Climbing Mount Everest

Well not really but it does make for a catchy title………

Next on the scenery list is the cliff face at the Okanagan Lumber Camp #4.

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Here is what I have at the lumber camp.  I thought of different ways of adding a cliff face such as making plaster rocks and gluing them to the styrofoam but didn’t know how well that would hold up over time seeing as they would overhang the framing.  Another option was to use foam rock casting from Mountain-in-Minutes.

I have seen other people carving the rocks and really liked how they looked.  I was also directed to a great 2-part video on carving the rocks ( Carving Foam Rocks – Part 1 and Carving Foam Rocks – Part 2 )  After watching the videos a few times I decided to give it a go.

 

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Here is my “attempt” at carving rocks.  While the videos give a list of “implements of destruction” to carry out this work I ended up using inly two tools, a cheap steak knife from the dollar store and a 1″ paintbrush that had it bristles cut quite short.

 

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The front side carved.

 

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The overall view, as you can see there are some gaps that need to be filled.

 

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To till the gaps I mixed up some plaster of paris and applied it with an artist palette knife.  It took longer to mix the plaster than to apply it.  I wasn’t too worried at getting it right at this stage asI went back after the plaster had dried and with a #11 blade in a knife  I trimmed off any unnatural ridges and/or lumps.

 

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Next it was off to Home Depot to get some grey paint.  They sell sell sample sizes for $5.00 each and I picked a grey that was a little lighter than the granite colour I’m looking for.

 

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Once the grey paint was fried I took some Woodland Scenic pigments and with a brush dabbed them on various area of the cliff face.  I applied them at full strength and then sprayed them with water to get them into the cracks.  The pigments used were raw sienna and burnt sienna.

 

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The front of the rock face completed.

 

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An overall view of the rock face at the Okanagan Lumber Company Camp #4

This turned out easier to do than I expected and looks a heck of a lot better than looking at the pink foam.