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HOW TO MAKE 1/6th SCALE STONE WALLS
by Rob Sorrels
1. Items required: gravel, silicone RTV sealer (or caulking, or something similar), piece of wood as long as, and slightly wider than the section of wall you wish to build.
2. Glue the pieces of gravel to the wood using the silicone. Mix and match (like a puzzle) the gravel to give straight lines on the sides and eventually the top. The wall will get heavy enough to cause distortions if you try to do it all at once. Do about an inch or two high along the entire length of the wall and then let the silicone cure. Continue to add an inch or two in height every day until the wall is high enough. Caution: do NOT drop the wall on your toes!!! ;-)
3. If you need a really thick stone wall, use a piece of styrofoam and glue the gravel to the sides and top of the styrofoam. The wall will still get heavy but the styrofoam will help a bit!
4. If you fit the gravel together tightly, you can make a replica of a mortarless stone wall. If you prefer to make a replica of a wall with mortar between the rocks, make the wall as noted above and let the silicone cure. After the silicone cures, run a bead of Elmer's or another hobby glue along the joints between the gravel and then sprinkle fine sand over the glue. After that drys brush off the excess sand. You can get fine sand in different colors from a hobby store that carries supplies for sand art or model railroading.
5. Build the wall up to the end edges of the wood. This will allow you to make several sections of wall that will be smaller, easily stored and allow configuration changes for dioramas, etc. If you need to make a 90 degree corner, you can either make the corner as part of one section of wall, or make the wood ends as wide as the wall instead of a bit wider.
6. To finish off the sections of wall, glue dirt, model railroad ground cover, etc to the wood at the base of the wall. Also glue in a few bits of straw to simulate taller growing grasses, etc.
