Feldbahnmodule with ship

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@Lawrence, Bill, MJinTN, nk
Thank you for your great ideas!

Unfortunately, my attempts so far with real stones haven't really worked, because they end up being much too thick overall when I lay them out on a flat surface—as you described—and glue them from the back.
My maximum total height can't exceed four millimeters.

When Toni (who visited me with Volker in January) recently surprised me with a few pictures of his amazing, homemade stones, I naturally wanted to learn more about them.
A lengthy phone call provided some insight, so I got the ARDEX A828 and quartz sand he used. I already had colored pigments on hand.

Maybe I can convince Toni to present his method here as well?!

I took a slightly different approach and poured a base plate only 3.0 mm thick. I think Toni's mold was at least 10.0 mm thick.

Steinguss_Versuch_01 (fspg2)


The first attempt failed completely. The mixture wouldn't spread onto the thin plastic wrap I'd laid down underneath.
As soon as I tried to level everything off to the height of the 3.0 mm side strips using a flat spatula, the plastic wrap warped and everything shifted again.
A second attempt with a modified mixing ratio could only be removed after 12 hours, rather than after about 30 minutes as expected. However, the sheet was still relatively soft.

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On the third attempt, I increased the proportion of ARDEX A828 once again to three parts to one part quartz sand, with a little gray stone powder added.
The next morning, I was able to break the cast slab into pieces using a small pair of pliers—but it was still clearly too soft.
 
Steinguss_Versuch_03 (fspg2)



After 24 hours, there was a significant improvement in hardness.

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However, since I didn't want to wait that long every time and still have many more stones to cast, I started my next attempt with Creartec ARTEstone.

Three parts ARTEstone, one part quartz sand, and a little gray-yellow weathering powder from Rainershagener NATURALS. (Unfortunately, these products are no longer available for purchase!) Instead, you can use color pigments from various manufacturers sold in art supply stores.

This time, I used a 1.0 mm thin polystyrene sheet, onto which I had glued 3.0 mm thick polystyrene strips, as a casting bed.

After about 30 minutes, I was able to remove the cast slab by gently bending the base plate.
I was then able to break it into small pieces by hand. I used a small side-cutting pliers to trim the stone pieces to the desired sizes.

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To round off the edges a bit, I made an initial attempt using a slow-rotating wire brush mounted on a drill stand.
Even with a dust mask and disposable gloves, it was still a time-consuming process, considering the total number of stones I needed to process.

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So I put 20 small stones into the vibrating polishing machine.

Similar to what you can see in the following picture:

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After twenty minutes, the stones looked like this for comparison:

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Since I unfortunately don't know what type of stone was used for hydraulic engineering in Lauenburg around 1900 (basalt, diabase, granite, or dolomite), and since the real-life structure was demolished around 2007, I searched on Google and received the following suggestion from AI:

During the construction of the Elbe-Trave Canal (now the Elbe-Lübeck Canal) around the year 1900, field stones and glacial erratics from regional gravel and sand deposits were primarily used for bank reinforcement and the revetments of the embankments.
Wikipedia

Details on bank reinforcement
During the excavation of the canal and in the surrounding glacial meltwater channels, workers encountered huge quantities of glacial debris.
Lübecker Hafenrundschau

Source of material: The stones were quarried directly from the glacial moraine deposits of the region (Duchy of Lauenburg) during construction.
Composition: The material consisted of hard, Scandinavian primary rock (mostly granite and gneiss) that had been smoothed into rounded shapes by the glaciers of the Ice Age.
Construction method: These stones were arranged as so-called "armoring" or as loose stone fill on the embankments to protect the soil from the wave action caused by ships.

In exposed areas, such as near bridges or historic locks (like the Büssau or Krummeser locks), hewn granite riprap and traditional brick masonry were also used as supplementary measures.


They might have been granite stones that had been hewn.

I found the following explanation of the appearance of granite on the University of Jena website:

Granite is a massive rock with coarse crystals that belongs to the group of deep igneous rocks (plutonites). It is rich in quartz and feldspars and also contains dark minerals such as mica. The name "granite" is derived from the Latin word "granum", which means "grain" and refers to the granular appearance of the rock.


The layout has now taken on its basic shape. The Styrodur panels were covered with kitchen parchment paper and thoroughly soaked with waterproof wood glue to seal them.

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The first small stones I cast myself were loosely placed in a small corner to check their size.

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[lab-dad]

Perseverance!
I was thinking of something along your path for my layout.
I was thinking grout.
I love the little people. Especially the guy with the beer!🤣🤣🤣
MJinTN