Rock tutorial

[Gidian]

In my terrain thread, I promised you a tutorial of the posted rocks and here it comes.
But I need someone to correct my imperfect English, because I also want to host this tutorial on my homepage in German and English.

And sorry for the quality of the photos. Unfortunately the polystyrene reflects very strongly.

Ok, let´s start:


Material:
You really don´t need that much material for the rocks. I just used a few things:
- Polystyrene, nearly two inch thick (in Germany it´s called "Styrodur" but it´s just a brand name and I think you have other names in the US)
- Glue
- Sand
- Paints (brown, black, white,)
- a sharp knife
- brush
- 3 screws


Step 1:
First of all, you should cut a really rough shape into the polystyrene. It has to be a little bit bigger than the rocks you want to have in the end, because you have to cut away a lot. Keep in mind that it should fit on the HS tiles in the end.






Step 2:
Now you should start to improve the rough shape a bit by cutting out some upright lines. And remember: It´s just a rock. It´s not an architectural building with right angles and straight lines.












Step 3:
Ok, let´s get to the horizontel lines, which give the rock its typical shape. It´s a quite simple technique which I call "cut and break".
You have to cut into the polystyrene - not in a right angle but in an angle about 45° - and then you must turn the knife around to break out a piece of the polystyrene. That gives it a small but interesting structure and you don´t have any ugly cutting-lines in the material you don´t want to have.
But be careful with the blade which can break easily.





Cut...




...and turn around to break out a piece.




Cut...




...and turn around to break out a piece.






Step 4:
With this technique you have to go on until the shape of the rock is completely done. That will take some time and it´s not only fun.












Step 5:
Once you've finished the cutting-job, you can start painting. For the basecoat, I mixed some brown paint with some glue (about 70:30). The glue gives it a better hold on the polystyrene.






Step 6:
Now it´s time to fix the rock on its base. To give it more steadiness, I used some screws additionally to the glue.









Step 7:
With the same basecoat, I also painted the HS hexfields.






Step 8:
Because of the glue, you can strew some sand directly onto the wet paint. Let it dry for some hours and tap the sand. Paint the remaining sand again with the basecoat.
The rest is just drybrushing. Mix some black and white paint to two grey colors - one light grey and one dark grey. These two colors have to be mixed with the brown basecoat. Then you should have two brown-grey-tones for drybrushing. In the end, you can light it up with just a little bit of very light grey.
For the ground, you can also use some black ink:
Mix some black paint with water (about 40:60) and paint it over the brown basecout. Then take a napkin or something like that and wipe over the ground. The black ink should stay in the deeper parts, adding some shades. When it dried, go on with the drybrushing.











Ok, as I mentioned in the beginning - my English is "not perfect". I hope, nevertheless you understand most of the explanations. And it would be very nice if someone could correct my text. Thanks.

Greetings from Germany

Gidian

[Uprising]

Seriously awesome tutorial Gidian. The final product look very, very nice.

[Grungebob]

Pretty Cool!!

[cycoduck]

Very nice. I like.

[Raudulfr Shieldcrusher]

I'd like to see a tutorial on the custom road tiles!

Great work Gigian!

[IAmBatman]

Very impressive!

[johnny139]

If I had any artistic talent whatsoever, I would probably want to try that!

[NecroBlade]

Something I might be able to do! Looks amazing!

Also, your English is much better than a number of the native speakers on this site. :P

[DarkSpade]

I've always prefered a hotwire cutter to a knife when working with styrofoam. Styrofoam dulls the blade way too quick.


This is a great starter project. Doesn't take too much work, and it's really hard to screw up. I recomend anyone who wants to start building custum terrain give it a shot.

[Gidian]

Originally Posted by johnny139

If I had any artistic talent whatsoever, I would probably want to try that!

It´s much easier than you might think at first sight. You don´t need any advanced terrain building skills to copy one of these rocks. Just give it a try.

But be sure to use the right material. Don´t use the polystyrene with these small beatlets which are used for packaging of TV-Sets and stuff like that. That kind of polystyrene is not good for cutting and painting.

Greetings from Germany

Gidian

[Firemaster]

Once I get another Masterset, I am definitely making some of these.

[Dictatorbilbo]

Originally Posted by Gidian

But be sure to use the right material. Don´t use the polystyrene with these small beatlets which are used for packaging of TV-Sets and stuff like that. That kind of polystyrene is not good for cutting and painting.

Greetings from Germany

Gidian

I learned that the hard way...