It's time to start making some kind of scenery for my Motion Design project, and the task at hand is making a mountain that can be manoeuvred by my character who is going to steal it.
I needed something light weight, relatively quick and easy to work with, and not too expensive. Luckily those Technician guys who are hidden away at the back of the University campus in a dark corner and often ignored because most people don't know what they do, had some great tips. Somebody should really make a feature out of those guys, they're really useful.
I decided to use blue insulation foam which is apparently used on building sites, and can be cut easily using a hot wire. I stuck 3 sections of the foam together using double sided tape and used the hot wire which is like a desk mounted saw, to cut a basic triangle shape. When I got the piece home I began to use sandpaper to rough out a better mountain shape (this was a very dusty process).
When I was happy with the shape I coated the whole thing in a mixture of PVA glue and water that I brushed over the whole thing using an old brush. I had experimented previously with aerosol spays on blue foam and foam that it sort of bubbled and went soft, so I decided that the PVA might seal the foam. I then painted the mountain using Games Workshop paints diluted with water. These were just the paints I had to hand, and I think they are acrylic based, but other types of paint might have worked just as well.