Soldado's Burrows and Badgers terrain - Part the second! The Mansion of Marneous Blackwick!
Making the papier Mache goop
Here is a little guide on how I go about making the papier mache goop, this stuff has made this project possible for me especially as its really cheap to make.
Hopefully this is helpful to others with their projects.
So the first bit is to cut up your cardboard into a managable size for your blender, these bits are about 25x 15mm roughly. Beware, a small cardboard box creates a lot of goop, so dont go to nuts here unless you need lots all at once..
Soak the cardboard for an hour or 2, it helps I find to use hot water for this part
Blend handfuls at a time, do to much and you'll blowup your blender (trust me on this) use 1 part cardboard to 2 parts water in the blender, the more water the easier it will mush up.Imagine an image here if you will….
No image of this bit, after you blend it, pour it out into a sieve/ colander/ cheese cloth, whatever you’ve got.
Squeeze out as much water as you can until you end up with fairly solid brickettes.
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Take the brickettes and break them up by hand then stick it handful by handful through the blender again, this time without water.
Take the resulting damp mulch and mix in lots of PVA glue until you get a soft paste, its fine to have lumpy bits. I find that storing the mixture in a sandwich/ freezer bag in the fridge means the mixture keeps fine for a few weeks, just let everyone know its not Tuna mayo!.
So there you have it. That is how I make the goop, apart from soaking the process takes less than an hour all in to make enough to roof about 3 – 4 houses.
Dear me, how many blenders were sacrificed before the perfect ratio of cardboard to water was found 🙂
Only the one, which was old enough that it going bang could be blamed on age rather than the abuse i heaped upon its chassis 😉
Blenders like to spin fast, if its struggling add more water or take some of the goop out. It really isnt worth risking the wrath of your significant other to make terrain.
Holy hell, that is a lot of work, but the results seem to be worth it! I’ve never “baked my own bricks” in the kitchen, but have “cleaned” soil and sand for big desert tables and such … and yes … the significant other was less than pleased! 😮
😀 It really isnt all that hard, honest. The most I use the oven for is baking sculpey, the better half doesnt like the smell it leaves after its done.