Quite a big terrain project (FINISHED! - 3rd October)...

[Captain Blood]

Hmmm. So we have a little lead adventurers' meet lined up in a couple of months time, and stung by the news that...

1. Wargames Illustrated may be along to take some pictures...
2. Jimbibbly - miniature terrain guru of note - is bringing his stunning Samurai game along...
3. Malamute's Tex-Mex town is looking more stupendously spectacular by the week...

...I decided that my F&IW terrain (see http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=10102.0) is simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH and will no longer cut the mustard in such exalted company.

Added to this...

4. A friend of mine saw a four-pack of 50cm x 120cm x 5cm pink styrofoam slabs in B&Q for 20 quid, and bought them for me. What a lovely chap...  

So I am going to use three of the slabs to create a new, purpose built F&IW tabletop for BLAM.
Three slabs will give me an area 150cm x 120cm (that's about 5 feet x 4 feet in old money - just right for a large skirmish game)

Right, so here we go.
Sorry, the pictures are just snaps, so a bit blurry in places - but you get the idea...

Step one. Think about the game area, and draw a rough plan which I'm then going to scale up onto the boards themselves...

Issues:

1. I have four Grand Manner 'Americas' log buildings I want to use - so the terrain will need to be designed around them...
2. I also have lots of individually based trees, which I'd like to re-use. So I'm going to need to leave some flattish areas for them to stand on... The whole thing can't be too undulating...
3. I'm going to include a river - obviously - but I need to arrange it so that each river section enters and leaves its board at the same point along the edge, so that - theoretically - I can put the boards together in different combinations...  

So, here's the plan...



And here are the boards, the plan, and the four buildings...



And now here's the plan transferred onto the boards with a Posterman marker.
You can see where I've started to sand out the river bed and trackways on the first board using a Dremel minitool.



I'm going to make the three boards one at a time, get each board to the primed stage, and then paint and do the scenics on the three of them all at the same time - which'll be in about 2 months time at this rate!

Right - onto board one in earnest then... I'm going to include a small gorge for the river to run through at one point - which will probably have a single fallen log bridging the chasm, for the helpless heroines to flee across from the savage huron...

The basic superstructure of this natural marvel is cork bark and blue foam...



Next, I've added the other lumps of high ground - yes I know they look clunky - but fear not, all will be neatly sloping and blended-in on the finished product.

I've also added the first field with fences created from matchsticks and coffee stirrers  
All glued into position at this stage, because I don't want to be trying to shove sharpened matchsticks through the crust of my filler and sand / grit / PVA hard surface...

You can see where part of the river bank is going to have high banks... I've stuck on some small pieces of balsa which follow the curve of the river. These will provide the structure to do this...



And here you can see how the riverbank is built up... Nice smooth muddy banks, filler applied with an old knife. And then what will be turf spilling over...



And finally - once I managed to get the right bloody glue for the styrofoam and the stuff finally went off - I got on with 'icing' the whole thing using ready-mixed B&Q filler - lovely smooth, sticky stuff this
Mind you, believe it or not, I've just used an entire 1.5kg tub on just one board...







And that's it for now...
If the filler has fully hardened by tomorrow evening, I shall get the first layer of sand / grit / PVA surfacing over the top, add rocks and so on, and will be able to see rather better how it's going to look... It always looks crap at this stage. You have to be able to visualise the end product you're aiming for...

Unfortunately, I'm then off on hols until the end of August, so nothing more will get done until early September.
But my plan is to have the whole lot finished by the end of September.
Quite do-able I think  

Will keep you posted  

[Sinewgrab]

I am sorry to be a moron, here, Cap'n...but what does F&IW mean? The terrain is impressive as hell on its own, mind you...

[Havok]

Mere Private here but F&IW = French and Indian Wars

[Bako]

Looks to be quite the project. I am looking forward to future progress.

It's stuff like this that makes me wish I had dedicated space for making nice tables. Envy I have.

[Wirelizard]

Serious case of table/space envy here, too. My landlady is an understanding sort, but taking over the laundry room with giant sheets of foam insulation would be a bit much even for her... 

The old 'inadequate' table looked great, but this looks to be totally spectacular!

[Calimero]

Still load of work to do, I can imagine, but it already look promising.

[Ray Rivers]

More table envy here as well.

About the only place I have to store large items is on the top of my head.   

Great start there, Capt'n, looking forward to further progress.

BTW... you boys are really going full tilt for BLAM.  Good Show!

[gamer Mac]

Very good start.
I will be looking forward to seeing it finished?

[Malamute]

So the race is on to produce the best looking table for BLAM.....

Its looking great so far, I like all the individual details like the fencing etc.

Can't wait to see it in the flesh.

Right now I am going to have to think about terrain boards for my project....

[Captain Blood]

So the race is on to produce the best looking table for BLAM.....

Yes, and it's all your fault 

[Malamute]

Yes, and it's all your fault 

[OSHIROmodels]

Can I play      

This is going to be really nice 

Can't wait to see it in the flesh!

cheers

James

[traveller]

Cool, show us more!!!

[Hammers]

You once stated that you are a competetive man, Richard. I say you are right! Wonderful project and knowing your other work it is bound to look astonishing.

Are you going to make it woodland or cultivated land? Perhaps a lot of tree stumps?

[Captain Blood]

You once stated that you are a competetive man, Richard. I say you are right! Wonderful project and knowing your other work it is bound to look astonishing.

Are you going to make it woodland or cultivated land? Perhaps a lot of tree stumps?

Cultivated in the middle, rough round the outsides - a bit like me 

I think I'm going to go with a few treestumps Peder. All ideas gratefully received. Keep 'em coming...

I am toying with the idea of forgoing my standard trees and inserting a load of new trees, because I think this is going to be a damn flash layout (he said modestly) and I think it may deserve new trees which look like they actually grow from the ground - including the hillsides. Which is a bit tricky with standalone trees...

I have now applied the first layer of Blood's patent gloop to board 1, and added a lot of loose stonework. I shall aim to post pics this evening. Then I'm off on hols for three weeks, so no more until beginning of September