MoonROCKer

Welcome back to the Welland Garden Club, a project by the S2 Underground to showcase the tech and build the equipment you might need when conducting operations. Out of all of the cool real world gadgets that have been used by spies over the years, one of the longest lasting and most useful is the fake rock. Hollowed out rocks have been been used for decades for a variety of uses. During World War two, agents of station nine, the real world inspiration for Ian Fleming's Q Branch and also our namesake, invented many different kinds of fake rocks. One of the most useful and widely used was a fake lump of coal that was actually an explosive device. OSS and SOE agents were meant to take this fake coal device and throw it into the coal stockpiles and coal bunkers in Axis occupied Europe. This way, when it was thrown into the furnace. of an unsuspecting locomotive or a ship's boiler, it would explode, eliminating a critical wartime asset. In modern times, we don't have much use for these specific types of devices anymore, but fake rocks are most certainly useful in other fields. A good example of this is the clip from the intro to our tradecraft videos. This is a British MI6 agent getting most certainly useful in other fields. A good example of this is the clip from the intro to our tradecraft videos. This is a British MI6 agent getting caught recovering a fake rock from a Moscow street in 2006 , a rock that served as a digital dead drop for assets and handlers to- Walk by and transmit messages too with a device in their pocket without ever actually having to physically interact with the device. Of course, this case officer was caught recovering this rock to change the batteries, but that's a topic for another day. Today, we are going to make a realistic looking fake rock that will stand up to multispectral surveillance. And here's what I mean by that. In the modern world, counterintelligence agents have gotten quite good at their job, and as a result, the papier-mâché rocks of the golden age of intelligence tradecraft don't cut it anymore. Anymore. The camouflage detection sensors that are out in the world today make short work of finding man made objects in nature. We now have things like multispectral imagery, synthetic aperture radar, and infrared or thermal imaging systems which can easily tell the difference between the heat of a rock that's been sitting in th etic aperture radar, and infrared or thermal imaging systems which can easily tell the difference between the heat of a rock that's been sitting in the sun all day and a foam or plaster rock that doesn't have the same light reflectivity or thermal signature. So the rocks that we're going to use will be made of concrete. This will mimic the thermal signature of a rock by an acceptable margin. In other words, if you were to place this rock out in the natural environment and try to find it with a fleer or other thermal device, it really won't stand out when compared to other real rocks. Also, concrete is really cheap, and it's easy to obtain anywhere on the planet, so it's easy to make many fake rocks in practice, improving your rock-making skills over time. This also means that this kind of device doesn't rely on expensive or hard-to-find materials that are easy to trace to a single source should your cache be discovered. And like I mentioned, having the ability to make Making your own custom rocks is great because you can make so many different sizes and shapes. You won't ever have two fake rocks that look alike, every single one will be unique, just like real rocks. Plus, since you different sizes and shapes. You won't ever have two fake rocks that look alike, every single one will be unique, just like real rocks. Plus, since you can make different sizes, you could make rocks that are very small, essentially just more realistic versions of the popular hide-a-key, or you could make rocks or really boulders that are large enough to hide a person if you wanted to. You could make fake rocks that house very sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment or rock- That are simple caches for gear. You can also get different grades of concrete to simulate different textures, and you can also get various concrete dyes and even natural pigments with which to change the color of your rocks so as to better match their environment. So the sky, or rather the ground, is the limit for what you can do when it comes to making your own fake rocks. So let's get to the build. Now, 1st off, there are endless ways to make fake rocks, and we are just going to show one particular way of doing it. So feel free to experiment on your own and vary it If you find a better way of doing it, or if you don't have the exact supplies on hand that we are using, the 1st step in making a fake rock nd vary it If you find a better way of doing it, or if you don't have the exact supplies on hand that we are using, the 1st step in making a fake rock is to determine what you are going to be using it for. This will determine the size of rock that you make. For demonstration purposes, we are going to make this rock on the smaller side, such as for concealing a few small flash drives or something else of similar size. So once we've got an idea of what size rock we need, we can start making the mold. In this case, we are going to make a positive mold from We are using this for a few different reasons. For one, it's easy to use and cheap to find at pretty much every hardware store in the world. Also, we tend to use it for other trade craft purposes, so we always have a couple of cans of this stuff lying around. If you don't have access to this kind of product, you can use whatever you have on hand to make a positive mold. We've had great success with using things like old cardboard boxes that can be used to form the general shape of the rock you are trying to make. But the easiest way to do it is with this As it will allow you to make the concrete coating as thin as needed, so that it rock you are trying to make. But the easiest way to do it is with this As it will allow you to make the concrete coating as thin as needed, so that it's thick enough to be sturdy and work, but also light enough to carry to the in- placement site. So we take the spray foam insulation and squirt it onto a sheet of wax paper so that it doesn't stick when it dries. Be careful to use the straw that comes with the can and let the foam naturally flow the way that it would, gently coaxing it into the general shape and size that you want. As you can see, it would be helpful to leave the straw as deep inside the mass of foam as And so as to let everything expand into a more natural shape, and make sure to not use too much foam as it will expand quite a bit as it dries. Once you've got the general shape of your rock completed, let it sit to dry for about 24 h . Depending on how big your fake rock is, it might take longer. Bigger rocks obviously take much longer to cure and solidify on the inside. Also, we usually tend to make a batch of several rocks at once. If you've got enough foam in the can, it just makes things a bit easier when deciding what rock to use Your foam rock mold is dry, you rocks at once. If you've got enough foam in the can, it just makes things a bit easier when deciding what rock to use Your foam rock mold is dry, you can cut off any bubbles that may have formed during the drying process and make sure that your rock mold has a nice solid base. Now some people who have tried to make fake rocks before, such as in the acting and prop making world, will tell you that this is the final step, and sure you can stop here and just use the foam mold as your final rock, spray painting it of course to match the environment. However, these rocks are not only not durable for long term use, but they are easily spotted with a thermal sensor, so they're not really ideal. deal for most serious use. Next up is making the actual rock, and here's where you might discover any design flaws in your rock creation. What we are going to do is mix up some concrete and then slather it all over our foam mold, making sure to build up a sufficiently thick coating over the entire mold. When mixing the concrete, it is super important to mix the concrete a little drier than normal, about the consistency of peanut butter if you can. This will highly depend on what kind of concrete yo to mix the concrete a little drier than normal, about the consistency of peanut butter if you can. This will highly depend on what kind of concrete you use, so it's best to get your hands in there and make sure the texture is good. Also, if you bought concrete that has little rocks in it, like most concrete does, there's no need to remove them, you can just pat the concrete down with your hands and make it a smooth surface. Also, don't forget to mix in any dye or pigment that you might need to make your rock blend in a little bit better. I should also mention that you don't necessarily have to use concrete, you can use other materials like masonry mortar if that's all you have access to, really any concrete-like binding substance will work just fine. Depending on the types of rocks you are trying to mimic, You might need to mix a few different concrete or mortar mixes together to create different textures, but always keep in mind that you might not be able to mimic certain kinds of rocks with this method. And finally, if you are planning to use your rock to conceal a camera, don't forget to leave a little hole in the concrete for the lens and/or motion sensor. This makes it much ea ing to use your rock to conceal a camera, don't forget to leave a little hole in the concrete for the lens and/or motion sensor. This makes it much easier when the concrete dries, since you don't have to carefully knock out a hole afterwards. Once your rock has dried and has cured overnight, you have a few options. You can't just leave it like it is and cut Foam on the bottom to store whatever you need, or you can pull out your foam mold with a knife or a pair of pliers, depending on how stuck it is. Even though it's kind of finicky and a little bit time consuming, we prefer this method since it allows us to take advantage of all of the space inside the concrete shell and not just a small portion. But you might want to leave the foam in there if you're trying to hold a camera or something. It's really up to you. Also, remember that this particular design is for a rock that has an open bottom, so if Around, you might have to cut and modify your mold a little bit, or make two different rocks that you can glue together later. But whatever you decide to do, your rock is pretty much complete. If you so choose, you can apply various concealment techniques to your rock, which helps blend r you decide to do, your rock is pretty much complete. If you so choose, you can apply various concealment techniques to your rock, which helps blend it into its home environment. A great product to have on hand for this task is crafting adhesive, which is useful for a whole host of trade craft. But in our case, we can spray our rock all over with this adhesive, then using dust or debris gathered from the natural environment. coat the rock so that it reduces the shine of the concrete and also adopts a more natural color temperature. Dust is a great way to convey age. Humans see something dusty, no matter what object it is, and they think that it's been there a long time, so you can definitely take advantage of this when camouflaging your rock. If you wanted to, you could go the extra mile and place the rock in a similar environment to the one that it will be in placed in, so that it can get naturally weathered on its own. You could even grow moss or other vegetation on your rock to make it natural, but obviously these extreme camouflage measures take a long time to be beneficial. So there you have it, your own clandestine geologic tool. If you thought that this is interesting, or i ge measures take a long time to be beneficial. So there you have it, your own clandestine geologic tool. If you thought that this is interesting, or if you have any ideas on how to improve this technique, let us know in the comments below, and make sure to check out our other videos and all of our other platforms listed in the description below. And a special thank you to our supporters on Patreon that directly make it possible to bring content like this to everyone. And as always, fight in the shade.