Date: Monday November 9, 9:12 am
Our History class at school must make a map of the Battle of Gettysburg. We have ideas for the movement of troops and how to show this, but we need to make a terrain out of posterboard. How can we make hills and such that’ll be 3-D when painted?
Tags:
Battle,
Making,
Model,
Project,
School
Plaster of Paris or modeling clay.
Plaster of Paris is too brittle and heavy. As is modeling clay.
I’m in England so I hope I don’t confuse you with different terms but here goes.
Use expanded polystyrene sheet or tiles. (used for loft / attic insulation) It is obtainable from 1/4 inch to 4 inch thick. Carve to shape with a VERY sharp knife (take care) or a hot wire / hot knife.
The BIG secret is you then paint on PVA (AKA WHITE WOODWORKING GLUE) this seals the polystyrene and stops it flaking. Cover the edges of the boards while the glue is wet with newspaper strips, this strengthens the scenery,
Paint the boards green then sprinkle on green flock (green powder, get it from a hobby or model railway shop)
Then you have it, Devil’s Den, wheatfield, Seminary Ridge the lot!!
Try clay or you want, shoot the movie.
You can use paper mache and coat hangers for the hills and other terrain features. It is simple, inexpensive and allows good hold for the paints! You can download instructions on how to use it and form from – http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/paperma… This has several links on how to! Good luck in the project.
I watched some people making trees for such use by architects. They buy 16 gauge stranded wire and then separate the strands. They twist pieces together at the bottom creating a trunk then form the limbs and trim them. To create the foliage they dipped the top in Elmer’s and sprinkled green stuff (not sure what it was).
Good Luck
IVE RECREATED MOUNTAINS AND HILLS USING STYROFOAM .CUT THE RUFF SIZES OF THE TERRAIN YOU WANT AND SAND TO SHAPE WITH FINE SANDPAPER. AIRBRUSH TO COLOR AND USE LEACHEN MATERIAL TO RECREATE TREES AND BUSHES. MOST GOOD HOBBY SHOPS OR ART SUPPLY STORES SHOULD HAVE WHAT YEA NEED.