Cobblestone street

[Skrapwelder]

I have made some cobblestone street pieces in latex. The latex is brushe over a plaster impression in several layers and then peeled off. Over the course of a weekend I was able to make about 14 feet worth of street in 2 foot sections. I'm still working on the sidewalk pieces but the prototypes are pictured below.


Four street sections after painting.


and a close up.

[Dewbakuk]

That looks very effective, how are you going to handle the joins?

[ballistic_bro]

Wow, that looks good. 
Sounds like a big table or scenery piece your making.

[Skrapwelder]

Laid end to end or at right angles the street pieces match up well. The latex cuts easily with scissors or x-acto knife. I'll probably end up making a curved piece and a crossroads.

[Silent Invader]

Impressive and inspiring stuff.  I need some moveable tracks and looking at these latex could be the way forward. Thanks. 

[Thunderchicken]

Very nice indeed. At least they'll last longer than my wallpaper efforts.

[Antenociti]

those look rather good - are you adding any fibres to the latex for added strength/durability?

[Silent Invader]

those look rather good - are you adding any fibres to the latex for added strength/durability?

That's an interesting question.  I suppose open weave bandage would have the same effect.

[Skrapwelder]

I painted on about four layers of latex for each road and they seem pretty durable. I thinned the first coat with some distilled water to increase the flow into details and help cut down on the bubbles that were forming in the crevices. I didn't use any backing material although that is something you can do.

[Silent Invader]

I painted on about four layers of latex for each road and they seem pretty durable. I thinned the first coat with some distilled water to increase the flow into details and help cut down on the bubbles that were forming in the crevices. I didn't use any backing material although that is something you can do.

Thanks.  That's really helpful. 

[Hammers]

Good solid how to here. Would you mind summarize a step by step in a single post? It'd be valuable as a sticky How to.

[Sangennaru]

those are really interesting.


how did you make the plaster impression?

[YPU]

Ooh, I might just have found a use for those 2liter of latex I still have lying around.

[Skrapwelder]

I'll try and get some pictures of the whole process up this weekend as I'm going to try and pour a few more sections.

First I made an image of just the blocks and printed it on a vinyl printer at work. This made a raised block pattern I was able to press into plasticine clay I build a mold box around the clay and made a plaster blank about 6 inches by 8 inches. While the plaster was still damp I made the detail deeper with a dental tool.

Then I made a rubber mold of the plaster blank and me some copies. The three copies  I then glued onto a board end to end and poured a longer 24 inch mold in silicon rubber. When that mold was set I poured the same silicon rubber mold material into the new rubber mold. This gave me a positive casting of the road in silicon rubber.

I built a mold box tight up against the edge of the silicon positive and then poured plaster into that to get a negative impression of the road about half an inch thick. I made three of those and mounted them onto boards. These were the final casts that I then painted the liquid latex over to get the road pieces. I painted four layers of latex for each road. It took me the better part of a weekend to make 12 pieces. It would have gone faster if one of the masters hadn't fallen off the table and shattered. But that's why I made 3.

Hope that's helpful. Like I said I'll try and update with some pictures over the weekend.

[Sangennaru]

couldn't you just use the silicon negative mould to pour the latex into?
it looks damn complicated!