Let’s Rock!

When planning my next diorama I came to the conclusion that I was going to need a wall made of rocks. After searching my boxes with assorted goodies I realised that I had no such wall that suited my needs so what to do? Well, I decided to make my own wall sections with the help of some balsa wood, small rocks that I stole from our aquarium, some white glue and some wall filler.

Here’s how I made it:

1. I cut some lengths of balsa wood to the measurements I needed.

2. Using an old brush I added white glue to the balsa wood.

3. The rocks from the aquarium was sprinkled over the glue soaked balsa. Since the rocks are pretty big they needed a bit of help to get into the right place and cover the entire piece of wood. I used a small brush to move around the rocks.

4. The next step was to take some wall filler and mix it with water to get a smooth slush that was liberally brushed over the rocks and pushed into the cracks between them. After the whole thing was covered I gently brushed of the excess filler to reveal some of the rocks.

5. Larger and flatter stones was put on top of the wall. White glue was again used for this step.

6. After the wall section had dried I airbrushed the top stones in a brown color and the rest in a lighter brown / grey shade. Depending on the final look of the wall you can use any color you like basically. I chose these colors since they will blend in well with the rest of the diorama.

7. A skin color from Andrea was drybrushed over the rocks to make some of the rocks stand out.

8. A mix of the Andera skin color and black was used as a wash which was flooded over the wall to create depth.

Well that’s how I created my first wall. It’s far from perfect and I will probably do a few more sections just for practice so I can get comfortable with it. Once the walls are in place on the base further weathering will be done with some pigments to blend the wall in with the rest of the groundwork. I will also pick out a few of the rocks in slightly different colors to create more life in the wall but for now I will leave it as it is.

I should perhaps mention that the scale I have done these walls for is 1/72 but if larger pieces of wood and larger stones and rocks is used this will probably work in any scale…

Sven-Åke