hugy
Newbie
Hi all,
I like this site a lot and i wanted to give something back to the forum for all the information I got from here. Sorry if my English is bad but I come from The Netherlands. So it isn't my native language. After reading a lot about the Micro crawler I bought one, it is my first crawler and i like it a lot. But after a few days i got pretty bored with crawling over dvd boxes and other things. So I was thinking about what would be the best way to make a Micro course. I wanted it to be realistic looking and very fun to crawl. So after some browsing on the internet I came on some model train sites. I picked up a few ideas on some different sites and combined it to what i think is one of the best and easiest ways to build a Micro Crawler Course. So i wanted to make a tutorial for all the people which are thinking about their own courses. This tutorial will be divided into 3 parts. And maybe this could be a sticky.
1. The building of the actual course.
2. Painting the course so it looks realistic.
3. Decorating the course with grass and trees.
This will be part one, I will post the rest of the parts when I'm done doing them because I'm still building the course but the first part should keep you guys busy for about 1-4 weekends.
Part 1. The building of the actual course.
What you will need
In this picture you can see what you will need.
1. Big bag of plaster about 10kg per square meter just get the cheapest stuff.
2. Styrofoam insulation board. I used 2 packs of it one 3cm thick and one 6cm thick.
3. 4 colours of Acrylic paint from left to right, Raw umber, (lamp)black, Raw sienna and (titanium) White
4. Tin/aluminium foil
5. boil to mix the plaster
6. Woodland scenics Scenic cement or elmers glue mixed with water.
7. Scenery decoration but I will explain this in part 3.
Building the under course
I already did this step when I thought of making a tutorial so I did a quick mock up for the picture. You cut and shape the Styrofoam in any shape you want your course. To make mountains cut the basic shape and every layer that you will put on top of the other layer make it a bit smaller so you get the basic contours of a mountain. The more rugged your under course is the sharper rock outcroppings you will get when you put the plaster on. I also used spray can foam on some sections and cut it into shape.
This is a quick mock up on a 1 by 1.30 meter mdf board.
Making the rocky top layer
To make the top layer look like rocks I use one of the easiest and cheapest methods I could find but still gives a great realist rock look.
1. Take your tin foil and pull a piece of. There is a 30 cm ruler for size comparison.
2. Crumble it into a ball.
3. Carefully unfold the ball and now you see all the texture you created. It looks like some rocky surface already.
4. Fold the sides up to make a bowl.
5. Make some more of those molds and put them on a flat surface. Spray them with a mix of water and a few drops of soap so they release easier.
6. Mix your plaster following the instructions on the bag. Mix it until it has the consistency of yoghurt.
7. Carefully, so you won't destroy the texture, put it in the tin boils you made. Fill it up 2-3 cm thick.
8. Let them dry until it starts to harden a bit. It should be harder but still mouldable. You know when it is ready when it shows little cracks when you lift up one corner.
9. Now you fold the sides back to flat and put it upside down on your Styrofoam under layer.
10. After the plaster is almost fully cured you pull of the tin foil. If you do this to early all the details will stick to the foil. If you do this to late it will be very hard to remove the foil so experiment with it a little bit.
11. Be amazed with the results, it looks like the rock molds that you can buy in the hobby store but this is customizable, cheaper and easier. The rock has very nice cracks and crevices which we will highlight when we paint them.
12. Now repeat those steps to cover your full track. Here you can see mine I'm almost done with the plaster.
It looks so Tiny LoL
13. To fill the gaps between some overlapping pieces, just put some plaster on them with your finger.
14. Some final Micro Action shots
Next time I will be back with part 2 of the tutorial. Have fun building and please leave a comment and some pictures if you use this tutorial.
Bye
Hugo Janse
I like this site a lot and i wanted to give something back to the forum for all the information I got from here. Sorry if my English is bad but I come from The Netherlands. So it isn't my native language. After reading a lot about the Micro crawler I bought one, it is my first crawler and i like it a lot. But after a few days i got pretty bored with crawling over dvd boxes and other things. So I was thinking about what would be the best way to make a Micro course. I wanted it to be realistic looking and very fun to crawl. So after some browsing on the internet I came on some model train sites. I picked up a few ideas on some different sites and combined it to what i think is one of the best and easiest ways to build a Micro Crawler Course. So i wanted to make a tutorial for all the people which are thinking about their own courses. This tutorial will be divided into 3 parts. And maybe this could be a sticky.
1. The building of the actual course.
2. Painting the course so it looks realistic.
3. Decorating the course with grass and trees.
This will be part one, I will post the rest of the parts when I'm done doing them because I'm still building the course but the first part should keep you guys busy for about 1-4 weekends.
Part 1. The building of the actual course.
What you will need
In this picture you can see what you will need.
1. Big bag of plaster about 10kg per square meter just get the cheapest stuff.
2. Styrofoam insulation board. I used 2 packs of it one 3cm thick and one 6cm thick.
3. 4 colours of Acrylic paint from left to right, Raw umber, (lamp)black, Raw sienna and (titanium) White
4. Tin/aluminium foil
5. boil to mix the plaster
6. Woodland scenics Scenic cement or elmers glue mixed with water.
7. Scenery decoration but I will explain this in part 3.
Building the under course
I already did this step when I thought of making a tutorial so I did a quick mock up for the picture. You cut and shape the Styrofoam in any shape you want your course. To make mountains cut the basic shape and every layer that you will put on top of the other layer make it a bit smaller so you get the basic contours of a mountain. The more rugged your under course is the sharper rock outcroppings you will get when you put the plaster on. I also used spray can foam on some sections and cut it into shape.
This is a quick mock up on a 1 by 1.30 meter mdf board.
Making the rocky top layer
To make the top layer look like rocks I use one of the easiest and cheapest methods I could find but still gives a great realist rock look.
1. Take your tin foil and pull a piece of. There is a 30 cm ruler for size comparison.
2. Crumble it into a ball.
3. Carefully unfold the ball and now you see all the texture you created. It looks like some rocky surface already.
4. Fold the sides up to make a bowl.
5. Make some more of those molds and put them on a flat surface. Spray them with a mix of water and a few drops of soap so they release easier.
6. Mix your plaster following the instructions on the bag. Mix it until it has the consistency of yoghurt.
7. Carefully, so you won't destroy the texture, put it in the tin boils you made. Fill it up 2-3 cm thick.
8. Let them dry until it starts to harden a bit. It should be harder but still mouldable. You know when it is ready when it shows little cracks when you lift up one corner.
9. Now you fold the sides back to flat and put it upside down on your Styrofoam under layer.
10. After the plaster is almost fully cured you pull of the tin foil. If you do this to early all the details will stick to the foil. If you do this to late it will be very hard to remove the foil so experiment with it a little bit.
11. Be amazed with the results, it looks like the rock molds that you can buy in the hobby store but this is customizable, cheaper and easier. The rock has very nice cracks and crevices which we will highlight when we paint them.
12. Now repeat those steps to cover your full track. Here you can see mine I'm almost done with the plaster.
It looks so Tiny LoL
13. To fill the gaps between some overlapping pieces, just put some plaster on them with your finger.
14. Some final Micro Action shots
Next time I will be back with part 2 of the tutorial. Have fun building and please leave a comment and some pictures if you use this tutorial.
Bye
Hugo Janse
:lmao:
