Scratch Building a High Fantasy Gaming Board

[DintheDin]

"To achieve the effect of very thin water cascading down I needed something very thin and transparent, so I used Liquitex Gloss Gel, painted it onto plastiglass and once it had dried I could peel it off and now I have very thin strips of clear 'paint' which act as the base for the water. To get the shape desired, I will use strips from a clear plastic cup, these are great as they keep their vacum molded tensions, so once attached to the Gloss Gel I can bend the water down the rocks and it will keep its shape".

Perfect and inspiring idea!!! Cheers!

[Blackwolf]

Lovely work 
I've done a similar thing for water effects; painting the clear gel onto cling wrap and peeling off. There is  trout I did to for BSC 3 with the same effect,however photobucket has probably buggered that.

[Captain Blood]

That’s very clever. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out 

[King Arthur]

Hello!!

Sorry for the delay with updating this project, a combination of a busy work schedule followed by a refit of my hobby area then a family holiday meant that I forgot to update on a regular basis! Work has continued and I also had a re-look and re-think about certain aspects of the board, namely the flocking, I really don't like the flock as a ground cover, I wanted something more realistic, so I invested in a Micro Static Grass Applicator, more variations of weeds, tufts and foliage and set out to make it look like 'grass'......

Here's some pics of the progress:

For the final layers of resin, I will mix in some Jade Green to give the water some colour and to reflect all the greenery around it. Here's a layer with one drop of Jade mixed in.




Here's a look at how the static grass and foliage is starting to turn out:






I also received my order of Sage Brush to use as the base for the trees which will adorn the forested area to the left of the second board, the Sage will be the foundation, whilst sea foam will act as the smaller branches for the leaves to sit upon.







The Sage Brush will be coated in Pod Podge to both seal/protect it and to stop wood worms from turning my hard work in to a lunch buffet!!! Each tree will be pinned so I can take them out post gaming for storage and so I can move them around for some variety between games. The model is for scale, from Dark Sword and measures 32mm head to toe.

The next stage will be to attach the sea foam, colour it using an Air Brush to blend it all in and then start attaching the leaves. This first tree will be inspired by Japanese Blossom, so expect lots of pink!!

[Codsticker]

Your ground cover looks great- a nice mix of static grass 'soil and leaves.

[PhilB]

Brilliant terrain, love the water effects. I haven't yet dared to try doing water effects, maybe I'll try to imitate your methods. Inspiring!

[AKULA]

As Codsticker said, your ground cover is excellent - it’s the variety that makes it so realistic.

 

[OSHIROmodels]

Glad to see you're carrying on with it 

[Captain Blood]

The groundcover mix looks very realistic. Static grass applicator hmm? Maybe one for my Christmas list! 

[King Arthur]

The groundcover mix looks very realistic. Static grass applicator hmm? Maybe one for my Christmas list! 

Hi Captain!

I've been using the following on this project:

https://peco-uk.com/products/pro-grass-precision-micro-applicator?_pos=2&_sid=9903cfc8c&_ss=r

I really like the control you have with this smaller version, it allows for much more variety, with a larger applicator you run the risk of the dreaded 'Green Carpet' which is certainly not what I had in mind!!

As Codsticker said, your ground cover is excellent - it’s the variety that makes it so realistic.

 

Thank you! This was exactly what I was aiming for! With the smaller applicator I could really zone in on smaller areas and mix up the shades and size of the grass, for example on this board I have used both 2mm and 4mm and 4 different shades to break it up, coupled with the addition of flowers, soil patches, debris, weeds etc has given it its current look.

[King Arthur]

Thanks to everyone whom commented, your praise is great inspiration!

A big update coming your way now, first will be highlighting the Static Grass on the second board as complete, followed by the completion of the first tree!!!

Up first though is the picture of the final pour of resin mixed with Jade Green:



I have no idea why, but after this final layer dried, a few air pockets appeared..... bearing in mind I done 7 thin pours, I do not know how air pockets suddenly formed.... but fear not, I see an opportunity to add more details!!! Some Lilypads will be coming your way soon to cover the air pockets!

Now that the resin pouring is complete, I will soon be adding some plants and small trees around the pools edge. More on that soon,



I had some difficulties with the top of the waterfall, the main culprit being that the riverbed wasn't straight at all and all the resin wanted to fall to the left hand side..... you can see this in the picture as the build up is clear. My 7 year old daughter, whom is 'Art Director' for the project wanted the water to reflect a summer sky and asked that we do it bright blue, so I obliged  At a later stage I will add the 'fall'. I want to complete all the Static Grass first so I can do a clean up before finishing of the water.

Next up, you can see a comparison between the Static Grass board and the first board which had just the flocking, you can clearly see the level of difference and the reason for my decision to go ahead with the Static Grass.



The following will show you the completion of the Static Grass, Soil, Foliage etc:














I must say it was a most enjoyable process, very relaxing!

The reason I've kept to 2mm and 4mm Static Grass is that gaming is repetitive and the continued moving and placing of models would most likely flatten taller grass whilst making it difficult to stand the models properly. I wanted both a realistic looking board that was practical. I gave the entire area several coats of watered down PVA to seal it and harden it to survive the rigors of the battles to come 

Next up, a very big and very pink tree 

[King Arthur]

So, as promised, here's the first tree, inspired by Japanese Blossom. The first part of the process was to clean up the Sage Brush and coat it with Pod Podge. Once that was dry I attached sea foam to act as the smaller twigs and branches:









In the above pictures you can see the 'frame' of the tree completed. As the Seas Foam is a different colour from the Sage Brush, I mixed a greyish brown and used an air brush to cover all the areas where the two materials joined to give it a more natural look, I also used a light pink to dust the tops of the Seam Foam in case of any gaps in between the leaves.







The final stage was to spray small areas of the Sea Foam with 'Spray Mount' and then sprinkle on the leaves. I used a darker shade for the underside and then a lighter shade for the parts which would be in direct sunlight, I also mixed in some white to give it more variety. The models are also to show the scale of the tree.










To finish off the tree I applied two coats (24 hours dry time in between) of a Mod Podge, Water and Matt Medium mix, this gets rid of the tackiness from the Spray Mount whilst giving the tree a hard but flexible protective coat. Excluding the drying times for the glues and protective coats, the tree took circa 2 hours to complete.

More to follow soon!

[Tactalvanic]

Flabber me Gasted.

The attention to detail, and the quality of your work as always is superb

Looking at those boards reminded me of how much weeding in the garden I need to do tomorrow..and cut the grass to.

[Captain Blood]

Beautiful 

(I was going to say ‘peachy’, but then it isn’t quite )

Great attention to detail. And on a foam board base, you can’t beat a spiked-in tree for flexibility, stability and aesthetic appeal.

[King Arthur]

Hello fellow Adventurers!!

Fear not! A lack of an update hasn't meant the untimely end of the project! Far from it! I have been diligently working away in my hobby room and am happy to bring you the next update!

I completed the static grass and foliage cover of both boards now and am am extremely happy with the outcome! To recap, I used a mixture of colours for variation in 2mm and 4mm and then applied a liquid sealant to make the grass sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of gaming. Once done I took an overall look and decided that I wasn't happy with two aspects of the board, one being the foliage I had originally used on the hills sides and the foliage around the ponds edge, that in particular didn't look organic enough in both looks and placement, so I tore it out and went back with a mixture of colours and textures using various weeds, bushes, grass etc. Here's the results:













The next set of pictures shows the rework I done to the hillsides, the product I had in there before was a natural product, it looked great when first applied but even after I sealed it, it turned yellow and brittle, so I tore it all out and begun afresh, whilst adding in some weeds to the rocks. I also removed the white leafed tree that sat above the pond as I was not happy with how it looked, especially in comparison to the Pink Blossom, so that too was dully cut out and replaced with a nice looking bush....















Phew, a fun workload I can tell you! So now that the ground work was all finished, I set to building the second tree, same approach as the first one, using a Sagebrush as the base, then building out in small sections, the skeleton of the canopy in Seafoam. Once the glue had set, I used my airbrush to spray all the seafoam in a military field uniform green to tie it all together and help with shading once the leaves have been applied. For this project and other scenery builds I use a 'Makeup' airbrush, the one I have is made by Goacheer and is perfect for small batches of paint cover. I wouldn't recommend Makeup Airbrushes for working on models etc as the PSI is too low, but I have found thus far, on my scenery pieces, it is a valuable tool.











Simultaneously to the tree, I started on the woodland floor where this one will live. I want to give the illusion that this is a clearing in the midst of a vast wooded area and as such, 'off screen' there would be thousands of trees clustered around the playing area; so I want the ground cover to look like it's in shade, not much light getting through, so all the grass, weeds, bushes etc would be darker than the grass and foliage in the clearing. Once again I used the airbrush to cover the area in a 'US Drab Olive' to give it a darker tone.











And that's it! Quite a big update for you to digest but certainly a large amount of progress made. Stay tuned for more soon.

Cheers!