How to make a quick and dirty ocean surface?

[phreedh]

Allright, I've started work on my entry for round 10 in the LPL. To present my entry, I would like a sea surface instead of my regular green grass gaming board.

How can the illusion of sea be achieved most easily without resorting to water effects and resin compounds. I don't need it to be terribly life like, just a passable surface a step or two above blue cloth.

I'm thinking about using a masonite board, hitting it with white and black spray primers to create a streaky effect. Then I'd try "washing" it with various hues of blue, green and blue-green. Anyone know of a tutorial for something like this? I don't want to run out and buy anything in particular for this - I'm only building it for this particular round of LPL.

[Svennn]

How large an area? If its not too vast how about what I did on the canal sections I made for Thunderchicken?
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=38524.0

Its just ready mixed wall filler applied with a spatula, painted black and drybrushed up with blues, greens and browns. Couple of coats of Kleer for sheen and done.

[phreedh]

How large an area? If its not too vast how about what I did on the canal sections I made for Thunderchicken?
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=38524.0

Its just ready mixed wall filler applied with a spatula, painted black and drybrushed up with blues, greens and browns. Couple of coats of Kleer for sheen and done.

Could work, but could also be too much work for how much mileage I'm getting from it. I'd do 50x50 cm, tops! Cheers, and happy birthday too mate! =D

As a test I sprayed a piece of cereal box black and white, to get a mottled base to work from. Then washed, stippled, washed, stippled ad nauseum. Turned out... not exactly agreeable, but not exactly horrible either. You be the judge. Bear in mind, this is nothing I'll ever play on - it's a single photo thing, where hopefully the miniatures will steal the show. This took me some 15 minutes.



Those are brush hairs from the insanely cheap and crappy brush I destroyed in the process. Not pubes. Honest. 

[phreedh]

Seriously guys, I need some help and feedback on this! =)

[Thantsants]

Dunno if this is any good to you but here's what I did to base up the Trafalgar minis I did for my Dad -



First I applied some blobby lines of pva to create a rough impression of waves/ocean swell. Then I put on a base coat of  bluey green - think it was a mix of Jade green and Vallejo's version of Ultramarine blue - can't remember the name and its rubbed off the bottle!

I then drybrushed in horizontal lines to create the impression of wave effects and surface foam with varying shades of the bluey green and pure white.

It seemed to work ok for the smaller scale ships (1:2400) - hope that's of some use!

[Mason]

Check this part of my thread for Mordheim, it shows the WIP for my Docks sections.
It might help, but is not a flat finish, if that is what you are looking for;

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=30667.45

Hope it helps in some way.
 

[phreedh]

You guys! Those are exactly the kind of ideas I'm looking for. Cheers chaps! =)

Mason, you don't happen to have a pic of your water unpainted?

[Drachenklinge]

At our club we use some waxed (so it is called here) table-cloth for garden-tables (or for children's tables ^^) in blue ("Wachstuch" in German). Since it is for fashion reasons marbled in blue and white (or other colours) it is as good a water surface as any. It is smooth, blue, easy to store and for sure not expensive. I would guess that these articles will be available in every garden-center, tools-market and such. Also - since it is bulk-stock (yard goods? ... sold by meter) You can perchase it in almost any size one come to need it.

best wishes
Drachenklinge

PS
we used it for Uncharted Seas

[Westfalia Chris]

I recently painted (can't really say I "built" them) six 2x2 segments for a Dystopian Wars table. Those were white-coated MDF, which I initially painted two coats of dark blue using a paint roller (great investment, it sped up the process tremendously, and left a slight wave pattern, too). Next, the blue was stippled in places with some "sea spray" tone acrylic, then coated with two layers of clear varnish, and looked something like this:



Unfortunately, after the first few games, this proved not to be resilient enough, as the white coat on the MDF meant the paint and varnish chipped off easily. Therefore, I repainted the whole surface with two more coats of dark blue, re-stippled it using torn-up household sponges, and then covered the whole thing in self-adhesive clear foil:





The "mirror effect" is actually improved by using the foil, although it is tricky to photograph with anything resembling direct lighting. So if you don't need a gaming surface, but merely a photo backdrop, I would suggest going for the varnish road (it tends to be a bit cheaper, too, although more time-consuming).

[cheetor]

Do you know anyone who bought the GW Dreadfleet game last Autumn?

That has a sheet made out of weird creaseless substance to represent the ocean and in fairness, its pretty impressive to see in hand.

If I were looking for something oceanic for a photo shoot then that would be my first stop.


 

[Drachenklinge]

I guess that these wizkidz game "Pirates of the Spanisch Main" had similar "maps" for gaming (about 1 square m.). Though they were hard to get. Maybe they were limited, not sure.

@ Chris
I like this idea with this shiny self-adhesive clear foil ... consider it stolen 

best wishes
Drachenklinge

[Mason]

You guys! Those are exactly the kind of ideas I'm looking for. Cheers chaps! =)

Mason, you don't happen to have a pic of your water unpainted?

Afraid not, phreedh, only the pics that are on the thread.