Glen McGuire

Nice work!  I'm anxious to see how you pull off the thatching!

Boring update here - prep work for painting.  The first step was using modeling clay to fill in a bunch of the gaps and then brushing a layer of Gesso over everything.  I left more visible cracks under the main channel of water for a bit of contrast.  We'll see how that looks when I paint the rocks their final gray. 

For the sides and back of the wall, I covered the areas with a thin layer of modeling clay and textured/contoured it a bit.  The idea was to make it look like a cross-section of a large rock wall without all the cracks and sharp edges that the exposed face has.

Nice job on the weathering, Steven!  The last sample piece looks really good.

On 1/3/2024 at 5:47 PM, BANYAN said:

You need a Roman Centurian guard? 

I love Pat's idea.  I nominate this guy...

4 minutes ago, Cathead said:

I might have to steal this phrasing, well put!

Same here.  Keith definitely has a way with words!

Welcome to MSW!  I'd love to see a lego build like you describe.  I hope you will do a build log here when you start your project. 

Agree with jpalmer - impressive work with a very tedious process.

1 hour ago, Louie da fly said:

even though my stepdaughter thinks it looks nice - she just doesn't understand

I agree with your stepdaughter, it does look very nice.  And, you did such a marvelous job making the brace and making it fit.  But at the end of the day, it's your decision and either way I don't think you can go wrong since you do have a mosaic prominently showing the brace. 

31 minutes ago, Louie da fly said:

I've been experimenting with weathering, and I'd like the team's opinion.

I like the way the middle 2 boards on the left look if you can replicate that on all of them - it's not too much and not too little weathering.  I think the black on the far right board is too much.  The board on the left is not bad, just maybe a little too dark.  I like the way the railings look on that same pic.  My 2 cents.

14 hours ago, Bryan Woods said:

I think it’s great to have a little excitement added to the build:-)  I know you got that finial vision in your head. I can’t wait to see that water flowing!

13 hours ago, BANYAN said:

The joys and adventures of experimentation   Glad things worked out Glen, that is a great base for your waterfall.

Thanks, Bryan and Pat.  I'd say there's a fine line between excitement and adventure vs abject panic!!

13 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

I'm looking forward even more to seeing it completed.

Thanks, Steven.  Still got a long ways to go though - filling in the gaps around the rocks, doing the sides of the wall (still pondering that one), painting the rocks, adding greenery, painting the base, adding the pool water, and finally the waterfall water.  I think that's the proper sequence.

8 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Great rock face, Glen. Does it get painted?

Thanks, Keith.  Yes, I'm going to paint the rocks grayish, in similar fashion as that test piece.   

Work begins on the real waterfall.  I bought some foam blocks for floral arrangements, glued a couple together, and cut them to fit my base.  I affixed a couple of bamboo skewers to the base which will pierce the foam giving it some extra stability when I load it up with rocks.

The next step was cutting the foam to the basic shape of the waterfall's wall.  You can also see my large assortment of rocks to choose from as I build the wall.  

I started affixing rocks at the top with the rock heating/foam melting process I used for my test. 

Unfortunately, I got off to a rocky start (sorry about that  😁) with the very first piece.  It was a bigger than my test pieces so I decided to use a propane torch instead of the butane torch I used for the test.  Bad move!  When I heated up the rock and placed it on top of the foam, it started sizzling and sinking really fast.  I realized it was about to cause a mini China Syndrome and melt all the way thru my carefully shaped foam, so I grabbed it quickly and went back to the butane torch.

More progress...

And here's the face of the wall complete.  At least for now anyway.  It's got some ridges that are more noticeable in person than picture, but I'll let it sit overnight and take another look in the morning to see if I want to make them more prominent.  I also tried to visualize the flow of the water down the rocks as I was piecing it together, but I found that's a lot harder than I thought.  Hard to see the forest when you're working on each tree.  So again, I need to step back, let my brain refocus, and look at it with fresh eyes.

Viewing from the top, you can see I left 2 small channels on each side of the main channel in the middle.  I might have a couple of small ribbons trickling down paths from there.  Maybe.

Looking good, Ian.  I think your color scheme will really bring it to life.

Great job, Phil!  I really like the base.  Nice presentation!

2 hours ago, Canute said:

A stair stepping would look better, like your last picture.

I think you are right, Ken.

52 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Something like this?  

Penguins AND icicles in a Hawaiian waterfall?  So much for global warming!!  😄    Happy New Year to you too, Keith!

On 12/24/2023 at 3:46 PM, GrandpaPhil said:

This will be a fun quick build!

You weren't kidding when you said quick!  More like warp speed.  Looks great, Phil!

29 minutes ago, Javelin said:

I also believe you need ridges.

Hey Javelin, are you talking about something like these circled below?  Or can you find a picture of what you have in mind?  

12 hours ago, kgstakes said:

Can’t wait to see that waterfall go into the bottle.   Your can do it!!

Thank you, KG!  I appreciate your confidence and encouragement!

3 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

And of course rocks look like rocks!

You know, when you put it like that, it should be really hard for me to mess this one up, shouldn't it!  😃    

7 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

You are right about a few shape edges.

Thanks, Bob.  Always good to get confirmation that someone else sees the same thing I do!

5 hours ago, Keith Black said:

I thought I was looking at some rock you found

Thanks, Keith.  Funny you say that.  A friend was over yesterday and asked "why do you have a big rock on your kitchen counter?"  😃  

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and got to spend a lot of time with family and friends.

I've been watching a bunch of youtube videos trying to figure out how to approach the second half of this project, which is making the rock wall and waterfall.  In between videos, I decided to go ahead and make the base so I could at least feel like I was getting something done.  Nothing too elaborate.  It's 14" wide by 9" deep with the front beveled for a nameplate.  I added a 3/16" rim around the perimeter which will hold in the epoxy resin that makes up the waterfall pool.

On to the rock wall.  From the youtube videos, I got several ideas for how to make the wall, like stacking polystyrene and scoring with a knife, wadding up newspaper and covering with plaster of paris, making rock molds and casting rocks, or even buying plastic rocks and pushing them into modeling clay.  I did some trial and error on a few of these methods which ended up being a lot more error than trial.  I just could not get anything to look like I wanted.  

The video using cast rocks from rock molds seemed to give the best look for my purposes.  I was about to pursue that route when I thought why not use real rocks instead of fake ones?  There are places at my ranch that have these thin, flat reddish rocks with good texture (no idea what kind of rocks they actually are).  So on my next trip out there, I gathered up a few handfuls to try them out.  I decided to use some packing foam for the basic shape of my rock wall.  I took a small piece of foam and a few rocks to test things out.  

As you can see, it was kind of like putting a puzzle together.  But the next question was how to adhere to the rocks to the foam.  Because some of the best looking rocks did not have a real flat or smooth surface, I did not think gluing them on would be very secure.  So I decided to try something a little different - melting them on.  I took a small butane torch, heated the back of the rock, then pressed it into the foam.  This actually worked great because it allowed me to push rocks into the foam at different depths so I could make the outer surface as smooth or blocky as necessary.

I tested the melting method on one of the rocks and it adhered to the foam quite securely.  So I continued with melting the rest of the rocks onto my test piece.  Next, I mixed up a small amount of plaster and filled in the gaps.  After that, I put a thin layer of gesso over the whole thing to seal it for painting.  And finally, I mixed up some gray and white paint with plenty of water to make a thin wash.  I covered the rocks with the wash, then added some darker grays in places for shading.  Here's how the final test piece came out.  The second pic is the basic color and rock texture I was trying to match.

I think my coloring is not too bad.  But I think I need to have a few more sharp edges on areas of the wall to give it more of a blocky look like in the picture.  For a test run, however, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Clever solution for the spears and polearms.  Well done!

Fantastic work, Keith.  Like everything else on this build, your gaff and lift rigging is very clean and crisp.

7 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

A ship in a bottle I made over 50 years ago was mentioned in another thread, but I could not provide a picture because it's whereabouts was unknown. 

I believe I am the guilty party that asked to see your ship in a bottle (my Oseberg/Kraken build log)!

I'm glad you were able to find it and share pictures.  Plus, I think you did a marvelous job for a first exercise.  Quite impressive!  Hope you don't wait too long to make a new version. 

And Merry Christmas to you and family as well!

On 12/17/2023 at 11:37 AM, dvm27 said:

If you have a barrel you could make it a dual display.

Hey Greg, I'm not sure what you have in mind here.  Can you elaborate on your suggestion?

Wonderful work on those Christmas ornaments!!  Also, IMHO your Ems Punt would look really good inside a bottle!!  Something to think about?  Maybe?  😀 

@Boccherini, @BANYAN, @Keith Black, @GrandpaPhil, @Knocklouder - Thanks for the Christmas greetings!  Merry Christmas to all of y'all and your families and everyone else in this amazing MSW community!