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I've created a base for one of my Rackham Hybrid monsters and need some help from other modelers.  I used some foil off an old wine bottle (a nice red called Dancing Bull) to create an area of torn metal on the base.  The problem is that the foil is so thin it's not quite durable enough to keep it's shape if somehthing touches it .

 I guess I have a couple of options.   I could redo it with some thicker foil or I could try and coat the foil to make it maintain the shape.  I thought about using watered down white glue but I think that's too uncontrolled.  My next idea was to give it a dozen or so coats of spray on varnish. 

Does anyone have some tips for me?

I am quite certain you will have to redo it with thicker foil.

Coating it will only make it nominally stronger.

Craft shops do have varying thicknesses of foil to use, but you might be better off just using thin plastic card to achieve the disired effect.

Thicker foil will help but it will still be somewhat pliable. Foil is really only good for show pieces that will not be handled regularly or for suface applications where some underlying structure supports the shape.

I'd suggest rolling out a bit of green stuff to get the same shape. Alternately, use some metal pins bent to shape to add some solid support.

Balls! Well maybe I'll have to try it with heated pieces of thin plasticard...

Use aluminum flashing; it's stiff enough for modeling but can be cut with scissors or even a utility knife. The only downside is that the edges can get pretty sharp, so be careful what you do with it if you plan to handle the model later.

Have you tried a couple thin coats of superglue?

Just a thought.

Eric

I've done
aluminum foil with skull white primer
and then actually "baked" (in an old toaster overn) the primer on
gets a pretty solid finish, paintable, and maintains it's shape well

Superglue will not provide enough structure, especially since it is brittle once cured. Thick foil + green stuff works, but it's a real pain in the arse to not bodger the job until the GS has cured as both are very flexible. Conversely, with the aluminum sheeting, it's stiff, but a real bugger to form into shape.

how about a thin coat of fiber glass resin on the back side of the foil .

there was a nice tutorial on just that on terraingenesis in the forums...hold on:
this http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=827
i think its a little expensive just for one base but you could always use it again