Hey,

I was wondering if anybody makes there own concrete roadblocks from plaster or something similar?

I found this excellent tutorial by Federico Collada but I'm looking for the larger ones.

Thanks!
Cristian

I made this one with sheet plastic covered in dissolved putty. Whilst it was still wet I scribed some lines to show the concrete mould process:

I'm not sure exactly what type of barriers you are looking for, but Meng includes a plaster mold to make concrete New Jersey type barriers in their Concrete and Plastic Barrier set. I've used it and it works well.

@Ian: Thank you! I've seen your dio before and I was amazed by the quality! Great job! The concrete barrier piece looks great, as well and I can already see a couple of uses for this kind of blocks.

@Jon: Thank you for the hint! I was not sure about the name of this type of barriers but it is exactly what I was looking for.

Cheers,
Cristian

I have used styro foam insulation foam in the past,the same as used for bases.Easy to carve into barriers.

Tom

I will really have to get into this material. Thanks for the hint!

In the mean time Federico Collada also shared Jersey barrier building plans: http://www.fcmodeltips.com/2015/07/barreras-de-cemento-jersey-barriers.html

Cheers,
Cristian

Hi Cristian,
check your local Baumarkt for BASF Styrodur. It comes is sizes between 20mm and 100mm and the plates are about 600mm by 1200mm. It`s not chaep, but you can cut it with a saw or cutter knife and sand if very fine. If you you milling ballheads for wood work, you can do lightweight dioramabases for every subject. For glueing Styrodur, simply use Ponal white glue.
HTH
Hans-Hermann

Danke Hans-Hermann! I actually tried finding this stuff at several stores but for whatever reason they only sell those that have a raw surface, used for insulation, I think.

When you say "not cheap" you're talking 20+ Euro for a sheet?

Thanks!
Cristian

Hi Christian,
I use Stryodur C, which has a smooth surface. You can also check the Baustofffachhandel or the BayWa. If have a company in your vicinity that does Aluminium Facades, they often have leftover material that they just throw away. It does hurt to ask there.
Hans-Hermann

Hi Christian!
I never tryed making concrete roadbloks, but I made some concrete walls using tiles glue (it is a concrete-like powder you mix with water) and the results were, in my opinion, very good...
Give it a try!
here are a couple of pics

That is a GREAT effect! And I happen to have tile glue! Any pointers on how you achieved the effect?

That looks superb, Edoardo! Do you have more details about how this was done?

Cheers,
Cristian

Hi Cristian,

I played around a bit with the ones from Meng, and the ones from FCModeltips. You can see the results below:

Meng's "Jersey Barriers" are super. Each one is slightly different because of small imperfections in the moulding process. They are also easy to get to look old and used.



These are 2 of the different "Dragon's teeth" from FCModeltips



I didn't know what to do with them right now, so they're stopping my models from rolling off the shelf!





Hope that helps.
John

Hi guys and thank you for the kind worlds!
I don't have specific pictures but I can describe the procedure I follow (forgive my english...).
The ideal is to make a mold, but I found out that you can even do without one.
I just lay a thick layer of glue on a flat surface (a 0,4 mm plywood is ok) and try to make it as even as possible, then I press on it some wood strips of the appropriate thickness: the one I used in the picture is about 1 cm wide which would be about a 35 cm plank in reality... maybe a little oversized...
I press it in place row after row leaving some space bethween each strip so that the glue can squeeze in bethween.
After it is dry (depends on the thikness) I just remove the strips, and voila!, you have a concrete wall!

The removing part is the one I have to optimize: in fact, sometimes the wood leaves its beautiful grain on the glue, some other times it is too much glued and when I remove it, also parts of the wall are stripped away (as you can see from the pictures). I read that it is best to paint the wood strips with oil before pressing them into the glue to ease removal: I'll try it next time, but if you need a very badly damaged concrete wall (i.e. for a bombed out bunker) this should not be a problem...
Then you can weater it as you wish
I hope this helps!
ciao
edo

@John: Thanks for showing us the "final products". Both types look indeed very good. Are you using plaster and grey color for the material?

@Edo: Thanks for taking the time to describe the procedure! It seems so easy once explained

Cheers,
Cristian

Yes, they're made with regular plaster. The smallest of the dragon's teeth and one of the jersey barriers are brushed with grey pigment. The others are sprayed with a can. I'll try and mix grey paint with the plaster next time. That way I'll avoid the bone white flashes when some of the paint chips off.

John

well about concrete texture from picture above
i have a suggestion

coarse texture gel from reeves brand
reeves have many good acrylic paint

u can search on google the picture of the texture

i saw it on bookstore before.its cheap 200ml for about 5usd

u can mix paint to the gel before apply to the surface

im gonna buy it to test on the wall or barrier maybe
post here soon after it done

if ur country bookstore or wherever sell reeves brand i think u have to try it...

Test images would be great, Jimmy! Thanks!

here the texture i was talkin bout

Hi guys,
In case you are still interesting, here are my jersey barriers, from own molds.
I sell them at sets of 3 items plus a stop sign, but if you want some of them unpainted, or need more info, just email me.
Thanks and happy modeling!