Have done a little more carving. Or should that be caving.
I've decided this project is going to be a leisurely build - I'm not going to tear into it like I usually do. But take my time to think everything through...
Well, we'll see
I’ve now added the lower deep cavern (Doom! Doom!) with cave passages running down to it.
The only way to chase out the slopes down into the lower cavern is using a very sharp blade – the hot wire cutter can’t get into that angle. You just have to slice repeatedly into the styrofoam with the knife in a criss-cross pattern, and then hoik out the unwanted material to form the approximate contour of the path.
It’s messy, but at least the spoil is in bits – and not styrofoam dust, which is what you’d get if you tried to sand it.
That said, having carved out the basic shape of the descents, I did use my trusty Dremel with a sanding bit to smooth down the resultant pathways and cave walls - making sure that the gradient was okay for figures to stand up on.
(When I ‘ice’ the interior surfaces with wall filler, I will give these descending pathways a slightly stepped finish, to make sure the passageway floor is level enough for figures).
Here’s the lower cavern with the upper caves level on top. (Don’t ask why there’s a tunnel entrance halfway up the cavern wall – I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. It might be a drop to nowhere to catch the unwary. Or I might install a rope bridge across the cavern… )
You can see I’ve also added some smaller tunnels connecting some of the larger caves.
The basic rule within the cave system will be: If a figure can fit through a tunnel or gap, then it can travel down it. If it can’t – it can’t. So while the large neanderthals and any predators of any size will not be able to fit down the narrow tunnels - nor will the bigger cavemen. They will have to stick to the main caves.
And whilst the cave women and children will be small enough to pass the smaller tunnels – so will shorter hostiles like apes and wolves…
Interesting huh?
The large cavern will have a small, dark pool in the centre, as marked.
To achieve this, I will slap several coats of PVA onto the surface of the foam to form a smooth shiny base for the water to be painted on and then varnished. I will then build up the rest of the ground slightly around the pool to give it a sense of depth.
The alternative would be to actually hollow out a pool and then fill it with resin to form the water. But why go to the trouble when still water is a smooth flat surface, and there’s already a ready-made smooth flat surface right there?
Here's the whole cave system stack.
I need to now do a bit more titivation to shape the entrances and walls to the caves and tunnels a bit more, and hollow out the passageway floors slighty.
Then the whole lot gets fixed together into one massif, using wood glue and cocktail sticks. Possibly cut-down bamboo barbecue skewers actually, to go through that lot.
Then we can get onto the more artistic stuff
12 December 2012, 02:18:55 PM
