"Stone wall problem solved" Topic

I asked for advice on making stone walls, and the base on which to craft them.
So, I asked the club Saturday night for advice.
Tongue depressors!
So, yesterday I bought a box of them at Walmart, some Gorilla glue (the foaming polyurethane kind) and a bag of cheap clay kitty litter.
Run a bead of Gorilla Glue down the middle of the tongue depressor, them pour kitty litter on top of it. I did 15 of them at once. After a few hours, dig them out.
I use Gorilla Glue polyurethane because it foams up and bubbles while setting, entrapping the litter. It's much better than white glue, cyanoacrylate or white glue because of this.
One bead is high enough for a 15mm stone wall. For 25/28mm I put another bead on top of the "dried" mess and poured more litter on top of it.

Since the kitty litter has lots of odd colors in it, I decided to paint them.
Spray with Walmart Flat Black, followed immediately by Equipment Gray and then a dusting of Flat White. They look just like a fieldstone fence now, and all I need to do is flock the edges.

That's 96" of stone wall for less than an hour's work, and $10 USD of purchased raw materials. This put hardly a dent in the kitty litter or tongue depressor supply. The Gorilla Glue was the only "expensive" part, at $4 USD for ~4 oz.
Two or three more batches and I should have enough to do a "Retreat from Concord" game along my latex caulk roads.

That sounds great John, I will have to give it a try. Do you think that normal pva glue would work as well?

Nice idea. I think I shall have to emulate a Congressman and appropriate it.;)

Tried it before sans the gorilla glue, did not work quite right but I will give it another try.

Tongue Depressers/popsicle sticks are god's gift to miniatures gamers…

John;
Nicely done. Now get back to work, please.

We need another 96 inches of fencing for the other side of the road…

Eric

Try silicone caulk.

I just completed my own with the following:

1) Sheet plastic for the base.

2) Balsa wood wall (about 1/4 inch high – rough cut for low places) glued down the center of the plastic sheet.

3) Silicone caulk (I used clear – next time gray) over the balsa wood.

4) Kitty Litter

5) Dip (actually brush).

6) Highlight gray.

7) Flock.

8) Seal.

The silicone caulk held in place (no running) and could be worked with the tip of the calking gun after it was down.

Vince

John,
I have found it pays to snip off the rounded edges so they fit together better. I also use normal pebbles from a landscape store. It is a bit of a bother to wash them off, but if you find the right pebbles they look like stones without having to paint them.

Sounds better than the way I did it. I used a strip of balsa, then sat down with PVA glue and small stone chips that I swept up into a bag the last time the road was being re-sealed – and laid the stones on top of each other.

Interesting idea – I have often wondered if Gorilla glue foaming could work for building terrain.

I have some in the shed and I'll try it soon.

Tony

Thanks for the tip John.
I also like Redcoat 55's idea of using pebbles, not painting needed.

I built about 25' of hedgerows using the same basic principle, but on the craft plaques of plywood you get at WalMart. They required mitering the ends, beveling the edges, etc. I also used aquarium, gravel.

PVA would probably work, but since it's water based, it might work. Also it does not foam up and entrap. You get quite a few layers of litter (or gravel) that way.

I got the foaming Gorilla Glue suggestion on TMP a few years ago. The guy was just putting debris in the corner of a resin building. I wanted to see if it would work for larger things.

Eric, this is so easy, I may just make "too much".

i'll even make a tub full for Cold Wars flea market.

As for snipping the rounded edges, I specifically did NOT do this, precisely because I like the way they join together at any angle you want.

Also…
Fieldstone is flat and gray. Clay Kitty litter particles are flat. More or less…
Pebbles are round.
That's why I did it the way I did it. YMMV.

Do you have a picture? I would like to see how they turned out.

Maybe later tonight. I'll throw some flocking on the edges.

Snipping the edges of tongue depressers also has other problems, they tend to bulge out rather than remaining flat

I may not have been clear about snipping. I snip them so they are triangular at the end, that actually leads to more ways they can connect, not less.

As to the pebbles, the ones I get are not round. They are literally just tiny versions of what we dug up when we laid out my father's yard many years ago. Availability may be a regional issue. I have not tried them with gorilla glue though. Kitty litter probably works better with it. I end up stacking tiny pebbles with tweezers, fitting them together much like a farmer might stack stones, I like the finished product, but it is more tedious. I will have to try the kitty litter/Gorilla glue method some time.

John;
Make a few more feet and I'll pick them up next time I'm up or at Cold Wars.

That's repayment for the KMM figures…

Finishing another 50 figures for Lexington and Concord tonight. We might be able to do 1:3 or better.

Eric

Tongue depressors are also known as Craft Sticks, and can be found at most $1 USD stores (either plain or in a variety of bright colors).

Got pictures?

OK…

Threw in some Hinchliffe, Dixon and Old Glory Minutemen and Fife and Drum's Spirit of '76 set for scale purposes.
Just remember that these are farmer's fieldstone walls, from when they have to clear the fields every Spring from what the Winter popped up. No one ever said that farming was easy!
This is the "2 beads" level.
I didn't flock the bases yet, obviously.

BTW, that is how much glue is left in the bottle from doing a thin bead of 96" … twice.
A third bead would be that much higher.

It took me about 2 minutes to lay down a bead on 16 sticks. About a minute to really cover the sticks with kitty litter.
Maybe 5 minutes to spray paint them.
Applying the flock will take… more time.

Seriously, it doesn't get much easier than this.

Those look fantastic John! I will have to try the pva though, as I donīt think Gorilla glue is available in the Beautiful Czech Republic. But thanks for the tip

Those look great. Thanks for sharing. :-)

Those did come out nicely John.

Thank you for uploading the pictures.

Matthew

Those turned out really well. Thanks for the idea.

I just did the first bead for 50 more sections. Took me 10 minutes.
The bottle is almost empty.

If Gorilla Glue is not available in your country, just try the glue section in your local hardware store.
The polyurethane should have that dark amber look in a squeeze bottle. The application instructions should mention "wetting" gluing and clamping.
Even in a dry and cold February winter cellar, there is still enough ambient moisture in the air to set the reaction in motion. The clay litter itself should have enough moisture to trigger the reaction. I just let them sit for a few hours after pouring the kitty litter on it. It's not going anywhere! I will do the second level late tonight, and spray paint them tomorrow norning.

I use the cheapest clay kitty litter. I have no need for the more exotic variety, with clumping and odor control nodules. There was only 2 bags left in the store, and that's no wonder. It's very useful also to keep in your car trunk for getting out of snow or ice.

Thanks for the info John. I know I have seen some amber glue on the shelves so I will check it out and see whatīs what.

My caulk walls look pathetic compared to these. Well, I guess it's off to Walmart for me later today. Thank you for posting the pictures.

Nice work, John!

John;
You are quite the man. Outstanding.

Eric

"Stone wall problem solved"

Solved!
Sorry I could not resist.

So I was at the grocery store and checked out kitty litter, and all the kitty litter in see through bags had round identical circles and many had some kind of green chemical painted on…

Can anyone suggest any particular brands for the fieldstone look?

Walmart has the cheapest kitty litter for around a dollar a bag, in a cheap paper bag.
You want clay litter. Few, if any "special features", like clumping, deodorant. Go basic, no frills. Cheapest.

John;
You are a Man Amongst Men.

Thanks.

Eric

Yes excellent stuff, thanks for that

Hopefully John your cat will not show interest in the new walls! Hehehe!

They look great! I will have to try this myself. Thank you for the tip!

Haven't had a cat for years.
Dogs are bad enough.

I used aquarium gravel for mine

Those do look quite nice.

While not walls, I have been working on some scale trees by Woodland Scenics – and tearing my hair out. I have followed all the tutorials on line and looked at past posts on TMP as well.

Just curious what people here do for 15mm trees in their games?