Sectional Terrain Project

[jmilesr01]

The basic scenery work on the Hill sections is complete but there's an issue - the polystyrene slid a bit on the left hand section and created a 1/4 inch gap.  I think the easiest way to fix that is to trim 3/4 of an inch fro each end piece and place it with wood.  Doing so will also serve to reinforce the sections while in transit.  Of course I'm stealing this idea from another forum member, Eric the Shed, and his fantastic desert terrain project.

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=70884.0





A little work was also completed on the river test section:

[Dr DeAth]

looking good

[Eric the Shed]

Looking great and delighted my project has given you some inspiration

[jmilesr01]

Not the most exciting update but the final set of panels have been assembled and stained.  In need a total of 10 panels - 5 2x4 feet and 5 2x2 feet to make the playing area for the upcoming games and Historicon.    Now that I've settled on a seinicing process the final panels should come together quickly.  The only unknown I have is how I'll be doing the rivers



The panels will see their ruble debut with my games at Historicon (T-340 and F-341), which are centered around a hypothetical British intervention into the civil war.  By the way - the first units of the British Intervention Force have arrived:









More units are on their way as the BIF may prove to be a very formidable force.  All the BIF mini's are Perry metals.

[jmilesr01]

Some more progress.

Given the gap i Had with the hill section I redid the ended to make sure there was a tighter fit when the sections are butted together to make a single hill.


Above is a shot of the sections with the new end pieces attached.  I do apologize for the shop-safety misstep - I left the blade exposed of my box cutter - not the brightest of moves.


One benefit of redoing the ends was it gave me a chance to make the third level a lot bigger which will allow for better gaming situations.  The previous version's third level was small (5" across) and only on one board so.  Now the third tier is over 18" long and is worth "fighting over"


Plaster and plaster cloth to blend the new third tier into the rest of the board


Lastly covered with a mixture of 1 part white glue and 3 parts tile grout.  This mixture provides a nice ground texture and dries rock hard.  The only downside is that the addition of the white glue extends the setting process for up to 36 hours.  From this angle, the new portions of the hill kind of look like a shark!

I had enough of the grout / glue mix to also cover 2 of the four remaining 2'x4' panels.  The other two will be done after I get some more grout.


The current river bottom is just black styrene plastic.  I'm debating if I should just paint it or add sad / gravel before adding the epoxy "water" - any suggestions from the forum on how to do a river would be greatly appreciated.


flat boards aren't the most exciting to do terrain wise but they do need to be done.

[jmilesr01]

Yesterday was a very productive session as I got the painting and first layer of ground cover (static grass) on the remaining estions (2, 2x4 feet panels and 1, 2x2 ft one).

Next up will be some additional color and texture variations and then the river sections themselves - I open to suggestions on how to do the 3.5 inch wide rivers.





I really soaked the hillsides with diluted matt medium as they tend to get a lot of wear and tear. 

[jmilesr01]

First test fit of the train boards for my upcoming Historicon game.  Luckily everything fit well so the boards are nearing completion



Still some tweaking to do - the shading of the static grass in the center is a bit too light (these were some test boards) but that's easily fixed.  I'll also be repainting the light sandy area in the lower left to match the rest of the boards.  Oh yes, I need to figure out how to do the rivers.  I've got a small test section on the work bench to do some experimenting.




After the test fit, I did manage to "plant" some crops in the plowed field section - I like how they came out and it's 100% better than my earlier version - the horrid "field of measles"



Ughhh

One great thing about terrain projects is that it is very easy to recover from mistakes.

[Eric the Shed]

this is looking fabulous....

[jmilesr01]

The river sections are now painted (more details on my blog) but I have question for this learned assembly.  There are two fords (one on each board) - there indicated be a larger shallow area (tanish paint) but should I add some rocks to better define the fords.  The rivers will be covered in 1/4 inch of epoxy so the boulders will not standout as much.

What do you guys thing?

Ford 1:



Ford 2:

[jmilesr01]

A bit more progress

Some tree plates (the trees are woodland scenics pre-mades and are meant to be removable for both easy of play and transport



A close up of a finished tree plate (complete with a silly dinosaur fossil just for fun)



Some simple roads mode out out mat board and silicon sealant



Lastly - a river section after the first resin pour

[jmilesr01]

With Historicon less than two weeks away, It's time to bring this terrain project to a close.  One of the last remaining steps is to pout the resin for the river which turned out OK









The fibers on the river surface came during placing the tufts along the side and are not imbedded in the resin. 

I did have on incident with the resin where one of the dam's leaked and the section got "glued" to my table top.  -  The plywood surface got a bit damaged and I'll need to repair that with a little wood putty



All that's left to do is paint a few more fence sections and build a transport cart to roll all this stuff in and out of the convention center on game days

Closing in on the finish line

[jmilesr01]

Well here are a few shots of the finished product from Historicon.  I think both games went well and I was very surprised that each one won an award!

Here's the land battle using the sectional boards I've been babbling about on this post.  All of the terrain in the pictures was made for this Historicon











The ironclad game also went very well and looked ok







One of the great things about a con is seeing so many great ideas of how I can improve my games and now I working on a list of improvements for next year.  I'm also sure I'll be stealing ideas from the users of this forum also!

Thanks
Miles

[bulldogger2000]

I was fortunate enough to see your land battle at H'con.  Beautiful game, great figures and outstanding terrain.  I sat down and spoke with you briefly prior to the game and you were very open and welcoming.  You were a gentleman and the epitome of what a game host should be.  Nice job all the way around.

[Atheling]

Great stuff! 

I'm about to move house (nice big garage) and will be doing quite a lot of this sort of stuff very soon.

Darrell.