last month’s big enginehouse). I decided to carve a whole row at a time by hacking at a strip of ⅛-inch x ⅛-inch basswood. I sim- ply notched at random lengths to form the stones, and then round- ed the edges.
I added a little texture with a razor saw. I ACC’d the rows right onto the drawing paper itself, leaving the window openings as I went. I crafted the stone arch- es over the windows from sty- rene and ACC’d them in place. As I laid up the rows of “stones,” I made sure each was nice and tight to the row before it. I was going to make a rubber mold of this wooden assemblage, and did not want to spend a lot of time trimming the flash that would re- sult between poorly constructed rows.
When using a wooden mas-
ter to create an RTV mold, seal it! Wood is porous, and RTV gets into even the smallest of cracks. I used sanding sealer (three coats), and then painted the master (two coats), and the mold came out fine. I try to make my molds ⅛-inch or so thicker than the thickest part of the master, and leave at least ½-inch of “meat” around the part.
When the mold was done, I was at a crossroads of sorts: resin or plaster? I chose plaster, thinking it would be easier to color to rep- resent stone than resin (it was), and that plaster would be strong enough not to break (it wasn’t). Real stone buildings crack up in places and are repaired with con- crete, right? I used more plaster to simulate the “repairs.” I used Donna’s method of mortar simu- lation as I referred to last month — fine Hydrocal exposed to high humidity to set.
Once I had the side walls cast, the rest of the building came to- gether. I stained the wood side walls with the typical India ink/ alcohol wash and added a sty- rene “tin” roof. Wow, it looked fine but lacked that extra pop I wanted from all this effort. Kaw
Casting The lower part of this building is a one-piece casting made by (middle photo) making forms similar to concrete- formed basement walls, using styrene and “plugs” at window loca- tions.
Corners Hand-carving the stones around the corners looks better than if each wall was a separate casting.
JUNE 2015 87
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