Indoor 1/24 Rock Crawler Course

[WickedFog]

Work is going slow. Have to put a layer on and wait for glue to dry. But I about have it to the level of adding the upper tube back in. After that the rest of the foam will only be pinned in place for course testing.

 

[Xraycer]

You and I have the same glue gun only mine is blue but its small and looks pretty much same as yours minus the cool magnet mod

Perhaps I should make a how-to video on the magnet mod

 

[WickedFog]

Natural colored aquarium gravel would look and be scaled perfect as river stones for that project.

Was looking at aquarium gravel early this morning. The round pea gravel stuff just wouldn't look right. Then I found the perfect gravel. This will match the stone work I plan to do...

 

[Greywolf74]

Nope! Mine is much wimpier
View attachment 132343

My hot glue gun is identical to yours only mines blue. Not sure how old yours is but mine goes back at least 22-23 years. I've had this thing for forever

 

[WickedFog]

I just found my glue gun going through a tote. Forgot I even had one. Mine is pink too lol.

 

[WickedFog]

Got a few more layers down and got the lower collection tube all siliconed in. There is about 24oz of silicone around it lol. I hope it doesn't leak

And this is all the foam recovered. This should give me plenty enough to finish this table I hope, along with the remaining sheets I have. I need to start a styrofoam rescue and collect all the homeless foam around here

 

[Xraycer]

My hot glue gun is identical to yours only mines blue. Not sure how old yours is but mine goes back at least 22-23 years. I've had this thing for forever
View attachment 132366

Idk. Not sure if this is something we've already had before we became homeowners, 17 years ago.

 

[WickedFog]

Waiting on glue to dry again, so started working on a rope bridge. This will be pretty tricked out Oh, and tested out some uneven boards over the waterfall.

 

[WickedFog]

When building realistic scenery, you usually do the plaster work, then give it a wash of colors to bring it to life. Since this diorama will have trucks crawling over it I wanted to try something different. So I am going to try using pigments to dye the plaster. That way if it chips, or wears down, you won't see white flecks everywhere. I bought 4 different colors of pigment from a company called Color Rare on Amazon.

Last night I started working on a rope bridge by getting the wood cut. I laminated some basswood to make some round support poles, cut the bridge planking, sanded everything down, etc. To weather it I decided to give the black pigment a go. So I mixed up about 3 cups of warm water and about a teaspoon of the pigment. Wood is soaking now and it seems to be working great!

 

[Xraycer]

Since water is also involved, how about coating the entire top of the diorama with Flex Seal paint(not spray-on) before applying the sceneries?

 

[WickedFog]

Since water is also involved, how about coating the entire top of the diorama with Flex Seal paint(not spray-on) before applying the sceneries?

It will all be coated in a matte medium. But even with that I expect to see some chipping. I will have a few challenging spots on this where the trucks could tumble, so just trying to think ahead. I really don't want to have to break out the paints every time we run the gambit.

I am still undecided on how to seal the river bed. I have a can of Plasti Dip spray coming. I am going to test that and if it doesn't do what I need I will be looking at other ideas. I have never used Flex Seal. So that is water proof? Will it hold up?

 

[Xraycer]

You've never heard of Flex Seal?!

They run infomercials galore! Just search up "Flex Seal" on YT. I've used it once and it works ok. I find the commercials exaggerate quite a bit, but for your application I believe it would work just fine.

 

[WickedFog]

Since water is also involved, how about coating the entire top of the diorama with Flex Seal paint(not spray-on) before applying the sceneries?

Just looked that up. Looks perfect! Thanks!

And no, I have never heard of it. I haven't watched tv with commercials for over 6 years. I use Kodi

 

[Xraycer]

Just looked that up. Looks perfect! Thanks!

And no, I have never heard of it. I haven't watched tv with commercials for over 6 years. I use Kodi

Like I mentioned, don't use the spray stuff, I'm pretty sure the propellant will eat into the foam. They sell small cans of the stuff.

 

[WickedFog]

Like I mentioned, don't use the spray stuff, I'm pretty sure the propellant will eat into the foam. They sell small cans of the stuff.

The foam will have a plaster coating first. I was just going to coat the foam, but after thinking about it I want everything to have a hard shell.

 

[WickedFog]

The wood came out perfect. After I weather it with some white and black dry brushing and some weathering chalks it is going to look perfect. Has anyone ever seen an indoor crawler course done to the level of a realistic model railroad layout? If not, stay tuned

 

[Xraycer]

Ever watched this guy's channel? He's got a series on that 1/24 course.

 

[WickedFog]

Ever watched this guy's channel? He's got a series on that 1/24 course.

Yeah, I used to watch RC Sparks, but after he started getting famous all his vids feature $10,000 RC stuff. I just can't watch it anymore. I get way too jealous lol.

About the vid...
I guess that's one way to do it lol. I don't think the property owners would take too kindly to me driving a Bobcat full of dirt into my apartment though

And it's not really realistic because the scale of things is off. Real dirt doesn't look like 1/24 scale dirt, if that makes sense. Same with the rocks. I mean, they work. But you'd never mistake a photograph of that as 1:1.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Lookin awesome Wicked.

 

[Doom!]

@WickedFog you can just use latex paint to seal your stream bed. It is waterproof and can be mixed to any color, much cheaper than flex seal and similar products.

I plan on painting the whole surface with Latex paint just to give it a protective coating.