1/2" Scale project still in progress (somehow)

[Chuck Doan]

After making my first step, I decided to try something a bit bigger.  I made a re-useable form from 3 high ¼" square styrene strips made into a rectangular box which was screwed down to a styrene covered Masonite base. The mix was about 2/3 Hydrocal to 1/3 Arizona Rock powders. I found that too much powder resulted in a crumbly casting, while all Hydrocal made one that was too hard to soda blast well. The powders don't do much for coloring since they dry so much lighter. I added Woodland Scenic medium and fine Gray ballast "aggregate" to the wet mix until it looked liked concrete to me.
When the casting hardened, I dismantled the forms and removed it. The first step was chipping and gouging some areas. Then I carefully cracked portions of the casting and glued it back together. I hand scribed some cracks, but the real ones look best. I didn't add any control joints since I found some pics of slabs that didn't seem to have them. I then did some (baking) soda blasting at about 25 PSI. This roughed up the surface, and when concentrated, exposed the ballast.

The coloring so far has been a dilute wash of Polly Scale Concrete with a touch of Dirt. The mix is very thin like a watercolor wash. Several coats were applied with a broad soft brush, with full drying allowed tween coats (a hair dryer can speed thing up a bit.) I am currently trying wet and dry Bragdon powders for more accenting. I am still playing with the whole thing and studying photos for reference. It's funny that Floquil has one "Concrete" color, when the real thing can be so varied. Sort of like when I used to buy Testor's "Flesh" in a one-color- fits-all bottle.

For now everything is just hung together for evaluation. The square pad is for a gas pump, but I will likely make a longer one for two pumps. The new "porch" was unplanned, and it changes the dynamic of the scene. I am still deciding if I like it. But at least I am getting to use some concrete ideas!

[jacq01]

  Chuck,

  why don't you try tiling or grouting cement ? Mixing it with seeved river sand makes it even better.
  In Marty's concrete post I will put up some photo's, together with the additional coloring from oil and grease.

  Jacq

[Chuck Doan]

I'm pretty happy with the texture/aggregate, but the coloring is still in flux. THe problem for me is that there is such a wide variety of how concrete can look. I have too many example photos I reckon.

[mobilgas]

Chuck,     If your going that high with the cement now?? how are you going to solve the extra height, on the rest of the garage being that high off the ground. The cement looks good... but wont this cause you alot more work down the road or are you just going to SINK most of it in the ground.                           Craig

[Chuck Doan]

Ahh the challanges of bad planning! Not sure, probably a sloped entry to the garage and down to the front. We'll see...i will do some mock ups before i make a final decision.

[Ken Hamilton]

That concrete looks fantatic, Chuck.  The aggregate really works out great and the color is superb.
I'm wondering about the height aspect, too.  The big slab looks a little thick for the rest of the scene.
I could buy into it as a porch if were about half as thick.

(I still REALLY like that hose-reel wheel on the wall!)

[finescalerr]

I think the concrete looks excellent and I'm sure you will make it look even better. But, in this case, the tail might be wagging the dog were you to raise the structure off the ground for the sake of the cement. At least as it currently looks, as you describe what you would do, and as I visualize the finished diorama, a ramp to the garage and a big porch could seem contrived.

I'll be very interested to see what you decide and how you proceed.

Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

I think the "porch" slab looks great, very realistic --  much better than the two smaller slabs, IMHO.

[danpickard]

Looks like some regular Doan work...

I quite like the porch variences with the concrete steps and pump footings.  As far as the height difference, I don't know if this is a real pain in the a**e to do Chuck, but could you cut down the right hand edge of the garage door architrave, and lower that whole section to floor level?  Would have to adjust the edgings at the top accordingly, but might be more logical than ramps into the garage etc...

Just thinking out loud,
(unless you thought that porch now ruins the whole effect, so you might as well scrap the whole idea and just stick it in a box and post it over to Australia...as is)

Dan

[Chuck Doan]

Thanks for the nice words! Be careful what you ask for Dan!

Here is a quick mock up of some sloping ground. Might not be too bad. Its only a 15" high porch. The wall attaches to the back with screws so a change of base plans won't affect it. Scrap bases can then be mailed to remote foreign countries. Scenery laundering or something like that.



And a couple of prototypes I liked:

http://images41.fotki.com/v305/photos/7/777399/2992336/flickerphoto1-vi.jpg

http://images17.fotki.com/v374/photos/7/777399/2992336/flickrphoto2-vi.jpg

[Ken Hamilton]

That little slope does the trick, Chuck, and adds a ton of subtle visual interest as well.
Those of us who doubted the direction of your step treatment are now officially wearing egg.....
Truly amazing, as always.

PS: Could the base coincidently be the shape of one of your Dad's cases?

[Chuck Doan]

Thanks Ken. Yes another of my Dad's cases. The wall seemed to fit best parallell to the front, which is a bit boring. So I am hoping some contour in the groundwork will liven it up a bit. Probably just a dirt/grass/gravel ground cover, as this is a rural building.

[danpickard]

Hmmm, I don't mind the yolk Ken, but I hate trying to get the white part of the egg out of my beard!

Ok Chuck, save yourself the postage costs, that gentle slope works really well.  For some reason I was only thinking about the slope up to the garage, not the porch as well.  Creates a few more subtle angles again with the triangle along the edges of the concrete slabes.  Any discrepencies with slope joins and height variences would easily be disguised with some well placed weeds or abandoned materials (ie junk!).  Nice.

Dan

[finescalerr]

The tail no longer wags the dog. -- Russ

[marc_reusser]

Very nice.

I rarely if ever can find anything to add or suggest, in this case I feel that though the concrete texture is great...The color to me is a bit to beige overall....maybe it's just the lighting....I think it is missing some of the greyish/darker areas...especially in the spalled and heavily pitted areas, where dirt and grime would tend to accumulate (note the two photos you posted).....though on the other hand, you probably already are aware of that and were planning on doing it later on.

How do you plan to treat the space/display case wall,  above the facade?



MR