Building Scenery

Last night we were at Bob the Builder's house, along with Coalfinger Ken. Nobody else showed! Actually, it might have been a good thing because there was not a lot of room to move in.

Again, I forgot my camera! Bob took some pictures so maybe he'll share.

We install the backdrop and it looks very nice. Then we took the foam scenery section and covered it in hydrocal sheets from Woodland Scenics. After that we made soem rock castings.

For the rock castings Bob made a cast of each mold and numbered them. I like this idea. The molds are hard to label so I think I'm going to take each of my molds and cast it, then put them each in a labeled zipper bag.

For the rocks we carefully sized up which mold we'd cast and made sure it fit the area on the layout. Then I mixed warm water, liquid black Rit dye (1/2 tsp) and about two drops of alcohol together to make black water. I then mixed it with the plaster and poured the first mold. When the plaster began to thicken up I placed the slurry mold on to the wet plaster cloth and held it there for several minutes. Once it started to harded I just left the modl there for another 10 minutes and then removed it. Very nice!

I dye the water and the rock casting because if the rock ever chips it will leave a very bright white spot. The Rit dye is acidic and will also slow down the hyrdocal drying time and give you more time to work. The slower it dries, the better the casting!