Large Scale Central

Diorama terrain surface

Modeling
#21

I just added those other 3 products, (#1, 7 & 8) and will call this enough candidates.

texture test
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I worked more on depth and sculpting on these 3, but could have on #6 if I’d thought about it. #2 &3 would NOT lay down, nor get off my rubber gloves or tools, so they can’t do much depth. I suspect that they’ll be more fragile and prone to breakage.

#4 & 5 were quite difficult to work, especially #4, which is also tough to knead / mix in volume.

So here’s my current scoring.

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#7 is in front. The price is for a 5 lb bag, and the price is with an Amazon coupon (normally $.09). Still way lower than the others.

Other factors, if one were obsessing over this comparison (which I’m trying to draw the line on, but am probably failing):

  • Ease of cleanup (#2, 3, 6, 7, 8 are with water, the others are difficult
  • Paintability (#2, 6, 7, 8 most likely are better, with #6 & 7 being neutral in color and paper-based)
  • Working time (most are fine, but #4 and 8 seem more limited)
  • Cure time (#3, 4, 6 & 7 seem to be the fastest so far, with #4 curing completely in a few hours

I’ll give all these a couple days to fully cure and see what happens when I bang on them.

#22

felswand02
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1 Like
#23

image

#24

Cliff,

Echoing @Boomer_K_MOGWAI , you might want to try insulation foam. We rough it up with a wire brush, and it looks pretty good. We’ve also tried hitting it with clear spray paint. It looks a bit less like lava rock that way. The stuff stands up to the weather with TiteBond III, too, which is a real plus.

Eric

1 Like
#25

Hi Eric, thanks. I’m using insulation foam as a substrate, roughed up like you said. The paper mache on top of it gives a lot more surface control and durability, though, and looks to be my material of choice for this particular effort.

Here’s the test panel,

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Upper right (air-dry clay) didn’t crack, but does shrink and pull away from the foam. Similar for lower right (air-dry cement), but it cracked.

The two paper mache’s seem durable, and they stick well. They’re also lightweight and very inexpensive. I can’t see any downside to them, so I’ll use the Celluclay (bottom row, 2nd from left).