That's something I have not done before, so I was not sure where to start. Luckily I came across a Faller product which seemed to be exactly what I needed. Faller 170900 is a natural stone set for outdoor application. Let's give it a try!
The kit consists of several elements:
- a can of glue for outdoor application
- a bottle of surface sealing
- a bottle of impregnation
- six stone mats
- a brush
- a wood seam
- a user's guide
Content of the provided manual proves very useful. It allows an easy start even for people who use this kind of materials for the very first time. Reading it was a valuable lesson for me.
The stone mats come in two colors: light and dark. Three pieces of each are included. A single mat is 210 x 148 mm large.
OK, let's start the actual work on the tunnel entrance. Like many of my projects, this one also starts with an old pizza box. I used it to decide the shape of the entrance I wanted to build.
Once I was happy with the dimensions and the curves, I copied the pattern onto the two pieces of an insulation foam. This material is meant for covering the facades of real buildings, so it should do well outdoors...
Next I started cutting the shapes of the stones out of the provided mats. It was very easy to do just by using my hobby knife.
Once glued to the foam, they immediately started looking like a tunnel entrance. The result was nice right away. Unfortunately the glue turned out to be a solvent for the foam and damaged the surface significantly. But it did not really matter in the end.
Of course the outcome was not perfect. In particular - had I read the manual more carefully, I would have avoided the vertical gaps visible in the photo below. Still - the defects are barely visible from a distance.
I cut the remaining stone mats into rectangles and divided them into two groups, one for each entrance piece. That's when I realized I did not have enough material to cover the entire surface...
I had two choices at this point - either buy more mats, or improvise. I chose the latter and decided to go for an aged look. So my tunnel entrance will have only some of its rocks visible.
The rest will be covered with colorful ballast I normally use on my N scale layout. First I glued it to the foam and then secured it with the Faller surface sealing.
The last step was impregnation which I repeated three times. Faller 170903 included with the set was used for this. Here's the final result. Entrance #1...
...and entrance #2.
I was afraid the small ballast particles would not hold well. It seems however that spraying the sealing substance several times did the trick. Nothing fell off and I did not even have to clean the work area very much after I was done.
I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. Not bad for a first try. If the whole thing holds well over time I'll be very, very happy. Faller 170900 is definitely a very good product that can help achieve great results easily. There's not a single thing here I could complain about...
The installation will have to wait until spring. But I can already see it's going to look great on my layout :)
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