Actually it was mostly saw and sand! But it worked...
Once set the material is fairly easy to work with. The outer skin is crusty , whilst the inner surface still retains a slight spongy quality.
So after a bit of work, we are back to this...
I had to be little careful during trimming so I didn't cut the ends off the uprights, just still visible poking up through the surface.
OK next job will be to clad the sides of the board in more MDF, for rigidity and strength and then skim coat the whole top surface in polyfilla. After that sand flat and smooth and, well... I still want a cobblestone pattern over the whole board... and am still leaning towards etching a pattern in with the dremel... it will probably take an age, but should look good in the end...
Cobblestones
I haven't found a cost effective way of covering the board in a suitable pattern. Several suppliers do cobble patterns in pre-made pieces or molds to make yourself... but these cost the earth in pre-made pieces to cover this size of board, or the rubber latex mold making material and then casting material will all add up and probably end up taking just as long to cast it all and fit it all together...
So I think the dremel will be the cost effective way to go... time will be the only factor...
Smoke
On the smoke making front I have run into a slight problem - getting the dry-ice. BOC in Wellington sell it, but thats 50kms away, and they are only open Mon-Fri , the same days I work. When I am free to go down at the weekend to get it, they're closed... what a pain! Shame I can't just nip down to the local store and grab a pack when I need it... curses! Plus even if you can get it, its time sensitive stuff due to storage conditions... it literally goes off. You cant keep it in the domestic freezer either as it could knacker the thermostat... it seems really a buy and use immediately type thing, which is tricky with the supply situation here...
I looked at another way... CO2 fire extinguishers can be used to make dry-ice; just wrap a pillow case tightly round the nozzle and set it off, the pillow case catches the dry-ice formed coming out the end. But CO2 extinguishers are not cheaply or locally available either...
So I am now exploring smoke machines... these things seem to run on 'fog juice' which seems to be a mix of distilled water and glycerin, both of which I can get from the pharmacy. Heat this mix up and it gives off smoke vapours... I'll have to have a play about and see what I come up with...
I have also made a start tonight drawing out plans for the corner pub/tavern... Just need cutting the bits out of the MDF sheet now and start putting it together...
[UPDATE - Millsy suggested split peas for cobblestones so I went to grocery store to have a look. I thought the split peas were too big, but did find some red lentil that looked a smaller better size - I'll have a play with these]
