Sandcastle Terrain

[beefcake]

I bought a sandcastle mold a few weeks ago and finally got around to making a cast from it. So it is a plaster cast weathered up after demolding, then sprayed and drybrushed.
$5 for the mold, probably about 30c for the plaster.
Mayan cast by Kieran Me, on Flickr
and the actual mold.
Sand mold by Kieran Me, on Flickr
More work to be done on it still such as debris and vines but it's a start. The same company also makes castle walls.
The edges are a bit rounded but it is fine for some quick terrain.
Edit: now I see it is down to $3 for the mold.

[nic-e]

I've often thought of doing the same thing with those castle wall moulds.

The end result looks great!

[gnomehome]

This seems like a quick way to make some terrain. One question - isn't the piece extremely heavy or did you fill the core of the model with some lighter material (XPS block or hollow cardboard tubing) ?

[beefcake]

This seems like a quick way to make some terrain. One question - isn't the piece extremely heavy or did you fill the core of the model with some lighter material (XPS block or hollow cardboard tubing) ?

Pretty heavy. I could have filled it but plaster is cheap and it was quicker this way too.

I've often thought of doing the same thing with those castle wall moulds.

The end result looks great!

I'm inclined to buy the molds. $9 for a corner piece and a tower piece with straight wall. might wait for a sale .

[beefcake]

A sand brown would be great for this. I only had grey in my cheap spray set so went for grey. Adding paint is a good idea though. I have tubs of brown for that. Nice tip.

[Bloggard]

brilliant - I bought a couple of those a while back. Your work is great inspiration.

[nic-e]

something worth remembering is that the less plaster you add, the stronger the resulting cast will be once dry.

[beefcake]

Really? I never knew that. It kind of seems counter-intuitive. I'll do some experimenting.

[Braxandur]

Nice work.

on the topic of making these stronger, just mix in either PVA or Latex paint and the cast will be much stronger (Latex is even added to cement for the same purpose )

[nic-e]

Really? I never knew that. It kind of seems counter-intuitive. I'll do some experimenting.

It seems off i know ,but the more plaster you add to the mix the more chalky and weak it becomes as the plaster has less chance to bond with the water and cement itself properly. More plaster means it will set faster, less plaster means it will actually last once it has.

(We were told a story by our casting technician of a student who had, naturally , assumed that more plaster=more strength. He'd gone off and cast a large piece of work without any internal support, using barely any water. When he broke open the mould it all fell into a dusty mess at his feet after several weeks of work and several hundred pounds worth of fine casting plaster.)

[The Dozing Dragon]

Great idea.....must check the pound shops!

[beefcake]

I added some stuff to this a while ago. Finally got around to uploading a photo.
IMG_20180124_202057 by Kieran Me, on Flickr
Probably should have taken more.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

Looking good, and a great idea.