Post by Brainbot on Apr 3, 2014 7:56:10 GMT
Here's a method i came up with a couple of years ago. Let's call it the cookie dough method. Depending on how many tiles you're doing it may be too much of a time sink. Mr. Barrett has an upcoming tutorial on flagstones. I hope I'm not stepping on his toes. Let's start with materials list.
Hotwire cutter My prototype cutter can be found here
Styrofoam beaded or extruded
PVA Glue
Fine Sand aka play sand
Assorted paints and brushes
Basing material Card board, Foamcore, Cardstock etc etc
1. Cut some squarish columns out of foam. Reccomended 1/2 inch to 1 inch.
2. Now take your cutter and trim the corners along the length. No need for precision. Irregulars cuts will produce more random and organic shapes.You should now have more of an octagonal to round column
3. Take the recently shaped column and slice into stones. Cut from top to bottom. This will push any straggler that sticks to your wire. Also moving along will allow the wire to remain hot and produce better cuts. try to keep your "stones" thickness relatively similar. I find 1/8 to 1/16 inch works well. Again no precision needed. As a note. Columns less than 1/2 inch tend to stick to the wire a lot often just melting away into the ether.
4. Prepare your base material. Then glue the "stones" to the base using pva. If your feeling particularly masochistic hot glue is an option. Hot to to the base first. After the glue has dried Apply generous amounts of a pva/sand/water slurry. It is important to cover everything if you intend to spray paint.
5. Base paint black, heavy drybrush, and lightly drybrush white.
6. Game on.
Here's a video and a pile of stones ready to be crafted. This old camera isn't the best and not specifically intended for video. So apologies on the quality in advance.
Hotwire cutter My prototype cutter can be found here
Styrofoam beaded or extruded
PVA Glue
Fine Sand aka play sand
Assorted paints and brushes
Basing material Card board, Foamcore, Cardstock etc etc
1. Cut some squarish columns out of foam. Reccomended 1/2 inch to 1 inch.
2. Now take your cutter and trim the corners along the length. No need for precision. Irregulars cuts will produce more random and organic shapes.You should now have more of an octagonal to round column
3. Take the recently shaped column and slice into stones. Cut from top to bottom. This will push any straggler that sticks to your wire. Also moving along will allow the wire to remain hot and produce better cuts. try to keep your "stones" thickness relatively similar. I find 1/8 to 1/16 inch works well. Again no precision needed. As a note. Columns less than 1/2 inch tend to stick to the wire a lot often just melting away into the ether.
4. Prepare your base material. Then glue the "stones" to the base using pva. If your feeling particularly masochistic hot glue is an option. Hot to to the base first. After the glue has dried Apply generous amounts of a pva/sand/water slurry. It is important to cover everything if you intend to spray paint.
5. Base paint black, heavy drybrush, and lightly drybrush white.
6. Game on.
Here's a video and a pile of stones ready to be crafted. This old camera isn't the best and not specifically intended for video. So apologies on the quality in advance.