7mm The Sparrow

Giles

Western Thunderer
Hi Mark - that will look pretty good with a paint job....! I can't tell you how many days I spent carving - so doing it the hard way isn't for all circumstances - but since there's only a couple of buildings, it's worth spending the time for me. It's also a learning exercise which I value - so I don't begrudge it.

The house has all it's windows and a front door now, and in fact I've started making windows for the fisherman's cottage beside it.

 

Giles

Western Thunderer
Thank you Michael! The Das Stone does work remarkably well - better than all similar materials in my view. It remains carvable (in a hard way!) For three days or so. When it completely goes off its far too much like hard work. One wall I left too long and ended up removing all the Das and reapplying it to make carving viable!
 

MarkR

Western Thunderer
Thank you Giles, the DAS stone wall for the farm yard was applied to a wooden core, and then with a dental probe the stones were formed whilst the clay was still "wet", the attached picture shows the pig sty wall with added moss etc. Our grandsons nickname is Mole, so it had to be Mole Hill Farm!
Mark20210627_151527.jpg
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Hi Giles

Apologies if I have already asked this, but do you have any feel for the extent to which DAS is weatherproof?

I appreciate that if it was applied to a different substrate then it would be problematic, but if it were stuck to something like concrete then I would think that bit at least would be OK?

The particular reason for asking is that I am contemplatingr making my (outside) quayside siding inset into a "stone" surface.

Great work as ever, very believable.

Simon
 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Hi Giles

Apologies if I have already asked this, but do you have any feel for the extent to which DAS is weatherproof?

I appreciate that if it was applied to a different substrate then it would be problematic, but if it were stuck to something like concrete then I would think that bit at least would be OK?

The particular reason for asking is that I am contemplatingr making my (outside) quayside siding inset into a "stone" surface.

Great work as ever, very believable.

Simon

I've not tried it for outside projects but to me the DAS stone clay seems porous, so I imagine that if untreated it wouldn't cope well with wet and cold weather. That said, because it is porous, it will take paint etc well. I'd be inclined to do a test panel and, after painting, treat it with the stuff you treat bricks with to make them waterproof. Worth a go IMO.
 

Giles

Western Thunderer
Hi Giles

Apologies if I have already asked this, but do you have any feel for the extent to which DAS is weatherproof?

I appreciate that if it was applied to a different substrate then it would be problematic, but if it were stuck to something like concrete then I would think that bit at least would be OK?

The particular reason for asking is that I am contemplatingr making my (outside) quayside siding inset into a "stone" surface.

Great work as ever, very believable.

Simon


Hi Simon - thanks!

No - the Daz Stone will definitely not survive out doors.... however, the type of fire cement I used on the Denton Brook buildings probably will. It dries harder than cement and seemed impervious to water damage (though it will happily take water based paints). I will dig out which type it was....
The down side is that you only get about 30 minutes working time, so conventional scribing or carving is out, and once it has dried it is impossible! However, I took a latex mould from Slaters stone sheet and embossed stonework onto it, which was quick and worked well. It was very easy to work within drying time frames like that. Quoins, cills and other architectural details were rolled out like plasticene and applied separately which worked very well.....


 

Simon

Flying Squad
Thank you both for your replies, much appreciated.

I would be interested in the fireclay details Giles, I think that if I do inset the track then I would have to use a mould and repeat sections anyway because of the size of the job and its relative inaccessibility.

Simon
 

Giles

Western Thunderer
Allan Downes used to report that he had fire clay cracking off his buildings after a short time, so I believe he stopped using it. However, I've never had that problem, so I suspect that different clays have slightly different properties. I can only answer for the XL Fire Cement, which has been bomb-proof for me.
 

Giles

Western Thunderer
Today oi be puttin' slates on....... and its taken most of the day to do the small cottage! Granted that the house though larger is simpler, so it should only take the same time.......
I bought some dark grey card, but still ended up painting it in acrylics before lasering it into slate strips (Duchess size).

I think the 'flashing' will be cement on the cottage, and maybe lead on the house... we will see.. barge boards are needed at the gable. The cottage will not have rainwater goods, but the house will.

 

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Thank you John - extremely kind! They've turned out rather more work than I anticipated - but isn't that always the case!

Always seems to be the case with buildings, they are very much a time sink but one I really enjoy.
 
Top