Cliff Face & Waterfall

This waterfall is meant to attach to a corner of a jungle table with a river running through it. So, I started out by measuring and cutting out insulation foam to fit the proper size of the river.

Because of the large amount of rock face I needed to cover, I decided to buy some Woodland Scenics rock molds and cast large chunks to expedite things. I used plaster of paris, but knowing that this will see a off of storage & transportation some PVA was added as I mixed it.

To make the top of the hill more organic I follow the tops of the rocks with a hot knife to give the land an undulating look. I also used some spackle to fill in the gaps between the cast pieces. Before the spackle was completely dry, I rolled a ball of aluminium foil on the joints to texturize it. This helped it blend in with the cast pieces better.

The next step was to paint the piece. I also embedded bits from a toy dino skeleton on the back side just for some whimsy.

Now for the water -- after some failed experiments, I went back to what I was used to using: silicone caulk. I placed a sheet of cling wrap down and spread out a sheet of caulk & used a stick to add the flowing texture. This caulk happened to apply white and dried to a translucent clear.

After it had dried for the most part, I peeled it off the sheet and repeated the process on the back side to bake sure the falls didn't have a smooth underside. 

Once the back side was dry, I cut the sheet into 2 strips that would fit the low spots of my cliff and attached them to the top with hot glue. I layed down more cling wrap under the falls for the next step.

To create the base of the falls, I poured a small puddle of clear resin under the silicone sheet.

I released the falls back into the puddle and poured more to spread out the length of the cliff face.

I also temporarily added a cardboard frame wrapped in cling to hold in the resin at the river's edge.

After the resin had cured, I dabbed on more caulk to give the water ripples & waves. While the caulk was still wet, I tore small pieces of Fiberfill (like what goes inside quilts) and stuck them to the base of the falls to look like mist.

This is what it looked like after the caulk dried.

You couldn't see much of the texture, so I mixed some gloss medium and white paint to dab onto the tips of the waves.

 After adding plants & flock to the top the piece was complete.

Thanks for looking!

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Lizardmen Temple & Spawning Pool

Construction on most of these were pretty straight forward so the WIP photos are kind of lacking. If words aren't your thing. I did put together a tutorial video on doing the stonework and posted it on YouTube. The video tutorial on the water process is Here.

To start, these pieces were were both made out mostly out of insulation foam using a hobby knife as needed. The stairs were cut from foamcore from the dollar store & the stair walls were cut from a higher grade foamboard from the hobby shop so it was a bit thicker and hot glued together. A corresponding stair well was cut from the pyramid shape & the stair case was inserted.

Stones were randomly cut in using a hobby knife & then drawn over using a ball point point. The upper left area of this image shows just the knife lines & the right & bottom shows the knife & pen combo.

Then random stones were pushed in. I just used the tip of my pen, but any hard/flat stick-ish thing would work.

They were then painted with a dark brown base coat then used a "dry sponge" technique to paint on lighter browns & tans. Using a paintbrush, I dabbed PVA in some nooks & pressed on small patches of green flock.

For the spawning pool, I painted an extra lizard to hang out & give some movement to the water. An extra chunk of foam was cut & put in the bottom of the spawning pool to help fill up space. I cut down into the base for the lizard foot & tail too look like he was half submerged.

For the water, I planned on using a clear resin and past experiences have taught me to not give it any cracks to run out of, so I sealed the edges with hot glue to prevent any leaks.

The water was added in a few layers. The first layer I mixed the 2 part resin as directed. Before pouring, I added 1 drop of dark green wash & stirred briefly. I did NOT mix in fully to have an even tone throughout. After the first layer was dry, I mixed the resin & added a drop of a turquoise paint, stirred briefly, and poured on top. This gives some depth without using a lot of expensive product.

To make the surface of the water disturbed as if the lizard was moving, I used a high gloss medium to add the waves. It was easier to get the medium to stay standing as it dried a bit and became tacky. White paint was added to the tips as I went to make it look foamy.

The bases were covered in a mixture of coffee & tea grounds, aquarium & craft plants were for foliage and they were complete.