Sheer Cliff

Sheer Cliff 1 (13" x 7")

Sheer Cliff 3 (11" x 6")

Sheer Cliff 4 (11" x 6")

Click on thumbnails for details

We have noted elsewhere that the shapes of the rocks we see in outcrops and cuts are determined by the fractures and joints inside the rock.  Those are the surfaces where the rock likes to break, and what we see is what was left over the last time something broke off.

So what happens if there aren’t very many fractures in the rock?  Or if the cracks are there, but they’re really tiny?  Well, you end up with a sheer, smooth cliff with only a few cracks visible in the surface.  Truly featureless rock surfaces are pretty rare, though, so don’t try modeling cliffs like this with a piece of smooth masonite.

What you need is Sheer Cliff 1, our smoothest, thinnest, most sheer Rubber Rock.  Measuring 13 inches long and 7 inches high, it’s a pretty tall cliff in any scale.  We’ve included a little bit of “lip” along the top surface to show the top of the cliff.  But if you’re working in a really tight space between your track and the backdrop, you can trim the lip off, and produce a rock that can be attached directly onto the backdrop.  You will only need a tiny amount of space—less than a quarter of an inch—and you can curve the Rubber Rock to follow the curve of the track.  Don’t try that with plaster!

For a slightly more jagged appearance that still doesn’t take much space against the track, try our companion pieces Sheer Cliff 3 and Sheer Cliff 4.  They are nearly mirror images of each other, so they can be mixed and matched easily.  Both measure 11 by 6 inches.

Once you trim off the lip around the edges, all of our Sheer Cliff pieces can be laid out on rounded surfaces to create the glacially rounded, polished surfaces that are common in the Canadian Shield or in New England, New York, and the iron ore country in Minnesota and Wisconsin.