Hey everyone, can anyone point me to a link that will help me buills structures / walls from plaster? Or even give me some of your own insight? Thanks, any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan: Adamskii gives some insight on that in his That Aussie's in Iraq diorama thread, in page 1. He built all of his buildings in plaster and showed how he built the frame/mold for them. HTH.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Holy [auto-censored]! That dio is awesome! Thanks Zon, I like the way he uses the wood strips and blocks out the doorways and windows.

Hello,

please forgive typing errors as keyboard is ol and keys dont type unless mashed hard!

PLaster walls- I built all my own buildings, and its a simple process in theory. The blog covers it in its most basic form and should give you the idea of what to do. A few solid points to cnsider though.

A scale wall of 1 brick thick is quite thin, 2 bricks is better, but I work on a thickness of about 8mm now. which is still over scale but the walls are fragile and if too thin they wont survive the building process, and especially not the demoulding process.

The doors and windows dont make out of wood - its impossible to demould them from the plaster without snapping the walls. Instead use modeling clay which is very plyable, but has to be shaped for every window/ door. Or use high density sponge which you can cut to shape and stick to the mould with double sidded tape. better still - dont put doors in - its easier to cut them out later with a band saw .

the biggest problem is remembering that the face down side is reversed - so when demoulded the doors swap sides etc . I got caught out several times.

Another problem is chhosing when to demould th plaster cast - while its still somewhat green ( and alittle bit flexible) or when its rock hard. I am an impatient person so usually demould within an hour of casting! and then place the pieces in the oven on a rack for an hour or so and bake the moisture out - I test they're dry by holding the hot piece up to glass and seeing if there is any steaming/ condensate. The casting if its ever going to break will be while demoulding. I was lucky to get anything over a 50% strike rate success with the casts, and had to recast most of the parts, which is very dificlult with siungle use moulds.

ALways cast extra wall sections/ floor sections

I havent used it yet but I have been given some hydro cal and hydrostone -both a type of plaster but ALOT stronger than plaster of paris aand more expensive.. but that strength is invaluable I tink. I m sure the verlinden buildings are hydrocal.

try keeping the walls of a single floor all lined up using the same timbers to top and bottom the mould - that will keep them parrallel and make matching the floor easier.

Brick and architectural detail can be added to the mould but its risky and really think about it being in "negative" when cast.

Mix the plaster as per manufacturers instructions. I didnt for alot of them and just kept adding water until I got a consisteny i liked. Have had to scrap several castings due to powdery plaster when dry. See my street of 6 buildings - most of them failed due to crumbling plaster. Even now the corner buildings second floor is crumbly and powdery and doesnt hold sharp detail well.

thats all I can think of. I will do a how to technique after this ones complete. and step by step what I have learnt. Every single time i cast i learn another trick or technique. The fundamental is just the same as concreters who pour it into form work., you just make a mould of form work, and the medium and when its dry remove the forms.

Hope that helps

Adamskii

Yes, that was a huge help! Thanks, Adam. If you ever need any ref pics from Iraq, let me know. I was in Baghdad from March 2003 to September 2004 and have hundreds of pics from within the city and of Iraqi vehicles. Destroyed and captured. Thanks again.

Dan

Could you put some reinforcing in the plaster? Fly screen or something similar?

absolutely. I used 5mm (the size of the squares) mesh to simulate real concreate reinforcing mesh. Even in the stuff that was not being "damaged" I would make a wire frame in the mould around the doors/ windows etc. the downside is its hard to keep it off the "face" side of the casting. so too much sanding or engraving on the face side can expose the wire. I also used just normal general purpose wire - the stuff that comes in a spool and is like the twist tie size.
the pic below shows a very early mould with the wire located.
If that was cast again I would not include the door, but rather cut it out later as the pillar along side the door just broke off during demoulding. Easy to glue back on but its always a weak spot..
As apoint of interest - those slots were stairwells - the original design for that building had stairwells, But once again I screwed it up because the stairwells ended up on wrong side of building and didnt line up with the front door!

Another example of reinforcing wire used in the floors - heres is two buildings side by side - the light grey one is my prototype, the sandy one is the corrected version incorporating my learnings from the prototype.

note the stairwells on this pic are on the left, while the front door is on the right.
later on I abandoned the stairwell concept altogether.

This pic shows why i scrapped version one. the face walls just did not line up at all! bad casting and bad design. the newer version is much better but still not perfect. ( but for a blown up destroyed building a little wobble is ok .. Notice all the cracks in the grey one from demoulding.

Also you can incorporate other building things into the foundations/ floors - for interest I added steel girder (plastruct) but upon reflection and double checking the references i dont think this is right.. but looks good.

I think i detailed that stuff with a few more pics on the "that aussies in iraq" diorama blog. somewhere about page 4 5 or 6 ?

Adam

Thanks Adam. i saw that pic on your build blog, but wasn't sure what what the mesh was for. I've gotten a couple of plaster/hydrocal buildings before, and since building them, have always wanted to make my own. I will one day, but don't have the room yet! i spent 4 days over easter lining my shed, building shelves, and all ready run out of room! I barely have enough room to build at my desk, and i have to make some foom for my daughters first birthday next month!

If hydrocal is harder, might be better making the non damaged walls with that, and the battle damages walls with plaster?

Hi Dan.
Below are a few links to some buildings, one of which is cast. Don´t limit yourself to only casting through. It is a great technique and offers quite a few advantages, but it has dissadvantages as well ... number one being its weight and number 2 being the possibility it breaks. I believe attempting a few differenct techniques will result in better buildings. Give them all a go, and you´ll soon find out when to use which method
Casting in 3D
Cork 1
Cork 2
Foam and cork

frank suggests some great alternatives. I too am looking for an opportunity to try the cork brick method - the Red Rain diorama is simply stunning testament to how great the alternative can be to casting in plaster!
ad

Thanks for all the help, everyone! I'm currently trying something a litle different. I've soaked the paper on some scrapes of 3/8 and 1/2 inch drywall and VERY gently peeled and rubbed it off. The 1/2 inch held up pretty good but the 3/8 inch is very brittle. I have it sitting in the sun right now drying. I suppose I could also crumble some and carve some into bricks to make rubble. Well, I'lll post some pics soon an let you all know how it's coming.

Well, I have no idea where my wife put the camera so I will be posting some pics tomorrow. So far, so good. I have 3 large pieces that cpil be use for 2 story walls and several smaller ones that can be used as portions of damaged walls. After peeling all the papre off, I put the pieces in the oven for 15 minutes at 300 Degrees F. All the soaking to remove the paper made the plaster a little soggy. More to follow.