Rock castings part 2

 The ravine module required plenty of rock castings. I enjoy dramatic rocky mountain scenery and this module has been designed to show off little trains among big rock features. 

Using my Woodland Scenic rock moulds I spent several sunny afternoons churning out rock castings of all varieties. I'm not the biggest fan of jigsaw puzzles and fitting them together can be a bit of work. When I place duplicate castings close to each other I try to place one upside down to create more variation. I do like the Woodland Scenics moulds. But more than once I wondered if they could have been made in standard sizes so they could all fit together more neatly. I guess this would risk making them look too uniform and most people probably use the moulds to create small cliffs and outcrops rather than deep ravines. 

I realised that I didn't have as much clearance between the cliff and the rails where they emerge from the tunnel. The tunnel face in particular was a bit close to the edge of the module. I didn't have a rock casting thin enough that would work here. So, inspired by my earlier attempts at rock carving, I covered the foam in a thick layer of plaster and as it set up I carved it with my pick and a craft knife. I had several attempts and had to fill in some areas with more plaster, but overall I was pleased with the results. After getting onto my second 5kg bag of plaster, I started to worry that too many castings would make this module heavier than I wanted. So I used this same carving technique for all the rocks on the left side of the ravine above the rails as it didn't call for as much plaster as individual castings. This also gave a nice seamless corner where the two cliff faces meet. 

After completing the left side I ran out of inspiration and left it for a few weeks. But when I returned to it I found the right-hand side went much faster than I expected. I used a little plastic palette knife to plaster over the gaps between the moulds. I then used my carving techniques to blend the textures between the castings. 

I removed the temporary plywood bridge and then cut a single span of plywood just narrower than the railroad ties and painted it brown. It supports the track nicely and gives a mocked-up look of what a girder bridge may look like. I used some scrap bits of metal to mock up where the steel viaduct supports. Because I need a solid place to build foundations for my steel viaduct supports I used some large castings to make an uneroded island in the middle of the river. At present it looks quite round due to the shape of the castings, but I will work it into more of a teardrop shape with rocks and gravel to model the sediment deposits that build up behind solid objects in the river flow. 

Yellow foam ravine. Not very scenic just yet. 

In this photo, the left side of the ravine is finished.
The rocks from the rail upwards were carved by hand.
My experiment with the large backdrop is in the background. 

The castings for the right side of the ravine being fit together before
blending the castings together with more plaster. 

The completely 'rocked' ravine, including an island
in the middle of the river.

The initial temporary bridge was replaced with a narrow piece of plywood, painted brown to blend in. The thin bits of scrap metal mock up where the viaducts steel supports may be planted. 

Right now the rocky island looks quite round. I'll extend it to more
of a teardrop shape using other scenery materials later on.