Ice board - Printed version found [07/02]

[AndrewBeasley]

Thank you for the kind words - I still have a long way to go with my skills compared to others here but I am loving the challenge.

So this weekend I added the first covering of snow - 2 parts glue, 1 part water and enough WS Snow to give me a slightly dry lumpy mix that a splatted on with a pallet knife:

As this is drying with no warps to date the blue colour is beginning to come out again - not unexpected as I planned to use scenic cement and at least two coats of sprinkled snow on top from the trials I did way back when.  You can see the odd rock - these are actually embedded in the snow / glue and will not be classed as an obstacle unless agreed with the other player (and as I play more solo than anything else this should cause the odd argument or two).  So after 36 or so hours in a cool room I have:

Not a perfect match colour wise to the first shot as that was day light and this artificial (need to push this through photoshop when dry to match them better) but this does show the colour variation from the thickness of the mix.

[Hammers]

It looks very good, Andrew. This  is going to be a very useful tutorial/project description in the How to... catalogue.

[aircav]

Looking brilliant 

[Papa Spanky]

Looking really good, the WS snow on the ice is particularly nice, reminds me of this:

[AndrewBeasley]

Folks - thank you for the kind words 

Papa Spanky - just sat enthralled by the video.  I have seen reeds / duck weed do something similar to a river before but never even heard of frazil ice before today.  It is spooky how similar that looks to the river - the pics do not do the model justice at the moment but what a sight the real thing must be in real life.  Thank you for sharing that with us.

[AndrewBeasley]

Despite a trip to the show at Recon on Saturday and getting the main tree up in the room today I have managed to add the next layer to the board.

First step was to cover the surface in a good soaking of Scenic Cement using a brush (flip got to go wash it - sorted) and then sprinkle the snow directly on to this from the bottle using the shaker and a small spoon in a light dusting (just enough to stop the UK rail network) and leave to dry for a short while.  A quick blow outside then remove the last of the loose bits giving me:

Softer cracks:

and the start of the white tops to the river ice

I think two more coats should do fine - a fair bit of the blue is now very light (except for one hill top) but I still need to break up the regular splotches on the water where I just dabbed the brush of glue and shook the flock on to.  The stones have blended in nice - though I am thinking white rock under snow do not look as impressive as black basalt rock!

With luck and work allowing I should get the next snow fall this week 

[AndrewBeasley]

Just found this:

Take a casting resin and fill your mould



Use a burr on a Dremel to create:



Add snow on top to give shape and form...

Pictures taken (without asking) from http://www.das-bemalforum.de/showthread.php?t=5260 (German thread)

[jamesmanto]

 
Why am I fantasizing about GZG Scanfed troops and hovertanks right now??

Lovely work and the marker really doesn't show, it just adds some interesting depth to the icey river.

[dijit]

Now thats looking very good. Keep up the good work
Duncan

[Argonor]

The ice in those pics seem to be some kind of 'modeller's glass' (Bastlerglas - have NO idea what material that might be  ), and he used baking soda and bicarbonate for the snow. The dremel was alledgedly used for adjusting the 'modeller's glass' to fit the surface of the water.

Interesting, if somewhat tedious, process.

I would not dare to use those powders for snow, as I expect them to get corroded by the moisture in the air over time, but I admit that it looks good just after being applied-

[zizi666]

I would not dare to use those powders for snow, as I expect them to get corroded by the moisture in the air over time, but I admit that it looks good just after being applied-

Even if you seal it ?
I would think a nice coat of glossy varnish would stop any moisture from interfering, or am I wrong ?

[Argonor]

Even if you seal it ?
I would think a nice coat of glossy varnish would stop any moisture from interfering, or am I wrong ?

I varnished some nap figs quite some years ago - and the varnish itself hat over time acquired a yellowish sheen over the white sections (probably all over, but it is most annoying over white). I have never varnished anything since then, save water surfaces 

I don't know - I'm reluctant to use any water-solluble substances on wargaming minis - showcase minis are not exposed to quite as much handling, but I don't paint/model such. For normal bases, I think fine beach sand mixed with glue, then painted white and drybrushed with clear warnish for the glittering effect is a much safer (and sturdier) solution. But every man his cake, as they say 

[AndrewBeasley]

Been a cold week so glue has been taking longer than I would like to dry but I have managed to get the board to the next stage in the build.

First two steps where to cover some of the dips with scenic cement applied with a brush and then sprinkle the WS snow (using a spoon) onto the wet patches and let dry.  This helps cover up some of the blue showing through and starts to add the texture.  Even though I started this bit on Sunday and it took till Friday to dry solid I have not gotten any pictures of these steps    The reason for using the cement rather than glue is that I do not want the dips to be completely filled in by the glue / snow mix now - just smoothed out slightly.  Using the wood glue / pva has a habit of lumping the snow mix together in small clumps even if it is watered down whereas the cement has something in it to remove the surface tension and the result is a softer / smoother covering than I can get with PVA and water mixed together.  It may be due to the very hard water (high calcium) we have here.

When the glue was dry any loose snow is blown off (do not wear a dark blue hoodie at this point) and the whole board sprayed with scenic cement using a fine spray and then the snow sprinkled on in a reasonably thick coat straight from the plastic bottle (using the holes not the pour slot).

As the snow remains on the surface of the board I get a result like this close up:

with the board overall now looking like:

You may be worried by the texture - as this is for skirmish I am not concerned about troop trays or sliding figures and find after another couple of coats of cement sprayed on these are solid.  Also remember each 'flake' is less that 1mm in size 

Turns out that the black basalt rocks I thought about using would have been a better idea than the white ones (well more accurate to Earth) but some of them are translucent and look rather cool:

I know folks have been commenting on the water (marker pen and all) but now the light snow is on the tops I am really happy with the result:

The next stages are:

To sort out the edging - I'm thinking a smooth layer of flex paste and light sanding to hide the pink / white / glue mix:

As for scatter materials I am thinking:

• Bare trees dusted in snow
• Dead trees with snow covering most of them
• A wooden bridge over the crack
• Bits of the ice sculpture on there way to me (big thanks to Chris Palmer for sending me a couple -TMP Link
• Little piles of rocks
• Ice sheet
• Bones - I have a few dino bones around so these will get cut up

I am avoiding buildings for now as I have a great reference on village life and may end up building another board next to this housing a small hamlet rather than the odd igloo.

Any one else got any ideas?

[AndrewBeasley]

First couple of terrain scatter:

Winter tree base using an MDF base

Coins blue tacked to the board where I want the trees to stand:

Not too deep on the flex paste:

But tidy up around the edge BEFORE it dries:

Them old Bones on MDF

Off cuts of a childs dinosaur skeleton kit:

Now to wait 24 hrs for the flex paste to dry 

[manic _miner]

 Try using silicone around the edges of the board andrew.Put it on then smooth it out with a bit of board or paint scraper.It will give a good protective finish.