Stalagmites?

[YPU]

My find of dirt cheap giant fungi have reinvigorated my plans of making a modular hex underground board. (another topic on that soon probably) But I was wondering if anybody knows a good way for making Stalagmites? scale wise I think there is little difference as the things come in all sizes. (I plan to do some sci-fi 6mm batlles on the board as well, underground cities and all)

I have tried "sharpening" foam with a drmmel and against a fixed band saw but both methods took far longer then they were worth and did not give great results. I tried folding a cone shape and building up filler around it but that did not give a natural look either, does anybody have any advice?

[Dewbakuk]

have reinvigorated my plans of making a modular hex underground board.

'tis a good plan. Mine has stalled since I started working full time again doing silly hours but it works very well.

[Silent Invader]

Not something to be done indoors (If at all!) but how about heating then stretching and twisting styrene sprue?


Edit:


For something thicker, how about a screw epoxied to a base then something like plumbers putty worked around the thread, tapering to a point?

[YPU]

'tis a good plan. Mine has stalled since I started working full time again doing silly hours but it works very well.

I plan to go for a bit of a reverse build up, I will paint the boards themselves black and the tunnel floors will be build up upon them, using 2cm thick foam. any line drawn trough black is blocked, this saves me the time of building good looking walls (quite hard I find) and saves a lot of pain when using the board. I was somewhat unsure about this idea at first but we use pretty much the same idea with flat tiles and black underground in RPG's and that always works perfectly.

anyhow I want some "forests" of stalagmites, and stalactites that touch the ground, to place around the board. I have 40 mushrooms already and boulders should be easy to create.

I feel hexes make for a far more realistic looking  board as the caves do not conform to square patterns we are prone to think in. Also creates far more variations when done right.


@ Silent invader hm, I could try that but with Papier-mâché and texture paint perhaps, cheap and not to hard I suppose.

[DeafNala]

A KINDRED SPIRIT...you have my condolences. I'm also working on a subterranean beasty; in my case, it's an alternate Mordheim setting....I'm using Hang Son Doong as a model AND, since the main gaming table is a hexagon set up to accommodate Geo-Hex tiles, quite a lot of the pieces will be hexagons...right now I'm doing a 3'X3' chamber.
I've had reasonably good luck making stalagmites from floral foam cones roughed up with a saw &/or a hot knife foam tool, then covering the thingy with Woodland Scenics Foam Putty. This also works for Mega-Mushrooms...the latest batch are more or less 9"/23cm tall. I'll P.M. you when I put up photos here or you can check it out here: http://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t4674-maudeheim-city-of-the-stoned-updated-12-26-10  .

[Dr. The Viking]

I did these by punching some holes in wet sand and pouring plaster into them. Glued them on some board and painted it. Don't know if that's any use to you... 

[YPU]

I did these by punching some holes in wet sand and pouring plaster into them. Glued them on some board and painted it. Don't know if that's any use to you...  

I think yours have a great feel to them, but they don't really look like "normal" stalagmites to me. I have been trying to figure out why and I think its the smoothness they lack, stalagmites are formed by dripping water and it shows. (Mind I still think yours are awesome.

Actually thinking about it I am considering dripping plaster or something similar into stalagmite shape, not unlike how a child playing at the beach might make them. Normal plaster would fall over or "melt" tough, I'm afraid, so I suppose I need something faster drying, do it layer by later and let each one dry in between.

Hm, I might try to once again carve a base shape from foam and then run PVA over it, we all know how that can create drop shaped runners, which in this case is exactly what I'm looking for.

Lastly if you search the web there are a number of school science experiments that simulate stalactite and stalagmite formations, perhaps one of them produces durable results? Something to look in to.

EDIT: http://www.flinnsci.com/Documents/demoPDFs/EarthSci/ES10387.pdf Seems to be an interesting experiment, takes a while but I have space to store it, magnesium sulpfate I'm not entirely sure how east it is to acquire. (might have a can of it in that old chemistry set for all I know) but it also says baking soda can be used as well. Worth a try!

[AndrewBeasley]

Not sure how the chemicals would last in real life but you may be able to get a cast from http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects/stalactite.html or http://www.tudayshobbymodels.com/prd_scientificexplorer_stalagmites_kit

Look at the series of videos from Woodland scenics this set has a great DIY cave based on their mountain kit.
Part two (3:50 ish) has the tites and mites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e92RiDkcEcU

Andrew

[Hammers]

Not sure how the chemicals would last in real life but you may be able to get a cast from http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects/stalactite.html or http://www.tudayshobbymodels.com/prd_scientificexplorer_stalagmites_kit

Look at the series of videos from Woodland scenics this set has a great DIY cave based on their mountain kit.
Part two (3:50 ish) has the tites and mites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e92RiDkcEcU

Andrew

Sorry, but I found this humorously unimpressive. 

[YPU]

I will try the baking soda approach, I'm guessing that it will take a few weeks but perhaps some extra paint will make it  sturdy enough, else I will need to cast them indeed. (or go for the PVA approach mentioned before)

[OSHIROmodels]

Sorry, but I found this humorously unimpressive. 

But 'Miss Kelly' was there with helpful hints 

cheers

James

[Supercollider]

You can achieve a quite organic rock finish by using layers of tissue paper over polystyrene (or whatever) as a base shape.  Once it is soaked in a mixture of PVA and paint (your choice of colour), if you brush down from the apex of the 'mite, I think you'd get a good ripply/drippy rock finish.

You  might also try experimenting with dripping hot glue over a nail (or something) - you can get some very organic shapes with that.

I find PVA evaporates too much to get any decent textures (or perhaps I'm doing it wrong).

[Roebeast45]

We have a product here called Celluclay which is just a finely chopped papier-mâché. I've used it to build very convincing stalagmites and stalagmites by using a dowel rod as a core and building up layers of papier-mâché. If you leave a bit of the dowel uncovered it works to anchor the piece into foam. Fast food chopsticks and bamboo skewers work really well for this.

I don't have access to any of the ones I've made but the process is pretty simple to figure out assuming you can find a finely chopped, pre made papier-mâché. Or get an old blender, some glue, and a lot of newspapers.

[Hammers]

We have a product here called Celluclay which is just a finely chopped papier-mâché. I've used it to build very convincing stalagmites and stalagmites by using a dowel rod as a core and building up layers of papier-mâché. If you leave a bit of the dowel uncovered it works to anchor the piece into foam. Fast food chopsticks and bamboo skewers work really well for this.

I don't have access to any of the ones I've made but the process is pretty simple to figure out assuming you can find a finely chopped, pre made papier-mâché. Or get an old blender, some glue, and a lot of newspapers.

Celluclay is the dogs bollocks with the only disadvantage that it has a mighty powerful shrinkage factor.

[Connectamabob]

Wax might be a good material for the drip method.

Might also be able to simulate the drip method's results by building up using tiny pinches of putty in place of drips.