How to make a micro indoor rock course. Tutorial

[hugy]

Hi all,

I like this site a lot and i wanted to give something back to the forum for all the information I got from here. Sorry if my English is bad but I come from The Netherlands. So it isn't my native language. After reading a lot about the Micro crawler I bought one, it is my first crawler and i like it a lot. But after a few days i got pretty bored with crawling over dvd boxes and other things. So I was thinking about what would be the best way to make a Micro course. I wanted it to be realistic looking and very fun to crawl. So after some browsing on the internet I came on some model train sites. I picked up a few ideas on some different sites and combined it to what i think is one of the best and easiest ways to build a Micro Crawler Course. So i wanted to make a tutorial for all the people which are thinking about their own courses. This tutorial will be divided into 3 parts. And maybe this could be a sticky.

1. The building of the actual course.
2. Painting the course so it looks realistic.
3. Decorating the course with grass and trees.

This will be part one, I will post the rest of the parts when I'm done doing them because I'm still building the course but the first part should keep you guys busy for about 1-4 weekends.

Part 1. The building of the actual course.

What you will need



In this picture you can see what you will need.

1. Big bag of plaster about 10kg per square meter just get the cheapest stuff.
2. Styrofoam insulation board. I used 2 packs of it one 3cm thick and one 6cm thick.
3. 4 colours of Acrylic paint from left to right, Raw umber, (lamp)black, Raw sienna and (titanium) White
4. Tin/aluminium foil
5. boil to mix the plaster
6. Woodland scenics Scenic cement or elmers glue mixed with water.
7. Scenery decoration but I will explain this in part 3.

Building the under course

I already did this step when I thought of making a tutorial so I did a quick mock up for the picture. You cut and shape the Styrofoam in any shape you want your course. To make mountains cut the basic shape and every layer that you will put on top of the other layer make it a bit smaller so you get the basic contours of a mountain. The more rugged your under course is the sharper rock outcroppings you will get when you put the plaster on. I also used spray can foam on some sections and cut it into shape.



This is a quick mock up on a 1 by 1.30 meter mdf board.

Making the rocky top layer

To make the top layer look like rocks I use one of the easiest and cheapest methods I could find but still gives a great realist rock look.

1. Take your tin foil and pull a piece of. There is a 30 cm ruler for size comparison.



2. Crumble it into a ball.



3. Carefully unfold the ball and now you see all the texture you created. It looks like some rocky surface already.



4. Fold the sides up to make a bowl.



5. Make some more of those molds and put them on a flat surface. Spray them with a mix of water and a few drops of soap so they release easier.



6. Mix your plaster following the instructions on the bag. Mix it until it has the consistency of yoghurt.



7. Carefully, so you won't destroy the texture, put it in the tin boils you made. Fill it up 2-3 cm thick.



8. Let them dry until it starts to harden a bit. It should be harder but still mouldable. You know when it is ready when it shows little cracks when you lift up one corner.



9. Now you fold the sides back to flat and put it upside down on your Styrofoam under layer.



10. After the plaster is almost fully cured you pull of the tin foil. If you do this to early all the details will stick to the foil. If you do this to late it will be very hard to remove the foil so experiment with it a little bit.

11. Be amazed with the results, it looks like the rock molds that you can buy in the hobby store but this is customizable, cheaper and easier. The rock has very nice cracks and crevices which we will highlight when we paint them.



12. Now repeat those steps to cover your full track. Here you can see mine I'm almost done with the plaster.


It looks so Tiny LoL

13. To fill the gaps between some overlapping pieces, just put some plaster on them with your finger.

14. Some final Micro Action shots






Next time I will be back with part 2 of the tutorial. Have fun building and please leave a comment and some pictures if you use this tutorial.

Bye

Hugo Janse

[hugy]

Part 2 Painting

Hi guys,

I'm back with part 2 of the course, which will be painting it. Today I tried my painting method and it turned out really nice. It transformed the track from some plaster into rocks. Now people who come into my room don't ask what's that. It is a really easy method and I will explain it to you in the same way as I did part 1. Lots of Pics.

What you will need



As you can see you will need your 3 colours, Black, (raw) Sienna and (raw) Umber. You will also need 4 cups to put your paint in and some paper towels/ toilet roll. You can change the colours to make a different landscape. You can use some burnt Sienna/ Umber to make it a bit reddish rocks and you can use more colours to have more diversity but those 3 are a good start.

Preparing the paint

The secret to this technique is to dilute the paint a lot. You have to dilute the lighter colours like Sienna 1:16 with tap water. So one part paint and 16 parts water. The darker colours, like Black and Umber, have to be diluted 1:32 with tap water. You use the colours this diluted so you won't see it when you make a mistake. I had to ad a bit more paint to the water because I don't use white plaster but a bit grey/brownish. But you will find out yourself.




Painting the plaster

This is divided into 3 small steps.

1. Take your lightest colour, Raw Sienna in my case, and paint about 50% of the plaster with it. It should look like leopard spots, that’s why this technique is called leopard spotting.



2. Now take your darker colour but not the black and paint in the other 50% of the plaster. You don't have to have all of the plaster covered but try to get most of it. The parts without paint will be grey when you put the black on so leave some small spots open.



3. Now take your black and let it run over the rock, don't brush it on but let it run. This way it will run into all the cracks and crevices and give the rock shadow and dept. This will highlight the rock and it will transform it from plaster with paint into real rock.



Learning from the results

Now you have painted a small part of your course look at it really close. Is it to dark then dilute your black more next time but you can lighten it with some light colours like sienna and white. Is it to light than add more colour and black. If it is perfect leave it like that and let it dry.



You get a basic idea of this picture but the colours don't show that well.

Highlighting the rocks

This step is optional and you need some white acrylic paint. You put it on plate or something but don't dilute it. You put your dry brush in the paint and brush on a paper towel until almost all the paint is from the brush. Now go over some rocks to highlight them. Think of how the sun would shine on them so do the highlighting from one side only. You can also lighten up some parts that are to dark. This technique is called dry brushing.


Now you have learnt how to paint your rock course you can use this on your whole course. There is also a YouTube movie about leopard spotting that could be helpful.
Youtube leopard spotting

You will have to wait on part three for a long time because I have no money left to buy the scenery grass etc. So if some people want to sponsor me with some money you will get this whole tutorial in printable word of pdf file. PB me if you want to sponsor me. Help me get part 3 on here soon.

Thanx people looking forward to your comments.

[hugy]

reserved for part 3

[rik]

this is gonna look great. i'm jealous! thats a nice trick for creating the rocks. thanks for sharing!

[QuicherKryan]

Cool! Thanks for sharing!

[CRAWLIN5150]

pretty cool cant want for part 2 and 3!!! im actually making my own track for my scx10!!! i might use some of this! 5/5!!!

[Voteban]

Nice Job!!! Can't wait for more!

This should definitely be a sticky thread!

I will post pictures if I use this method.

[Lorents]

Very nice! Thanks

[DickyT]

Great tutorial, Thanks! I look forward to seeing the final product.

[savagedrifter112]

dickyt i think we found a way to make that indoor course in my garage nice tut good work

[DickyT]

Originally Posted by savagedrifter112

dickyt i think we found a way to make that indoor course in my garage nice tut good work

[hugy]

Thanx for all the compliments guys. I'm almost done plastering and when that's done i'm going to paint. So part 2 will be on here in about 1 week or so.

[VooDuuChild]

From what I've seen it looks pretty awesome....now I just need high speed internet so I can see it all..

[orangeplug]

So nice,cant wait to see the finished project

[30percent]

What no water fall or river... ?

Just Kidding, nice work!

[hugy]

Maybe i will put a waterfall in there on the left side of the course. You can buy some stuff from woodland scenics called easy water to make water falls and rivers. But i will see.

[CRAWLIN5150]

I gota use some of this. i will make a thread of what im doing with mine! when i start on the mountain and the water fall!!!

[Stampedekid]

This thread should be a sticky! Great write up, nice and easy to follow now I have to try it, myself!

[Peaker]

looking good !

FYI i notised today a micro crawler fits pretty good on a pice of G-scale railroad track,perhaps some 1 can use this idea for a section on ther indore courses.

The tires fits on the outside of the 2 rails and the grip on LGB track-pice i tested with allowed for 45-50 degree incline driving + the rail can be tilted a little to one side to allow for a more radical looking drive up the track.

( my littele crawler only have the basic mods so far )

[hugy]

Part 2 will be on here tomorrow the 23th. I just tried my idea and it gives some amazing results. The paint makes rocks from the plaster they almost look real.