turf gently from above (usually Woodland Scenics burnt grass and then yellow grass). It will tend to collect on the less steep surfaces, just as grass would. Then, one more quick spray to fix it firmly in place.

Then, I use Woodland Scenics foliage (regular type - not clump foliage) in light green and medium green colors. I tease it out so that it is very thin and apply it with full strength white glue. A few small pieces of clump foliage and some scraps of Scenic Express Super Trees material finish it off. 

Jim

Thanks again Jim.

Don,

To blend those rocks like Jim said I use some stuff called sculptamold it's like plaster with egg crate ground up in it you can use small amounts around the rock out croppings to fill gaps and blend in .You can also put a coat of it down and use it to fasten your rocks it blends really nice that way. most of the craft stores carry the sculptamold.

David

Thanks David. I have on hand and have used sculptamold and I have, but have not tried yet, truescene fusion fiber.

Don

Boothe Memorial Railway Society

www.bmrailways.com

I ordered more stuff from Scenic Express. Found some old stuff from the old layout so I tried some ground foam and trees. I need to work more on the rock outcroppings.

Thanks Jim. Your scenes are spectacular.

Very Nice

Don, your mountain is looking good.

Doug

Jim that is a great layout.  Very nicely done!  

I think I am finished but if something is not right, let me know. I know it is not perfect but I think it is acceptable. I added more rock outcroppings and tried to dress them up, added more trees and ground foam and some foliage.

That is looking really good.  It could easily stand  as it is, for years to come.  But I'd keep going with the scenicking now, while it's off the layout.

Dark ground foam makes great earth-tone shadow in and around rock outcroppings.  I'd put a good dose of darks on the underside of every one of your rocks, and I'd put it in the crannies between every rockmold where they are up tight to each other.

Lighter greens can go on surfaces much more vertical than just the ledges, too.  Take another look at Jim Policastro's photo: he's got light greens on just about everything that's less than 75-degrees slope.  You can use the same method on your piece, it might fill-in a bit more of the large grey spaces.

Trees and bushes have a habit of growing out of every wet surface, including rock faces.  I'd stuff lichen & foam bushes in those vertical crannies, on top of the dark-foam base... maybe slip in a few dead-tree branches too. 

Thanks again Bob. The ground foam around the trees etc. is the dark green but I see what you said about the rocks. I did put two fallen branches, one near the top and one in the lower cut. It is hard to see unless I do a close up. Hopefully my SE order will come soon.

Oh yeah, there's that branch in the lower cut, now I see it.

I've made extensive use of the darkest fine ground foams before.  At the time, in the LHS I resested: "but it's nearly black," I thought.  It really did add a richness to the colors & shadows.  Kind of like drizzling & wiping super-thin black paint in the crevices of rock faces: once you're done, there's hardly any on there, but it really helps the 3D pop.

If you've got a new order coming from Scenic Express, that's the perfect time to "go to town" on a piece like this - a great way to try out all the new "paints on your pallete".  And a piece that's in this state - done enough, but with room to add more - can be a perfect way to try out new scenicking materials.

OK Bob. I did what you suggested until I ran out of material. Thanks for the suggestions.

I received my SE order and added more color and foliage. What else do I need to do?