Plowed Fields with a Hot Glue Gun

[Wirelizard]

Most of us who have the scenery building itch probably have a hot glue gun around. Fantastically useful things for gluing scenery projects together quickly and securely. Also good for burning your fingertips if you aren't careful - even "low temp" hot glue is still, amazingly, actually pretty hot, and a blob of it can retain it's heat for a while.

Anyway, some time ago I was messing around with my hot glue gun and realized that cooled glue retains it's shape. The stuff doesn't spread out like most other glues do. So I grabbed a scrap of plastic sheet and bashed together a small plowed field, with the ridges from the plowing and some of the shape around the edge of the field provided by cheap, easy to use hot glue.

Getting bored of painting Russians, last night I broke out a 12"x11" piece of salvaged 3mm plastic sheeting. I salvaged it intending to make buildings from it, but it's too hard to cut and won't glue with superglue or regular plastic solvent cement. It makes grand scenic bases, though. A quick bit of cutting got me six rectangular fields, each just a bit under 6"x4" in size. I used razor knife and sandpaper to smooth the corners and edges down, then got to work with the hot glue gun.



One of them got a bit of rock wall, and I varied the length and facing of the plowing on a few just for interest. There's a few paths and muddy patches, too.

Right after work tonight, I got out the white glue and my mixed-sand-and-grit "dirt texture" mix and slapped a layer of that down.



That dried in a few hours, so I was just able to slap the basecoat of paint on, which is 2 parts basic brown craft paint and 1 part white glue, to really lock the sand down and keep it in place. I used an even darker brown to pick out some of the muddier low-lying bits.



Tomorrow after work (possibly even before work, if I'm a very organized animal...) I'll be able to whip through the base coat on the rock wall, then the drybrushing of the dirt and rocks. A bit of mixed foliage as crops and weeds, and I'll have another set of solid, gamer-proof, easily transported pieces of texture for the tabletop. I can't stand a blank stretch of felt where there's a possibility of putting something down to add texture and interest to the table, so these will suit perfectly.

The rock walls you can see on the CD base, one field and the tongue depressor are all from medium "decor" gravel and Gorilla Glue, which is fun stuff for scenery building too. It's an easy way to make ragged, unkempt rock walls. More on that later.

[zizi666]

Good find.
I always thought if wanted to make plowed fields I'd be using corrugated cardboard but this looks far more interesting.

[Wirelizard]

Good find.
I always thought if wanted to make plowed fields I'd be using corrugated cardboard but this looks far more interesting.

I've done cardboard fields too, and having discovered the hot glue method, can't see going back to cardboard. Cardboard warps with paint and glue, and can't take the abuse hot glue on plastic sheet will, either while being made or on the gaming table.

Last night's brown base coat, seen still wet in the first photos above, turned out patchy so I'm redoing it before work this morning. My fault for trying a quick'n'dirty late night paint job.

[Bahir]

What a great and easy use for hot glue!

Thanks for sharing.

[FramFramson]

Agreed on corrugated cardboard's warping problem.

What I'd REALLY love to find is a fabric or other flexible sheet with regular rows to use as a base. The problem is that the stuff I've found is always too far out of scale. Corduroy is too fine (unless you're doing something like 15mm) and doormats are typically too large (the mounds and channels being well over a half-inch in size). Oh for an intermediate size! Doormat would be the best too, with the heavy plastic/rubber base to keep it firmly in place.

[Major_Gilbear]

@ Wirelizard:

Great idea, and great result! Makes me wonder what other base effects could be achieved with hot glue... Small shell holes maybe?


@FramFramson:

Try searching Ebay for ribbed fabrics (or your local upholstery shop for any offcuts they may have). Examples here.

[Billchuck]

You can do small craters and shell holes, I've done it.  Crumple up some aluminum foil a bit, shape it into a craterish shape, fill with hot glue.  Let it cool, peel off the aluminum (or not) and paint away.

[z1pp132002]

Great idea!

[Wirelizard]

Glad people are liking this. I've not seen a lot of scenery using hot glue as an actual modelling medium - it's an underappreciated medium, it seems.

Here's the fields and rock wall bits with the basecoat touched up, two layers of drybrush done, and base layer of greenery just glued down.



I might yet add some extra tufts and bits of greenery, but for now I'll declare these done and move back to painting RCW Russians!

[anevilgiraffe]

top stuff... I bought a hot glue gun as one of those required things, but have never ever used it... 

[Wirelizard]

top stuff... I bought a hot glue gun as one of those required things, but have never ever used it... 

Now you know what to do with it! They're also useful for attaching foliage to things - lichen and foam foliage chunks can both be buggers to glue any other way.

I've written up the whole field-making thing and published it with a few extra details over on the Warbard.

[alone_withmyaxe]

Really cool, I think the hot glue gun is so versatile I got in to a complete panic when I ran out of glue recently! I use mine to make trees and tree roots!
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=26518.0

This is a great method, I like it a lot and will defintly steal it in the future.

Cheers!

[Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.]

Brilliant idea.

[6milPhil]

Cracking idea and a solidly good result. This has me thinking about using tubes of mastic or buildeers caulk which might be cheaper than glue sticks. Thanks for sharing. 

[Grimmnar]

You all wanna see what a hot glue gun is capable of head on over to YouTube and check out DMScotty's channel
The DM's Craft. http://www.youtube.com/user/theDMsCraft/videos?view=0  :-)

Grimm