Anyone Making Sand Dunes? If So, HOW?

[Cacique Caribe]

Do you have plans to scratchbuild sand dunes? If so, what types (domed, barchan, parabolic, etc)?

And, most importantly, HOW do you plan to make them?

Thanks

Dan



https://opengeology.org/textbook/5-weathering-erosion-and-sedimentary-rocks/dunetypes/

https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/anyone-making-sand-dunes-if-so-how/

[SotF]

Can't find it now, but there used to be a pretty good tutorial on them for Star Wars back when WotC had the license. The site's been MIA for a long time now, it had a lot of great papercraft and terrain things for the RPG, I believe the site was called bluemilk...

I did use a variant of their dunes tutorial to make snow drifts.

Used a very stiff hard cardboard thing that my mother had grabbed from the school she worked at which was going to be tossed, then added foam to the top and carved it to shape the crescent shape with the steeper side interior for it. Hit that with some watered down patching plaster to smooth it out and work in the little bits of patterning I wanted. Painted it with applebarrel's larger bottle white, followed that with some thinned down blue and green inks followed by a drybrush of a more stable white (The larger bottle applebarrel tends to work very well with taking in the inks and washes similarly to washes for leopard spotting), and added a fine snow flock glued on via high gloss polyeurethane.

For sand dunes, swap the paints/washes/inks to the more sandy look and put a very fine sand on before painting to have the right look.

Theoretically, you might be able to swap the sand for a layer of finer grit sandpaper.

But the big thing for snow drifts and sand dunes is to get your basic shape correct...

[Digits]

Having spent time in the North African desert and different deserts in the Middle East...I can say there are many different looks.  However, it’s fair to say deserts being so big, you can go sometimes hundreds of miles and only see the same type/ shape of dune.  And some dues are massive!

For gaming purposes, I’d be inclined to only represent one or two dunes but maybe scatter some rocks etc onto the board.  A bit more interesting to the eye and more gaming opportunities for cover etc.  Also rocks act as a sand trap so sand swept to the one side of the rocks (as if about to trigger the growth of a larger dune) but allowing the shape to be a little less uniform on the exposed rock side. 

Be interested to see what you come up with.

[Mindenbrush]

I would agree with Digit’s description.

I frequently drove from Tel Aviv to Eilat during the early 80’s and the Negev desert - if I remember correctly as had been 40 years - was reasonably flat, very little in the way of dunes but loads of rocks everywhere.

[has.been]

Amera do some nice vacuum moulded ones.
Also some nice adobe buildings. Worth a look.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I think they would be easy to make in XPS (hard polystyrene foam).
You could cut them with a hot wire cutter or a serrated kitchen knife and then sand to get a smooth shape.
Then coat with PVA and fine sand.

[Bravo Six]

Dan, looks I posted a similar topic 10 years ago! 

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=32313.0

[Cacique Caribe]

Dan, looks I posted a similar topic 10 years ago! 

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=32313.0

Looks like great minds have the same problems!  Lol.

Dan

[zebcook]

I made some quick beach dunes for a Salerno landing game by cutting scrap pieces of insulation foam with a knife and then sanding them to round out the edges. I tried to leave a flat crown for ease of mini placement and made a couple of different lengths, some straight, some curved. Sealed them with a hardening plaster mixed with grit and a base house paint then dry-brushed over that. Quick, cheap, and acceptable.

[Cacique Caribe]

Has anyone here ever try making these?

https://www.minesroadbooks.com/alphalandforms.barchansanddune.html

Dan

[Pan Marek]

Cacique-
I haven't, but I might give it a try.  My  concern is that one would need to make it out of cereal box cardboard or heavy paper, and such might get all "ripply" or "saggy" when painting it or coating it with PVA.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

I think they would be easy to make in XPS (hard polystyrene foam).
You could cut them with a hot wire cutter or a serrated kitchen knife and then sand to get a smooth shape.
Then coat with PVA and fine sand.

Yup, that's how I'd do it as well. Alternatively: Cut it from hard foam, put it underneath a desert cloth mat.

[Bowman]

Has anyone here ever try making these?

https://www.minesroadbooks.com/alphalandforms.barchansanddune.html

Dan

Hey Dan,

Honestly zebcook's way of building them is the easiest and you can build any of the complex shapes you want. A dedicated wire foam cutter makes it even quicker. Just wear a mask when sanding or do it outside.