Ice board - Printed version found [07/02]

[Hammers]

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.

Really? Paint doesn't sick to silicone, in my experience.

[dampfpanzerwagon]

The Ice Board is looking great.  I also like your use of the plastic skeletons - I have some, somewhere in the shed, but didn't want to use the whole skeleton. Cutting them up may be the answer.

Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

[6milPhil]

That's quite stunning, the snow is looking really good in the latter pics - good job!

What's this flex paste you mention?

[manic _miner]

Really? Paint doesn't sick to silicone, in my experience.

 When I mentioned silicone it was for the foam around the edges to help protect it.No need for painting.

[AndrewBeasley]

What's this flex paste you mention?

Its a filler designed for foam made by Woodland Scenics (WS Main Page)

Its a very creamy white smooth paste (like very thick PVA glue) that you can spread with a pallet knife and it sticks to everything, especially fingers (takes the prints out) and material (black fleeces for example).

When spreading it can peak letting you create waves for later painting and takes acrylic very very well:

I also have used it to top nuclear explosions:

Once dry its solid and you can sand it and never seems to shrink or crack.  Even though it sands it remains reasonably flexible so no issues with wood seen to date.

Main problems (other than the fleece covering) are that it does not fill gaps that well as it can take a couple of coats to hide dints and joins well and the slightest lift creates a peak!

[AndrewBeasley]

Not sure this is going the way I want.

For some reason the WS Scenic Cement is reacting with the laser cut burns and tinting the edges a slight yellow in some places.  This is despite me painting it and covering in Flex Paste  after sanding it down...

I also did not match the colours in my haste to try these new pre-cut shapes - I used plain white and flock rather than the blue and though I can live with the colour difference I do not like the whole idea of the movable terrain for this board.  My feeling is that they are too large and more suited for a 2x2 board rather than this one.  The picture above is the smallest piece and it dominates the whole board when placed!

I think I will just add a random bit of scatter into the board itself rather than have it removable (except for the trees that will be up-rootable if that's a word)

[AndrewBeasley]

OK - scatter bits dumped in the bin as event he blue ones do not look right.

Maybe this is the main difference between a table with a cloth and a board where the hills / rivers etc are built in?

So first task it to work out how to mount the trees so the removal of them (needed for storage) does not leave increasing large size holes in the ground works. So step up Evergreen and their 1/8" plastic tube cut at an angle:

A quick push in using a biro gives me a nice little hole lined with palstic:

and with a few white rocks put together gives me the key elements of the scatter:

Hardest thing is to get the pipe in vertical and not force the pen down into the foam!

• Measure the pipe first - the point does not help a great deal
• Use a small T-square or triangle to prop the pipe up
• if above fails - just bend the tree a bit 

Now to make some more scatter rocks for hard ground without a base (or maybe a thin plastic one)

[6milPhil]

Thanks for the explanation, and good luck with this stunning looking board.

[dijit]

When I put mmy tubes in for my trees on my forest board (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=33340.msg402491#msg402491) I put the straws in with a nail though the hole, it helped break the foam and meant the foam didn't get squashed. I used smaller thicknesses of tube than you are, but it might still help.
Duncan

[AndrewBeasley]

Duncan - thanks for that link - wonderful figures and woods you have there!

The thickness of the tube came down to that was what was in stock 

Today I have been mainly sticking rocks together:

Basically take some epoxy resin glue (no hot glue for this as they are too small and I need my figures unburnt to open presents) and stick them in interesting piles...  I've put them on a plastic bag to dry so I can peel them off as the glue seeps though to the base.  Once dry I will flip them over and fill any gaps with glue to make sure they stick and with a quick coating of snow they are done.

[AndrewBeasley]

While the rocks are drying and getting a couple of coats of snow my mind turned to bridges across the ice river.

First thought was to use some of the skeleton parts (not yours Tony - they are on the way today with luck) but I do not have two bits the same to act as sides for the bridge but I may be able to work out how to fasten something to this bit:

Next bit I dug out was a skull - with a trim of the back jaw joint it lays flat enough to be a support so I'll work on this bit next (need a few bridges for variation):

but for now I've started on a couple of Ice Bridges - first up is a simple wooden bridge covered in ice made from two lollypop sticks hacked about with a knife and wire cutters.  The lollypop sticks are stronger than balsa if you have never used them and the wire cutters help split / cut roughly and help to distress the wood more than the knife / saw will do.

This may be able to sit on top of the skull to help support it over the gap (in 'real' life not model wise):

I really want to use the wood one for gaming (as it is flat for the figures) but need to add a more fantasy element in to the table (also the wood bridge is significantly larger than the local trees) so I am not sure yet as I may make a bone bridge for the top of the skull...

The next trial is to make a flat lump of artist gel in a plank shape and see if it dries solid (or fit it to a plastic carrier) so out came the two types of gel I have and a quick splodge and shape later I get:

I decided I would coat the wood bridge as well - I have used brown / green paints but they are now covered by the gel so you cannot see them yet!

Only issue so far is that this gel has been drying 4 days and still not clear 

[AndrewBeasley]

Well that gel is still not set or clear  and to be honest is still soft and bends very very easily!

Hunting in the cupboards I remembered a sheet of plastic from Hobby Craft (cost me a lot that's why I remember it) that I bought on spec for a river / stream before I was doing this board with the gel but it was a pain to cut with a razor saw and broke when I dropped it of the table:

Note the blue if from a plastic film on the smooth side - the darker bit is two layers of the film.

Taking care not to drop it this time I cut a 2cm wide strip that looked rather boring and flat - all to all too man made and artificial; so a quick heat in the gas (do not do this at home) and a batter with a large screwdriver gives me a curved bridge:

The brown stain from the heating is a pain but I think a little gel and ink wash will help take that away.

In place the ends look a bit odd so I will build up a snow pile to cover them in the next few days:

(Note the tree hole just close by)

Now I am happy with the basic board bits I can complete the figure bases and get some of the creatures done to occupy the board.  Inuit Tusk any one?

[Steve F]

This is one heck of a project, Andrew.  I really like that ice bridge.

Inuit Tusk soumbds good.  If only Copplestone hadn't dropped his pack of Inuits with spears, keeping only the ones with rifles.

[Papa Spanky]

Love that ice bridge, very clever!

[AndrewBeasley]

Needs ice hanging off the edges as it looks too clean 

Started a test piece - lets see what that looks like.

Thanks fr the kind comments - please feel free to chip in with ideas.