How I Built A Mountain with Toilet Paper And PVC Glue

                 How I Built A Mountain with Toilet Paper

                            And PVC Glue 

There are many techniques to use to cover your mountains and hills, like using plaster of paradise or paper Mache using paper and home made glue. I did give much consideration into using one of these two techniques, but the technique I finally decided to use, was toilet paper and PVC glue. And I am really glad I have. Because now it is finished, it is as hard as a rock but light like fibre glass. It was kind of funny at the time choosing this technique been as in this time when I had decided to start doing this, toilet paper was very hard to get and you had to que up to buy just one packet. And no I wasn't one of those people that had an abundance of it left over and needed to figure out how to use it up. Lol.

So firstly I had to consider where I was placing all the buildings and how the tunnel or tunnels were going to go. Once I had done that I then hot glue gunned some foam sheets around to give us a tunnel to work from. I also had to put a block of foam in for the Town Wall to sit on. This took my Hubby and I a whole weekend to figure out and build. Once all these things were in place then I used fly wire and scrunched it up while placing it on the would base and sides and using a staple gun my Hubby and I stapled it down. 

Once all the wire was in place and I had reshaped it a lot more it was time to cover everything with newspaper and glad wrap and plastic rubbish bags to protect the base and the tracks from a messy Pastel Lady, Lol. I used a mixed of PVA glue and water. Everyone recommended 50% water to 50% PVA glue. But I found that mixture to runny. Maybe the rest of the world have a thinker PVA glue but here in Australia it is already very runny. So my mix I used was more like 70% PVA glue to 30% water.  

First I started with layering one sheet of paper at a time, and then I decided this was going to achieve the effect of the boulders that I wanted. And this is also important to consider before you start. What type of mountain side you are after. Some want a mountain covered in trees and for this the flat layering is perfect for that style. Others styles have flat slate type mountains sides and others have cliffs hanging over. There are so many options to consider. I wanted ours to look and bit like the hills not far from were we live at Tooborack. It is a volcanic rock area and there are boulders the sizes of a house and just go for miles. They are pretty specular to see and this is one of our favorite places to see in Victoria. 

So I then started to roll up the sheets in to ball or boulder shapes and sticking them on the mountain side. Sometimes I used just one sheet of toilet paper and depending on the size of the boulder that I required I would use up to about 4 or 5 sheets. 

Then some times once I had stuck the boulders or rock face down I would them mold it to the way I wanted the rock face to look. Sometimes this would take a few goes until I was happy with the effect I was after. I also changed used a few different effects for different area because I had certain needs for that area and some effects just wouldn't suit that area. As you can see in these later photos. 

I did a section a day to give each section of the mountain some time to dry in between. 

One warning I would give you is if you are needing to build up an area, build it up a little at a time and give it plenty of drying time in between. I found that the section on the top of the mountain needed to be built up and I tried to do it all in one day. Only I didn't give it any thought that all that was under this section was a small amount of fly wire. When I came in the next day it obviously was way to heavy for the fly wire and not enough to support it and it had sunk. Fortunately it hadn't completely dried and so I got some foil and stick to support all the wait until it had dried. It still turned out perfect. 

Hopefully you have found this helpful. If you have any further question please feel free to ask.