Quiet earth (was: Exercise module for Plettenberg railroad in 1/22.5 scale)

[Barney]

And I agree with all + a stunning piece or workmanship
Barney

[Bernhard]

Absolutely realistic. I especially like the growth on the wall.

Bernhard

[Barney]

How was the stone wall achieved its so realistic
Barney

[Hydrostat]

Barney,

whenever I'm working with cheapo gesso/plaster I spread the remnants to an old baking plate. When it has set, but always before it has dried, I losen it with a scraper and brake it to different sized parts, trying to have at least one rather straight edge. When dry I color the chunks by dipping into some very dilute brownish/blackish color. It takes time to dry, but it's impossible to judge saturation as long as the plaster is wet.

I made a rectangular jig from two boards and then started building the wall from single stones, using some stonedust-pva-water-mix as mortar, later front side orientated to the white board.






When it has completely set and dried the front side looks like that:




The wall now is rather fragile. That's not what a wall is supposed to be and so I pour some plaster to the back side. I don't have a picture of the next step, but basically I color the stones a bit more, where necessary, and then fill the joints on the front side with stone dust and fix it with dilluted pva or latex binder. Some brushed over stone dust tones everything down a bit. I then do repaint the joints with diluted opaque white to have them a tad more prominent. Note my miscalculation concerning clearance for the gate post - I had to widen the module (which indeed is a segment because it is not free combinable) to have the gate post within it's framing.




The gap between stone wall and segment edge is filled up with hard foam and mounting adhesive. First upper layer of sands is added.




For the lower wall I started with the stairs and surrounding stones and then built the rest of the wall in situ, again using some boards as jigs for a somewhat even front.




Cheers,
Volker

[Bill Gill]

Very effective wall building. I haven't worked with plaster. It's interesting to see how it stains, much more speckled than I thought.
Nice recovery fixing the too narrow section.

[Hydrostat]

Bill,

it may depend on the kind of plaster/gesso. This one is the rather coarse sort electricians use for fixing cables in walls - I'm not sure if Plaster of Paris is the right translation for that. Word by word it would be something like "plastering gesso". Shaking the broken stones in a box adds to the appearance by breaking the edges a bit and removing color from exposed areas.

Cheers,
Volker

[WP Rayner]

Very effective stone wall Volker, thanks for sharing your process. Your latest photographs really show the outstanding quality of your work.

[finescalerr]

You took no shortcuts and the results reflect that. Superb. -- Russ

[Barney]

Thanks for that - explained  in an understandable way and a very realistic finish  - so its time start a bit of rock crushing !
Barney
For info on techniques this is the forum to watch

[Les Tindall]

Incredible workmanship and very useful build info - thanks.
Les

[Sami]

Thank's for this good tutoriel !

[Ray Dunakin]

Magnificent! Truly top-notch work!

[Hydrostat]

Thanks, folks. There was a gap between gate and pickling shop which needed to be closed. I think I've explained some time ago, that the pickling shop had been rebuilt a bit larger in the 1940ies, which meant to cross the former wall line (which must have been a brick wall like at the other side of the shop). I didn't want a visual barrier at this place (what a remaining piece of a brick wall would have been) and so was looking for another solution. Here we go:










Any idea what this kind of fence is called in English? In German it's 'Wellgitterzaun' (waved grid fence).

Cheers,
Volker

[finescalerr]

The basic design is called a chain link fence but the American fences I have seen do not have the "waved grid". How did you fabricate it? -- Russ

[Les Tindall]

That fence is incredible!
Les