Fake Runestones, anyone got any ideas?

Discussion
1

Hello!

I’d like to make two Runestones (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runestone) out of something . they are For a set dressing at a festival so they need to be as portable as possible.

Also I’d like to make the runes on them glow. I’m fairly sure that’s simple with LEDs but what’s a good way to make the actual stones?

They need to be as large as possible, stable (pegs are allowed) and fit when packed down into a space no larger than a coffin - not an exact measurement, just roughly the amount of space they can take up in the van)

I was wondering if fibreglass is the answer but it’s quite expensive in materials right? Is there something cleverer? A sort of tent stretched over poles with textured/painted fabric?

2

Maybe this will be useful

What’s the festival?

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3

This looks bang on, if not super portable - the use of concrete is off the table.

Runestones will be for this - https://www.lorientrust.com/

4

Nice- I’ve not played LT, I play Empire and Eyelarp

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I’ve heard such good things about Empire from so many people, maybe this year I finally go along.

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Join us!

7

There’s a nice Kit Fair happening in Feb in Gloucester btw - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whats-your-game-2024-tickets-720902437597?aff=erelexpmlt

8

I’ve stumbled across ‘fabric medium’ + acrylic paints now, I wonder if it would work. See example here.

9

Depends on what you want to use it for - how hard wearing you want it to be. The youtube channel i shared also does tombstones out of foam that might be useful

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10

Joins will always be your enemy if it needs to pack down, so the fabric on a frame idea could mitigate this. But it might flutter in the wind.

I would normally have hot wire cut and carved expanded polystyrene and then coated in jesmonite. With a layer of fibreglass if you want it to last a long time. I’ve not tried with a textile like Hessian or a scrim but that could also work.

Jesmonite is water based and not as nasty as epoxy & fibreglass, lots of stone versions. The retarder to make it set slower can be useful. You can probably carve into it to make the grooves, the dust like any dust isn’t good for you (check the data sheets).

If you don’t want to use polystyrene you could make a frame from metal armature, or plywood from the CNC, perhaps a mesh (chicken mesh is hard to use), and then cover in fabric/fibreglass. It will end up heavier and probably use more virgin material IMO.

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11

If you want a super rough texture you might want to use something on top of a jesmonite shell. I’ve not used them but these sorts of things exist, I’ve seen them used for concrete textures which is different
Plaster Fill
Flexible Fill

You could try a scrim on top of polystyrene + PVA. Again I’ve not tried this myself, and I worry about durability and the stone finish, but much cheaper.

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