Diablo Canyon build

Well,

This Fourth of July weekend I got back to working on my Canyon boards for Gaslands as well as other games I play. So leading up to this past weekend I have been watching a few videos on doing Tombstones out of pink foam for decorations at Halloween. One product that most DIY haunters use is this product called Drylok, which is used to seal up floors and walls to keep moisture out for basements and such. Well the haunters like it because it adds a flexible hard shell that keeps the foam dry. They also like it because it has small particles in it and looks like stone when dry. So I went to Home Depot and bought a gallon for less then $25.00 to try out.

Magic in a can!

 I have been looking at using quick drying tile grout as I knew it would be hard, but it also added a ton of weight. And when I saw the Drylok, I figured if it helped keep the foam from getting mashed up and had a good finish, it was a win win for what I was going to use it for.

Foam canyon

So Thursday night I applied a liberal coating of the material with a cheap 4" brush and went to town. Now the Drylok is very thick and it recommends mixing it while working with it. I also dabbed the material on as opposed to painting it on as I could tell it would leave brush marks and I wanted a more natural look to it.

First pass on the canyon

 Here is a close up once it dried, which it was set up in about an hour, but I left it over night to dry all the way. It covered the foam very well and it has a very natural look to it. I also used the Grey color, they do have a tint able version for a few bucks more, but as I was going for stone, grey would work out very well and I may be doing some tombstones so grey was perfect. 

Close up once dry.

 So with it dried, I went to painting it. Now another paint method I picked up from the Haunters was what they call Tea Staining which is pretty much what we call washes in the hobby. But it gave me an idea, so I busted out some Americana Burnt Umber and a cup of water and started to wash it over the base grey, I liked it so much that I did all four boards with one container of the Burnt Umber. Basicly I watered down the paint and washed it down from the top and let it naturally flow down the cracks. Once it had dried I did the same with a black wash, followed by adding in some Raw Sienna. Once that was dried completely, I started dry brushing on Americana Mississippi Mud and Desert Sand colors to the rocks.

Top no dry brush, bottom with drybrushing.

Another close up of the painting with two boards stacked on top each other.

I was only able to get one of the four sections dry brushed and will be doing the others over the next few days, I will then be going in and adding some small details to the boards like clumps of dried grass and such.

Canyons coming along.

So overall I love the drylok and the painting, one thing that I can't stress enough, is to wait until the washed dry completely or you will get a muddy look to the colors. Variety on colors also, the more colors you add in the more realistic it starts to look.

TK