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Hail!

I'm currently working on a display board/diorama for my Space Wolves and am building the Grand Annulus, the giant stone dais that shows who the current Wolf Lords are. Each slab is solid stone with runic markings and the Wolf Lord's symbol carved in it.

As you can imagine, plasticard and miniature carved stone slabs look completely different. I was wondering if there were a substance or cleaner that I could use to make the plasticard look more like stone. The merchant that I bought the plasticard from said that substances with acetone, paint/lacquer thinner, benzene, alcohol, or ammonia could ruin the product, but I have only tried alcohol so far with little success. I was hoping someone here would know of a compound or solution that would eat away at the plasticard and wouldn't put me on the Homeland Security watch list for purchasing it.

The materials that I purchased are styrene sheets at a thickness of about .1''.

Praise Russ and the Allfather!

hmmmm.. Could try experimenting applying a very thin coat of polycement (plastic glue) over the plasticard and dabbing it with your finger... might work.. who knows

Hack into and gouge the plasticard with blades, forks, pins, sandpaper files.

Take a lighter to it (mind the fumes and the burning plastic).

But really I would avoid plasticard and go with polystyrene/EPS blocks, putty, clay, Green stuff, Milliput etc for stone.

Maybe use plasticard as a base then sculpt some GS over this to get the textures you need.

press the putty into some rock surfaces to get some interesting textures

Home Depot seems to have super dense sheets of insulating foam now. Significantly denser than the pink or blue stuff that's been around for a while. I'd honestly go with that. It'll be easier to carve in general and much easier to weather.
Maybe save the plasticard for plate metal portions of the reliefs.

I really wouldn't go any further in the "stuff that will mess with plasticard" experiments because alot of that is also "stuff that will give you cancer".

Do what Bagley said except with an old-short brush, simply simple the half melted plastic and sand away the high spots away once its dry, it would look like the pockets in the stone.

it depends what kind of weathering you want. like a weak corrosive acid will roughen the surface

I would imagine a file or some sandpaper would weather the plasticard really nicely and add a nice texture to it. Since you're trying to replicate a stone effect, scraping at the edges with a file, paper, or scoring the edges with a knife, then sanding it to add texture, would probably be your best bet. Good luck!
Granesh

For a stone type look just use the pink insulation foam and give it a thin coat of acrylic paint before spraying. That usually melts just enough off the surface to give it an overall stoney feel. Otherwise after you carve it, coat it in a very fine grade of sand.

For plasticard, most people go the opposite direction, gluing texture onto it.

But as others have said above, some sort of insulation foam is an easier solution for 'pile of rocks' scenery.

Try this. Get some acetone. Pour it on some sandpaper. Rub all over the card. SCENERY

No, but regular sandpaper might do it.

If you can get sandpaper with uneven grit somehow, that might help.

Check hobby shops. Model train scenery companies sell sheets of textured plastic. I have one sheet of cobblestone I'm using myself. You might be able to find something there that will help you.

A thin layer of green stuff would also probably work well, I used GS on my bray shaman and it was pretty easy to make stone-like.

You could read this thread on how to re-form bent plastics. If you get the salt too hot, it will 'damage' the plastic. Which might just be exactly what you want.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/318880.page

Like this:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/s/i/at/at2/2010/9/23/8bf76a12f4cdceaa75341f4ea8550c7b_5386.jpg

A knife.

How about using a textured spray on the Plasticard? I think any chemical solution is likely to make the finished piece look 'melted' rather than 'rough'.

The old Roughcoat spray was pretty good or this, but that's discontinued. However, there are still a lot of useful textured sprays out there - specifically ones that dry like stone or sand.

Option 1 use pink or blue inso foam carve out stone shapes in the foam paint the foam with house paint filling all holes in the foam then prime with spray and have at it.
Option 2 use plasticard distress the plastic with files knives sandpaper and spray with clear lacquer it will further melt the plastic and give it a rippled effect.
I recommend option 1 find a model rail road store and ask for help making the inso foam look like rock is the best advice i can give.

Green Stuff and then use a small stone to imprint stone texture.

textured paint, especially spraypaint. Gws roughcoat is pretty decent, though expensive, it has a very fine textured grain. You can also get "stone" spraypaints meant for crafts at walmart or DIY stores for about $7. They put out differant colored flecks of paint to make a granite effect that looks out of scale with minis, but leave a rough texture for you paint over it after it dries.

When you are done weathering the actual plastic, if you are looking to substance eg.sand,dirt,snow then look to Tamiya, they have a whole range of that sort of stuff that you just brush on.

I wouldn't try and weather the plasticard, at all. Either glue texture to it or use a different material. Some careful spray painting can tactically eat away at foam to give a stony texture, as can covering with an uneven layer of spackle/drywall filler and giving a light sanding (the former giving a rough, pitted texture and the latter giving a smoother finish, like slate viewed parallel to the cleavage plane).

My vote is also for textured spray paint. That's how I painted my ruins. Very easy.

AG. wrote:You could read this thread on how to re-form bent plastics. If you get the salt too hot, it will 'damage' the plastic. Which might just be exactly what you want.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/318880.page

Never thought of that. I've been trying to use a candle to bend sheetplastic/plastic rods for a few conversions and I almost always waste a few parts trying to get it right. Great idea to use salt.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/s/i/at/at2/2010/9/23/8bf76a12f4cdceaa75341f4ea8550c7b_5386.jpg

Not exactly sure what look you are after but a quick dip in acetone will round out sharp features. Just a literal quick dip don't let it sit for any length of time as it will absorb too much acetone and might literally disappear.

There are a couple of stone effects spray paints and textured primers that you can buy too. Use a file and some rough grit sandpaper to cut some deep nicks and scratches then rough up the surface before spraying with the textured paint.

Something you may want to look for is a product called flexibark.

It is a 3d paste that dries highy textured. Would work for stone as well.

I have started using this stuff called water foam or wet foam that is mostly used in floral arrangements, to create my scenery. You buy it in bricks and simply cut away the shape you desire like any other foam. The benefit of this stuff is it is very easy to work with and cut in addition to being very smooth. You can literally shape it (and it retains the shape) to a degree using just your hands. Using files and serated knives create really cool texdtured effects. It is also very cheap and easy to find here.
Since it is 'soft', you will want to paint it with something like wood glue to get it to harden up. But it gives a great effect to sprinkle sand over random areas once the wood glue has been applied but before basecoating.

If you want stone, I'd apply drywall mud and let it dry. The trick here is you are using plastic and I usually use this on foam terrain so I doubt the mud would adhere to a smooth surface. If you glue a fine mesh screen over the plastic though that will hold it in place. (that's how you make stucco walls) Of course doing it this way would mean you have to put any details in the mud itself and it won't help you if you already have cool details sculpted in your plastic you want to use.

Many automotive paints AREN'T safe on plastics and will craze when applied. Looks quite cool and you can paint over it and still see the effect.

Rubberizing spray paint.

It will give you a fast uneven texture that roughly simulates stone. Failing that, try plaster.

Give it a light burning, too much and it will look like a melta was taken to it.