Quite a big African terrain project COMPLETE!

[Aaron]

Good thinking Matt. I found a seller (turfgal773) on eBay US selling ten "sample pack" sets each with six varieties of 4-inch by 5-inch samples for inder a fiver with postage.

[Silent Invader]

I sourced mine from ebay, a supplier was selling samples as auction lots so I figure that you can buy guilt free!? I typed 'astroturf' into the ebay search and went from there.

Glad to have been able to offer inspiration rather than just steal it!!

M

Good idea.  I will have to look there to.

PS:  Wasn't trying to make anyone feel guilty, just didn't want the forum admin to get it in the neck! 

[Captain Blood]

Fair enough 

This morning's job was spray painting the boards with their base earth colour.
I mixed up - what I think is - roughly the right reddish earth tone using matt emulsion, then used a decorator's spraygun and compressor to spray the boards.

Starting with a dark verson of my base colour (added a splosh of black) and finishing with a lighter version of my base colour (added a splosh of white!).
With two intermediate shades - the base colour with just a hint of black mixed in, and then the base colour itself.

The boards have therefore had four successively lighter 'dustings' of paint over the black undercoat.

Although you can't see it very well from these pictures, the technique is to dust the paint on lightly enough so that it gradually picks up on the raised textures, creating highlights and giving the illusion of depth to the groundwork.

To achieve this, you need to direct the paint spray almost laterally across the terrain - rather than spraying directly onto it, like you would if you wanted to achieve a solid colour.











Next job is to paint in all the rock detail in a complementary stone colour, and to paint the kraal.

Then onto the 'greening'...

[Hammers]

I am loving this, Richard...

[marianas_gamer]

Damn impressive Capn!

[Thunderchicken]

That hits the spot Capt B.

Good to see you've got the weather for it too, it's constantly soggy up here in the Marches. 

[OSHIROmodels]

Splendid Richard, I never knew astro-turf had come on so much 

Coud you use the emulsion sprayer with watered down pva to take the shine off once they are stuck down?

I really wish I had the space you've got *jealous smiley*

cheers

James

[Wirelizard]

I am dribbling with envy here, my keyboard is at risk of drowning! 

Seriously nice terrain boards, the gully/wadi is especially great. Looking forward to seeing the 'greening' progress.

[Furt]

Seriously nice terrain boards, the gully/wadi is especially great. Looking forward to seeing the 'greening' progress.

Agreed that gully is awe inspiring and screams "Ambush!" to me.

It looks so real and very bloody good. - thanks for the in depth reports.

[Ray Rivers]

Geez...

So we have to suffer through another one of your "I'm building an awesome battle board" thread.   

Don't you ever blunder now and then?   

 

[Captain Blood]

Coud you use the emulsion sprayer with watered down pva to take the shine off once they are stuck down?

Yes. I'm going to 'brown down' the leaves quite a lot with a rough wash of paint, then give them a spray over with watered down PVA which should dry fairly matt.

Don't you ever blunder now and then?   

 

Actually Ray, all the time - that's why I stick to terrain boards like this, because basically, if something goes wrong, you can just bodge it / make good and it still looks alright.

I could never, in a million years, undertake the kind of precise miniature engineering / building modelling that Admiral Benbow, Jimbibbly and others excel at.
But hills? Trust me - they're easy. 

[cianty]

Oh boy, oh boy...

[Captain Blood]

After a hiatus of a few weeks, I've now got around to painting in the surface detail - mainly rocks, and the kraal or cattle pen.

I've shot these pics with the boards on a couple of ropey old decorators' tables - which is why you can see the joins! They should sit pretty well once on a proper level tabletop 

The rocks are drybrushed first with the original ground colour mixed 50:50 with a sandy stone, and then gradually lightened by mixing in a 'natural stone' colour, and drybrushing successive layers.
It's all matt emulsion.
















And here are a couple of figure shots for scale.










I have also painted the kraal, and added a quick and dirty scratchbuilt native hut (it's the top of a 2L Pepsi bottle, covered with fur fabric and string and heavily PVA'd).





There will now be another pause of a few weeks as I'm away on holiday until the end of the month 

Then onto the 'greening' - grass, scrub etc - and finally the trees. And then it's done... 

[Westfalia Chris]

Bloody marvellous. Too bad we'll have to wait so long for the grand finals.

[Silent Invader]

Wonderful work Cap'n.  An inspiration.

The ravine is gorge-ous!