Help w/making a prop

[Renegade Roper]

Looking for some ideas on how to make a "rock looking" gun table for the NYS match Heluva Rukus. We will have 1 stage where you place both long guns on "the rock" so we need to build gun tables that look like large rocks but are fairly portable (ie it doesn't take 3 men & a small boy to move em). One thought was to build a box out of wood & put wire mesh on the sides then find some kind of foam spray to spray on & make it lumpy looking & rock shaped & then paint it. Any thoughts on what we could use for spray? Some one also suggested to use large blocks of foam they use for foundations & either cutting them flat on top & then chiseling the sides to make them rock like or attaching the wire mesh & spray foaming them. Not sure what these are or where to get them. We want something 3 dimensional looking (ie not just a piece of plywood painted to look like a rock). Any ideas would be helpful. It needs to be wide enough for 2 long guns & high enough for the avg shooter to pick up their long gun. Thx! Roper

[St. Louis Suomi SASS #31905]

Howdy:

 

I think you are on to the solution. Yhe rocks in the zoos are nothing more than wood frames covered with chicken wire sprayed with concrete. Yoo Heavy for your purposes. Same idea using Styrofoam blokes and the spray foam used for insulation might work out fairly well, then paint grey or brown.

 

STL Suomi

[Wells Faro]

Right up my alley, 30 years of experience building scenery for theater. Big question is how long would you like the rock to be useful? First step build a basic frame out of 2" x 2" pine. Then cover and shape the frame with chicken wire. Here's where longevity enters, a short life span, plenty of paper mache! Medium life span, canvas or fabric covering coated with plenty of white carpenters glue. Long life span, fibreglass mat. Paint with various shades of grey latex paint. You now have a classic movie, stage prop rock. You may also wish to attach to a plywood base to give it lots of stability. Good luck, Wells Faro

[Renegade Roper]

Thx guys,

 

Wells Faro, these would be long lasting props. Where would I get fiberglass mat?

[Wells Faro]

Renegade, there will be a fibreglss outlet somewhere in your area. You'll need to pickup fibreglass mat which is a wooven material and some fibreglass resin and hardener and a couple of one time cheap paint brushes. Avoid sailing suppliers at all cost, the supplies will be twice the cost. I recommend you google fibreglass repairs if you are not already experienced. I also suggest you do the work outdoors. Work area must be very well vented. Pep Boys, Ace hardware also but once again more expensive than a fibreglass supplier.

[Grizzly Dave]

Do you use chicken wire under the fiberglass mat to form the bumps and such? Would crumpled newspaper work?

 

Interesting thread.

[Sedalia Dave]

You can get the Fiberglass mat and resin at any place that sells auto body repair supplies.

 

Word of caution. wear SPLASH PROOF GOGGLES not safety glasses when applying the resin. Reason being, if you get any of the resin in your eye you have instantly and permanetly damaged your eye. People use this stuff all the time not realizing that if you get it in your eye the damage is instantanous. There is no time to go to the sink and flush it out. So wear a set of splash proof goggles when working with the resin.

[Anvil Al #59168]

Never mind.

[JudgeBagodonuts]

You can buy fiberglass mat from places that sell boating supplies.

 

I make a lot of stuff that sits outside for a month every year, in full Pennsylvania fall weather. Rain, snow, freeze, and heat. I've built rock columns that are as good as the day they were made 8 years ago. For those, i used a 2x3 frame, unfaced construction foam, and spray foam. After sculpting, i paint with latex paint. Do NOT use spray lacquer. It will dissolve the foam!

 

For your application, because the long guns are going to sitting on top and the shooters might not pick them up daintily, I'd suggest using fiberglass, at least on the top surface, with sculpted foam underneath. Make sure the mat is tight to the foam before you put the gel coat on. If its not tight, it will crack with use.

[Palmetto Traveller]

Why not just go to a local plumbing distributor and get one of those fake rocks they sell to use as a well pump cover? We used one as a staging table at the recent SC State Championship match. Worked very well.

[Matthew Duncan]

60 years ago we would blow up a ballon. Then we dip strips of paper in paste and lay the strips on the ballon until ballon was complete covered. When the glued dried the ballon was covered with a hard shell.

 

Why not substitute the ballon with chicken wire shape like a flat topped rock? Dip strips of paper in plaster of Paris and cover the "rock" with the strips. When plaster has harden, paint.

 

Before covering the chicken wire add some bottom weight to keep the rock stationary.