More good progress.
Your homemade rock mold looks very good and your fix of the canyon wall is very good.
Impressed with how much the layout looks like the prototype.

Thanks Rick, George, Curt!

15 June 2022

Work on the canyon continues. Right after my last video update the 50 lb bag of hydrocal I ordered a month earlier finally arrived.


I immediately got busy coating the south end of the canyon with it. This is the first batch of plaster, tinted to eliminate the stark white.
I think I'm going to rename this area "Orange Sherbert Hill." I stopped for the day with just the one batch, to see if the plaster would cure properly with the tinting agent (dry tempera paint pigment).

The next day the plaster seemed to have hardened properly, so I continued adding it to the plaster cloth.


Then I thought I'd try adding a few rock castings at the mouth of the tunnel. I formed a mold out of aluminum foil and poured in a batch of Hydrocal tinted with black pigment:

I have never done this before, so I wasn't at all sure how this would work out. But at worst I'd just have to do it over, so...

After letting the plaster begin to set, I stuck it to the plaster cloth wall at the tunnel opening. I gave it another ten or fifteen minutes to cure, then peeled off the aluminum foil. It came out much better than I expected!


Emboldened beyond all reason, I pressed on with a second, smaller mold for the wall just inside the tunnel, I put it in place just like the first one. Here's what it looked like after about 12 hours' drying time.

The rocks have stayed darker than I expected (tinted Plaster of Paris lightens up a lot as it dries, but apparently Hydrocal does not), but I can fix that when I paint the rocks later.

I wasn't real happy with this, though - the ledge above the rock is a road that goes over the mouth of the tunnel. Here's a modern-day shot of the area:

Notice how the road is on an even grade from the canyon wall to the tunnel - not at all like what I had.

Only one thing to do - fix it!

I marked the now three-day-old rock casting with a Sharpie where I wanted to cut it.


After about 15 minutes with utility knife, and then a serrated kitchen knife for the foam, left me with this.

Much better! That Hydrocal was tough to cut through. Even the thin painted on stuff on the hillside above was pretty hard. I'm not at all concerned about the durability of the canyon walls anymore!

Over the last couple of days I've patched the hole you see above and continued painting tinted Hydrocal onto the mountainside. No new rocks yet, though. I'll post photos of progress through today in a few days when I've downloaded then from my phone.

Great video. Your scenery is tremendous and I look forward to seeing your progress.

Nice update, Mark. The video is a great way to recap what you're doing.

George

Excellent, another video to watch later.

4 June 2022

Thanks everyone! I'm really enjoying building the canyon (even though I don't really know what I'm doing).

For those who haven't seen my latest layout update video (I posted it yesterday), here it is:

I crossed Wyoming several times aboard Amtrak via the UP: Evanston to Cheyenne, then south to Denver. But one time the BN line was snowed over east of Denver and we went to Lincoln NE via the UP instead. Another time we rode a UP steam excursion out of Denver to the rodeo in Cheyenne

Very impressive. It's wonderful the way the scenery dwarfs the railroad.

Mike

I enjoyed your new video. The canon is going to be spectacular. Instead of the foam, why not cardboard cribbing? The skirting is a heugh improvement. I would go for a light canvas rather than what looks like plastic. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has to wait for money to catch up.

Bob

Wow! That's some massive scenery work. Looking forward to watching your progress.

George

Those are going to be some majestic mountains.

That is a lot of plaster cloth. It looks like you didn't have to do it on a step stool so that really saves the back bending over.

Thanks Bob, Curt!

28 May 2022

Work on the canyon continues.

By 20 May I carved off most of the sharp corners of the foam blocks using a hot wire cutter. It also goes right through low temperature hot glue.


Then I abraded the foam surfaces using a Surform tool. This tears out little chunks of foam and leaves a very rough surface the plaster cloth can grab onto.


And finally, on 25 May, I added all the remaining plaster cloth I had on hand - nearly 30 pounds worth. That almost 100 linear feet of cloth.




Next step in this area is to add a layer of hydrocal (thick in most places) to carve into rocks on all the vertical and near-vertical surfaces. That will hide the step-like horizontal lines left from the foam blocks. The hydrocal is on order (can't get it locally) and should be here in a few days. I have 50 pounds on the way. I'm sure I'll need more.

As you can see by the last picture, I have a lot more canyon to go. Where the foam tapers down in the background needs to be built up a lot more, but I ran out of foam panels. I won't be adding more foam for a couple months, but I have plenty else to keep me busy in the cloth-covered area of the canyon.

Great video. Your layout is going to be amazing when it's completed...not that a layout is ever completed

At least you can get them. otherwise, It's looking good so far. A whole lot of mountain feeling like a mountain.

Bob