Cobblestone Yard / Road

Cobbled yards and roads are a common feature on farms, particularly around the Pennine area I am modelling. Therefore this is the next technique I will be demonstrating. I'll be using Kapa Line Foam board to make the cobblestone.

 In order to create an effective scene I am modelling my entire farm on a slope, as flat land is rare up in the hills. therefore I start by building a sloping framework for the cobbles to sit ontop of. This is made of 5mm foamboard with plenty of cross bracing to stop warping.

 If you are modelling a flat yard or road the above step is unncessary and you can start here. Taking a sheet of Kapa Line foam board I remove an entire side of the outer paper to reveal the dense foam centre (this differs from the method for stone walls, where only the glossy part of the outer paper is removed, leaving some paper above the foam). This board will now be alot more flexible so wraps around the sloping framework easily, or can be glued onto a flat board. 

 To make the cobbles a pressing tool needs making first. This is constructed from two pieces of 6.4mm U channel plastruct cemented together to make a rectangular punch.

 Making the cobbles is as simple as pushing the punch into the foam and repeating to build up the pattern of cobbles.

 As with any modelling research is key so look around the area you are modelling to see how something is done in real life. In the case of cobbles the stones are laid with a set of border stones running along the edges like a curb on a tarmac road, then the rest of the road is filled in with cobbles laid like brick work running in the opposite direction to the border. This will change depending on the area, and the type/shape of stone.

 Repeat until all ground has been covered.

 The next step is to seal the foam with paint, here I am using Naples Yellow acrylic, the same as I used for the stone walls.

Next step is to fill in the gaps with tile grout. To do this the grout is sprinkled over, the with a fingertip or brush it is pushed into all the gaps.

 In order to seal the grout I start with a quick spray of an isopropyl alcohol water mix (1 part alcohol to 2 part water) applied using a perfume style sprits bottle. This removes the surface tension for the next step which is to apply a PVA water mix (30% PVA, 70% Water) which is allowed to soak into the grout and set it solid.

 I then dry brush another layer of acrylic over the cobbles where the grout has covered the stones. 

The last step in the process is to weather the stone, here I have used black and brown acrylic and poster paints, dry brushed and washed onto the cobbles to darken them to match the stone work.

Dying Sisal On A Grand Scale

This is an updated method for dying sisal, this allows you to dye sisal in much larger batches much faster, ideal for large straw bales. 

The process starts with a good dollop of Yellow Ochre Acrylic paint. 

This is then watered down with about 100ml of water, this allows the pigment to spread and dye the sisal easier

Sisal is simply sprinkled in and stirred around until it changes colour, add handfuls at a time for better consistency in colour.

Once dyed it needs to dry, in the heat of summer this took a day and night naturally air drying. As this batch is being made on a chilly autum day it has been layed out on tinfoil and placed in an electric oven at about 80deg. Take extreme care when putting it in the oven and keep a constant eye on it. I'd avoid gas ovens as this could provide an ignition source for the sisal to start burning.

Stone Walling - Realistic Brick Compound

This method of stone walling uses Bromley Crafts Realistic Brick compound https://www.craft-products.com/realistic-brick-compound.php. The process starts with the wall structure w made from mountboard and glued to the base. Originally the walls where painted a light grey but after seeing timms work on the forum using a much darker background I opted for painting the walls black. Work started with the gate posts.

The edges of each gateway where masked off and a layer of brick compound applied, masking tape removed, allowed to set and a layer of matt varnish applied to lock it in place. Before adding the varnish any stray blobs or irregularities can be removed with sandpaper or a scalpel.

Next the main stone work was applied. The rough stone stencil provided by Bromley just doesn't reflect the stone shape common to my local area so I set about making my own stencil. I drew out a stone pattern on paper then using a sheet of, I think 190 micron thick, Mylar layed over the paper pattern I cut out the shapes in the mylar with a craft knife.

The top of the wall was masked off for the capping stones and the compound applied in a rough uneven layer. (There are various youtube videos depicting how to use the realistic brick compound)

Finally the capping stones where done by using millimetre wide masking tape layed approximately 1 mil apart and a layer of brick compound applied

This method is great for fast production of stone walling on the side of sheds etc, but I felt wasn't the effect I was looking for with boundary walls so the above was scrapped and a new method used Stone Walling

Below are some photos of a shed produced using the compound

Stone walling - Kapa Line Foamboard

My preferred method for modelling stone walling is this one, the methodology comes from David Neat, whose excellent website can be found here 

Here's the method I used. I cut the board to the height I wanted the walls to be without the capping stones. Then peeled the paper backing off.

To get stone pattern right I took a ride out onto the moors taking snaps of various bits of stone wall.

I then drew out a suitable pattern in pencil on the board.

Using a pointed craft tool I then carved out the stone work. I found for smaller bits the line had to be cut with a blade before passing over with the point or the material would just rip. The board is much easier to carve than clay meaning longer periods of time could be spent on carving making this process a faster one. The properties of this board mean that by pressing in individual stones the uneven nature of drystone walling could be replicated.

In the next photos ignore the paint, this was me experimenting with the best paint method. I will explain painting later.

The two wall pieces where glued back to back with a five millimetre strip of mountboard stuck at the bottom to make the bottom wider than the top like a realtrue wall. Gate posts where made using 5mm Foamex. Cut to size and glued back to back it was roughed up using 80 grit sand paper to back to give a cut stone look. These where glued to the end of each wall section.

Capping stones where next. These where made of mount board. Lengths where cut the width of the wall and individual stones cut at various lengths from these strips. All cutting was done using a pair of tin snips as this gave a nice rough cut that better resembled stone than a perfect straight cut from a knife.

First layer was layed horizontally.

And then the rest where stacked together glued in place with UHU adhesive.

The other part to mention is corners. I had a look at how corners where in real life. And from here replicated in miniature. A mitre joint on the end of the board meant seamless transition from each side. The rock holding the capping stones was made in the same way as the gate posts.

The last step was paint. A base layer of Acrylic 'Naples Yellow' was applied. This quite nicley matches the colour of local fresh cut sand stone. Once well dryed a watered down wash of black poster paint was applied, this highlights all the nooks and cranies and defines the individual stones, as well as dulling down the yellow. A layer of matt varnish was applied to fix it in place. Next various brown and green shades of acrylic where dry brushed onto the wall until it was dulled down to colour similar to my reference pics. More greens where added to one side of most walls to highlight where moss would be growing more as the sun reached areas of wall but not others. A final layer of varnish fixed everything in place and helps protect the board from warping with damp. That brings how the walls where done to a close.