Buckle up, because we are going to talk about another long tutorial. An important part of miniature making is of course: how are we going to make a miniature stone wall, so let's dive straight into things.
( If you are interested more in dollhouse flooring ideas, check out this blog post)
First, Some more info on miniature stone walls.
There are several ways that you can make or want a miniature wall for your dollhouse. In this example of my personal work (my treehouse), I made them in a certain way that I will probably never, ever do again, as it was too complicated and a huge struggle (although I am very happy with the results ). In that article, you can see, picture by picture how I made my walls.
I have made these as suggested by my friend: cut out the beames in wood, then add the walls with architectural paper and then plaster them. Euhm I'm sorry, buddy, but never again haha.
There are much easier ways. I probably do have a very unique treehouse 😉
Wooden houses (like in this work of mine) are a different subject and are something I will not talk about today.
Because basically, any carpenter that puts up real-life houses with wood, could explain to you how to do that, and then you just transform them to the scale that you wish for.
Today I will talk about 'brick' stone miniature walls and fake (or even real) 'rock' stone miniature walls.
A. Tutorial on how to make 'rock' stone miniature walls.
There are several ways that you can make a miniature wall look like it's made from rough stones (for example medieval castles).
First Way: Use Clay
Materials needed :
- pottery clay
- MDF plate/wall
- a mixture of water and PVA
- acrylic paint: raw umber, ultramarine, burnt sienna, white, yellow, blue
- filler
Little walkthrough :
- Sand the MDF plate, to make the clay stick to it forever in the future. If its to smooth it could fall off.
- apply the clay to the MDF plate
- sculpt the clay into bricks with sculpting tools (don't forget to mark the windows as well)
- apply the PVA mix to the finished structured bricks ( Polyvinyl alcohol forms a very good film and has very good emulsifiable and adhesion properties. It is not affected by oil, grease, and solvents. It is odorless and non-toxic)
- mix the water, ultramarine, burnt sienna, white acrylic paint, and filler together to fill up the gaps
- mix these acrylic paint colors together: burnt sienna, raw umber, and white, and add filler and water
- paint some rocks with this mix, not all!
- paint a few again with a mix of pre-mixed brick color and raw umber
- do this again with a mix of pre-mixed brick color and white this time
- and yes, paint again: different variations of colors, pre-mixed colors in combination with blue, yellow, burnt sienna
- finish it up and dry brush it with a mix of ultramarine, burnt sienna, and raw umber
- then FINALLY (I know, miniaturists have to be patient, but we are, no ?), wet brush it with just water
Make sure to let it all dry in between. Video-source of this walkthrough:
Second Way: Use Polystyrene.
Materials needed:
- a mask (against dust)
- polystyrene (aka styrofoam)
- a knife or use a hot wire foam cutter
- mod podge (in some cases), all about mod podge and glues here
- pre-colored grey grout
- non-toxic sealer
- colored sand
Little walkthrough :
There are different ways to use polystyrene for making 'brick walls'. But u can use styrofoam to make 'castle walls' as well as more 'neat, flat walls', less 'rough' looking if you know what I mean? (in part B, I will also be using styrofoam)
Get a more 'rocky' bricks look for a castle or other rougher-looking building like this:
- make your castle or house with styrofoam
- mix the pre-colored grey grout (you don't need any paint when you use grout). But you could add some acrylic black paint to make the walls look darker.
- apply several layers
- use a thick layer of grout to finish it up and so you have it more detailed and 'rougher'
- use a mold to get a nice structure in the bricks
- use an old spoon to make the stones look weathered
- seal all with an acrylic shield
- use colored sand to increase the dry-look
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