Studio VI - Rock II
The final step of creating the stone is to cover it in cement. I went to he local Bunnings to gather materials according the the youtube video that I lonked in the previous post. The video suggests using a sand and cement mix to create mortar and then mixing with a black dye to create a darker colour instead of the normal cement grey shade. When I got there the worlers at Bunnings suggested that i used some sort of primer for the cement to ensure that the cement sticks onto the polystyrene.
I had to mix the mix and the black dye together with water to create the mortar.
I had to prepare the polystyrene by painting the primer onto it, this whole process of plastering the grout on had to be quick as the primer took 20 minutes to dry and if it did dry th whole process might take a lot longer to do.
The grout was then applied in chunks and spread to cover all of the polystyrene, initailly the colour iof the black dye was darker than expectied but as it dries it will get slightly lighter and I think it will look pretty good. To texture the stone i first used a hard bristle brush to cerate texture in the grout and then after i went over and patted the whole thing down with a scrunched up plastic bag to create a textured smoothing effect which was effective as it amde it look more natural.
This whole proccess took around 4 hours of priming the polystyrene and covering the stone in the grout mix. The back of the stone was another hurdle to jump over as it had to have a door to get into the batteries and circuit. i covered the door in smaller bits of polystyrene and then literally threw the grout mix onto it. The mix used for the door was more watered down so it stuck more effectivley.
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I think one thing I would have changed was to make the stone less boxy with the polystyrene, but I also didnt want it to be too large otherwise it might not fit into studio as it barley will fit through the door anyway.
Here is the top of the stone with the sword in it. I love it i think its super effective and it looks like a real stone.