My modeling experience has been so much better this time around due to you folks sharing your amazing techniques! Thank you to all who do so.

Man I found this tinfoil mold method earlier today, and I gotta say it’s friggen awesome! The crunchiness of the foil makes rock faces with the perfect jaggedness and craggyness for my N scale Durango and Silverton RR Highline diorama. I don’t even use glue, just kept folding in half till I got a good size, I made 5 different molds and the results so far are amazing, I can’t wait to see how it all comes together...soon.

Great video of a good method of construction. I use this method with a small addition. Once the mould is filled I add a couple of strips of plasterers tape, the stuff that they seal joints in plaster board before the skim coat. Slightly pushing the tape into the still liquid plaster. This adds a extra level of rigidity and strength to the final ‘rock face’.

I've done a bit of this sort of thing, but hadn't thought of the foil mold - excellent idea and results! A couple of suggestions I find useful: Don't pre-seal, apply the color first. It will cover the whiteness of the plaster better and look more natural. I like to apply a base coat of a very thin wash of black with a spray bottle. Covers better, tones down the white to a gray color which is a more common shade for bedrock, at least in this area. It's also a more matte finish which again I find more realistic. Then you can apply a darker wash to the crevices which helps bring out the detail. Then apply the colors. If you want very distinct color variations (which does happen in nature) you could seal after the overall wash to keep the colors from blending in too much with the base wash.

A bunch of comments about ways to improve the method but none with videos of the improvements. Thank you for trying this and showing us the results.

Excellent, informative video. Well done.

TIN FOIL MOULD GREAT innovative idea - gained the needed strength by sticking three ! THANK YOU SIR!

"Obviously, not for cooking" like it... Good video. Thanks

I like this method. Thanx a bunch.

your right , no rite or wrong way just different techneeks, good job

Well done with the tinfoil mold very affective.

Also, I use my cheap and cheerful band saw for cutting my PoP cast rocks. I have to clean it out afterwards, but good straight lines if that's what you want.

Great result :-)

In true Blue Peter style....... Here's one i made earlier LOL =D I have to honest, I didn't think you would get the foil off, so was pleasantly surprised when it did and it looked very good. When painting I recommended beginning with the darker colours and have it a little less watery, allowing each colour application to dry before applying the next. You will get much better results. Interesting idea, thank you for sharing.

turkey tray from asda, do what ye did with foil, ye dont need to laminate it, put the tray right way up stick in smoe random lumps foil scrunched etc , fill with yer plaster and when its dry abuse it with a wire brush, paint over it all with very watery paint and let it run in all the cracks , leave to dry, attack it with more wztery paint then a big dry brush then watery see through like a cup of tea then blast it with it ....

Use cement/(light) concrete please, much more durable.

First up, nice job on the idea, planning and painting. Looks great. Now, would it help to give a lite spray of mild soapy water before pouring in the plaster as it should A) help the plaster to settle in to the details; B) aide in/act as a mold release? Have a great weekend.

Would adding paint to the plaster mix work for a base colour ,great video thks👍👍👍👍

Would it not be just as easily done by using heavy aluminum baking pans that can be bought for a small amount. You would be able to reproduce them with a mold made from them.

You could use artists gesso to prime the plaster. You can get a type that's grainy. Acrylics should go on to unprimed plaster, they will soak in a bit. A final coat of matte acrylic picture varnish would be a good finish. You can use touches of gloss picture varnish to simulate dampness or water leaking.

I'm trying to find an explaining to why to use glue between the foil layers but haven't so far so I'll just ask. 😀 Why do you glue between?

could you add a bit of colour to the plaster mix to tone down the white if its to bright it still looks good though very interesting video have watched them all so far and they are all interesting thanks ...Chris :0)

What is that ‘prrrrr’ sound??

I don't see the logic in applying a "sealer" coat of PVA, BEFORE applying the paint. That seems completely counter intuitive to me. You said yourself you're not sure why its done, but that it may be to act as a bit of a sealer, to stp the plaster from absorbing all the paint. Hello? Isn't that what you WANT the plaster to do? You say yourself, later, about the smoother areas not having absorbed much ppaint and looking very white....err. maybe thats because you sealed them against absorbing paint by applying a coat of PVA. You have proved this, you even acknowledged in....then ignored it. You say there's no right way and no wrong way.....actually, theres a number of different right ways, but this way, is sure as eggs a wrong way. Seruiously, try it again, WITHOUT sealing first with the PVA wash, and I BET you, it will come out a ton better!