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Cobbled street


Chewbacca

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Apologies if this has been raised previously but a search for cobbles, cobble and cobbled failed to come up with anything.  Anyone have any suggestions/experience on how to best represent a cobbled street in 1/32 scale?

 

Thanks

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I find this site a fascinating source of ideas. I've not tried the cobble stone technique so I don't know how easy it is, but it looks quite effective. I'm not sure what a 'fixative pipe' is but some other hollow tube may work. 

 

https://davidneat.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/model-making-basics-creating-surfaces/

 

It's quite a long article, but just search for 'cobble'.

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I personally would use plaster of Paris. It's cheap and relatively easy to do, but if you mess it up you can always start again.

 

FIrst, make sure that your base 'board' is absolutely rigid. Anything even slightly bendy will probably cause cracks in the plaster, if not during curing, then certainly at some point in the 'distant' future.

A lot of people use 'photograph' frames for their bases. I've used them as well, with plaster 'ground', but ensured the rigidity of the hardboard by adding  supports underneath.

 

As for recreating a cobbled surface, you have three options IMHO.

1. Lay the plaster and whilst it is still 'damp' carve the cobbles with a scalpel and needle files. Start with a scalpel, scoring out the cobble pattern, then run needle files along those lines, around each individual cobble. Flat cobbles are easiest. Convex ones are harder to shape.

 

2. Lay a small bed of plaster, carve the cobbles as described above, then make a latex mould of that section. Then you can cast the cobbles in plaster.  If you take care to get the original right, you can fix the sections side by side on the board, and get away with just a little bit of filling and sanding to hide the joins. If you're feeling adventurous, you can make the original pattern one that allows the fitting of the casts to be more like a jigsaw, with inter-linking cobbles.

 

3. Make half a dozen individual cobbles, each made and carved accurately in plaster, space them out on a board and again make a latex mould. Then use the mould to cast all the cobbles you require. Fix each individual cobble to your base. Probably best to 'sink' them into freshly laid 'runny' plaster, but you could glue them directly to the base using CA or PVA.

 

I have tried making a mould and then pressing the mould down onto a freshly plastered base, but I found it difficult. The wet plaster doesn't always 'fill' the mould, but squirts/moves sideways instead, or is too far 'gone' and doesn't 'mould'. I suppose it might be possible to make a 'framework' of the pattern and press that into the wet plaster. But then you have to remove it. Leave it too long and your frame will be stuck fast, too early and the pattern will sag/run/fill up. There may be a way of doing it using some variation on this theme. I will defintely give it some thought when I get around to rebuilding my 'Somewhere near Villers Bocage' diorama.

 

BUT, SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO PURCHASE A 'KIT' COBBLED STREET, ABSOLUTELY DO MAKE A LATEX MOULD OF IT BEFORE USING IT! You'll never have to purchase that kit again, but will have a mould and an endless supply of copies, should you wish.

 

Hope that helps. Good luck,

 

Badder

 

 

Edited by Badder
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Thanks everyone for your prompt responses.

 

I really like those Fields of Glory bases but at the same time, given that I'm very familiar with working with Plaster of Paris for my usual seascape bases, I think my first attempt at this will be using the "fixative pipe" technique, but I will make the "pipe" from plasticard to represent a rectangular cobble.  If that al fails, I can always turn to Fields of Glory as a fallback plan.

 

I'll post some photos as I go.

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