Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Burgundavia on June 14, 2021, 05:19:59 AM
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So I'm creating a new mat for Sellswords and Spellslingers, complete with the the numbers of the side. I discovered the font that S&S uses is publicly available, so the mat will even have numbers that match!
A few months ago, while at the hardware store for more caulk, I found some Transparent/Clear acrylic caulk. So I grabbed a tube, thinking I could try it for making rivers or water in general.
I also own a 3D printer, so wanted to print a cobblestone texture roller to do a cobblestone road.
Lastly, I have been carrying around parts of two older mat projects for years - one done on the floor puzzle pieces and one on a large canvas mat, the latter since cut up into several smaller mats. Here is a photo of the older, foam mat in action:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/7018/6787673439_f631fa70ea_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/bkNAQp)Near the end now (https://flic.kr/p/bkNAQp) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
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First up, a whole bunch of caulk tests. I wanted to do river or stream with water in it
I tried seeing what the clear caulk looked like over a bunch of different paints, and if I could tint it with burnt umber or raw umber inks.
Here it is wet:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51246492494_107bb48de8_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m5tEPq)Clear caulk test 1 - wet (https://flic.kr/p/2m5tEPq) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
And when dry:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51245932423_06234a9588_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m5qNk2)Clear caulk test 2 - dry (https://flic.kr/p/2m5qNk2) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
Overall, the ink didn't work. The colours did lead my mind to future mats of lava or acid pools, however.
Second, I tried blue and green paint, plus the first attempt at putting rocks in the stream bed. This one failed too. The paint was too opaque. And putting the rocks in the undercoat caulk meant they got covered with the clear caulk, so overall this was a failure too.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51246787210_e6c2e2eea4_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m5vbqJ)Clear caulk test 2 - dry (https://flic.kr/p/2m5vbqJ) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
Third test I decided to try and so some texture in the riverbed. I chose a camel brown as the dirt colour and put both small rocks and gravel in the underlying caulk. But this riverbed ended up too shallow, as the caulk does settle some while drying:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51245932248_7dc8dfd9a3_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m5qNh1)Clear caulk test 3 - riverbed (https://flic.kr/p/2m5qNh1) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
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And now to cobblestone. I 3D printed a cobblestone roller on my Ender 5 (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3623845) and then set about to see what I could make. And like the stream, I failed horribly the first try:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51246504914_80ca15c329_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2m5tJvy)Failed roll 1 (https://flic.kr/p/2m5tJvy) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
What went wrong here? Lots - I didn't thin the caulk with isopropyl alcohol, I spread it on unevenly and then I had it on wax sheet as I wanted to peel it off.
I have lots of experiments and the beginnings of the mat to share, but will post those in the next few days. If you want more details about any of the above, ask away.
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My experience with paintable (acrylic) caulk is that whatever you are adding texture with needs to be wet. I did a number of roads and then used lego tires to add some tire markings. Wetting the tires throughout the project really helped. It appears to me that the caulk stuck to your roller. Thinning the caulk might make it too fluid to hold shape.
Oh, I also think I gave the caulk a while to rest before texturing. Let the surface dry out a little bit, but hit it before it sets all the way through. If memory serves, this was about 30 minutes of dry time before texturing.
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Ya, 30 minutes or so is needed. Less if you have isopropyl, as it seems to make the surface form faster
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It's fun to experiment even if doesn't always work. With regards to the clear caulk and water effects I seem to remember Geek Gaming doing something similar on one of his YouTube videos he got pretty good results if I remember correctly. On one of my gaming mats I used PVA glue and toilet roll to make a water effect.
(https://jonsotherwargamesblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/img_20200831_170915584.jpg?w=768&h=576)
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@Diablo Jon
That looks really good :-*.
I will try that (one day) lol.
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It's fun to experiment even if doesn't always work. With regards to the clear caulk and water effects I seem to remember Geek Gaming doing something similar on one of his YouTube videos he got pretty good results if I remember correctly. On one of my gaming mats I used PVA glue and toilet roll to make a water effect.
Is that flexible? That is a key aim for me - a mat I can roll up
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Is that flexible? That is a key aim for me - a mat I can roll up
I've had no problems rolling the mat up for storage since I made it. It is only six months old so maybe one day but so far so good. I put flexible caulk down first, then a two layers of tissue ( loo) paper and PVA glue, then I manipulated the tissue paper, while it's still wet, with a house paint brush to make water ripples, I painted it in acrylics and then added two layers of high gloss varnish. The whole water area is like rubber now.
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Onwards to more tests! This time, I was successfully able to get the cobblestone texture roller to work. I ended up adding a lot more isopropyl alcohol to the mix, which made it smoother and easy to roll.
overall, I quite like this texture roller, but using them on caulk is very difficult. You must have an even layer of caulk and the timing is crucial. The caulk needs to be wet enough to squish, but not wet enough to stick.
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That last painted river looks awesome! Great perseverance!!
Mike Demana
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/
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The first piece ended up too flat - the caulk by its nature flattens out a bit as it dries, so the lovely texture I put into it vanished. So I did a section piece that was thicker caulk, which worked much better. I also put more gravel and rocks on it. Overall, I was quite happy with this test pieces. Onwards to the real mat!
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Onto the border. I am planning on doing something like this old map - a sepia/brown border but with the same lettering as the Sellswords title font. My first attempt was not successful.
I 3D printed some borders and then stuck them down to the mat using tape and then put caulk over that. That part worked well.
After the caulk was dry, I used another 3d printed template as a paint mask. I've done this before with my test mat for a parking lot, but I glued the mask down and then airbrushed. For this I tried taping it down and then sponging it. Don't do that.
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With all my testing done, actually onto the mat itself. It will be 3x3, with a stream and a road that intersect at some point. So I stretch out some canvass on plywood using painters mat. In retrospect, I should have stretch the canvass better, as it is still loose in places. I then laid out the design for the mat using sharpies to plan it out.
I then grabbed some of my 3D printed buildings and laid out a bit of a village. The inn in the centre is from Z1 Design and I got it as an add-on to a kickstarter a few years ago. Most of the rest are from Dadi Dungeon Patreon. Well worth subscribing to his patreon if you don't already. I also cut out bits of the saved mats to be the larger parts of the grass areas of the mat.
After a few hours of printing, I had a full set of borders printed, so I laid those out on the mat and taped them down. Then I filled the space with caulk coloured with linen craft paint.
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This is a great project to follow. It is actually very helpful to see where you were unsuccessful as well as your successes.
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Valuable info, and great job!
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Been a few months, should document where I am now - the mat is largely done, I've got most of the flocking done.
First up, the mat with the road and stream down:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51519796641_a384edd3f9_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muCqBT)Base mat with stream and cobblestone done (https://flic.kr/p/2muCqBT) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
Overall, happy with this step, but the cobblestone was hard to it. I ended up having to do a third, thin layer and then roll that in the end. As you can see, I had to go over some places a second time and in some places it was either too dry or too wet.
Then I tested the final placement of the re-used mat bits, which actually ended up working out well too. (https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51520504899_01a4de48d8_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muG4ae)Testing placement of the reused mat pieces (https://flic.kr/p/2muG4ae) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
Lastly, the mat with most of the flock down and a couple of washes over the whole thing:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51520016668_7c17fe1441_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muDy2s)Nearly completed mat with most flocking down (https://flic.kr/p/2muDy2s) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
For the washes, I used a mixture of flow aid + ink + water, roughly a few drops of ink in a few ml of water. This flowed really well and when put over the whole mat, helped tie together the different eras/ages of mat.
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Right now I am working on final stages. I've already done some edge highlighting and dry brushing of the cobblestone. Need to do another wash on it. Then some rocks and static grass to hide some of the join lines between the old mat pieces and the new mat.
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Wanted to show two details that I think I could have done better with another cut.
First where the stream crosses the cobblestone road.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51520810650_489497b5b9_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muHC3N)20210926_090523 (https://flic.kr/p/2muHC3N) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
I always intended the cobblestone road to ford the stream here, but there are two parts I don't like about this. First, the rolled caulk here was too thin to take an impression of the cobblestone roller, so it ended up not having enough texture for my liking. What I should have done is built up the road outside the ford a bit more, so the layer of caulk could be thick enough to take texture and still be lower than the rest of the road. Second, the order of when painting and gluing of stone was wrong. I did the following order: cobblestone caulk, 1st drybrush, wash of whole mat, glue down stone, 2nd wash just on cobblestone, drybrush. I should have done all the washing and drybrushing on the road, then done the wash on the road, then the wash on the whole mat save the cobblestone.
Second, the crossing of the mud path over the stream. Again, supposed to be a path, but I changed my mind about what I was going to do here after I did the stream.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51519901806_43c465c110_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2muCXT5)20210926_090540 (https://flic.kr/p/2muCXT5) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
I started with a narrow path, that I intended to be just for people walking. Hence the big stones in the river on the right side of the ford. I changed my mind to do a wagon path, so doubled the width of the path. And again, the order mattered. I should have done the ford in the stream first, then the path around it, rather than doing the stream, then trying to retrofit a ford into it.
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While I was delayed getting my 3D printed static grass generator finished, I figured I would start on another of my long-term projects: a winter mat. So I did what I usuaully do - a 12"x12" test piece. Always good to try these things out in small scale, which I was very glad I did (and I let it sit for a bit).
So the start of the mat is brown caulk with some dollar stone foam stuck on. I did a random hex pattern in GIMP, imported that Inkscape, then to Silhouette Studio and then cut it on my Silhouette Cameo 4 cutter (a better Cricut)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51806883061_5025c272a9_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mVZPpK)Test Snow Mat 1 (https://flic.kr/p/2mVZPpK) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
Once that was dry, I painted it up - the stones grey and then the small lakes in a blue
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51807242984_e691bc5af6_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mW2Epj)Test Snow Mat painted (https://flic.kr/p/2mW2Epj) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
I let that dry and then flocked the whole thing with Woodland Scenics snow flocking.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51807610675_fa5de8030b_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mW4xGP)Test snow mat with snow flocking (https://flic.kr/p/2mW4xGP) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
Detail of the same:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51806997783_86c932b872_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2mW1pvH)Test snow mat detals (https://flic.kr/p/2mW1pvH) by Corey Burger (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coreyburger/), on Flickr
I really like how the snow flocking looks. It really captures snow to me. I ended up sealing the mat with spray adhesive and then spray varnish, rather than my usual medium + water mixture. This ended up being a mistake, but I'll get into that next time, as I need to take a few photos of my fail
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that's fantastic :-*