The Moon is a harsh mistress - First board & done till 2018 (piccy heavy)

[AndrewBeasley]

Over the holiday period the issue I have had with my eyes has settled down and as a treat I decided to turn my hand to a simple board for the few 15mm Sci-Fi figures I have and a handful of new Moongrunt figures that where my Christmas present to myself

Deciding to spend the minimum possible I had a hunt around and purchased a large sheet of black plastic foam board from Bubblalux - no idea what this is in real life but it does not bend / snap and seems to be waterproof.  Main problem is that it is just under 60cm in width (58+) so its not quite a 2x2 board but thats fine for 15mm.  Details of the actual board material / use can be found HERE

Main problem was this created a flat surface so I looked at craters (GW/AMERA etc) but decided on a couple of plastic A4 created sheets I found cheap on eBay (Amazon link to the product is HERE):

Main problems where:

1) The sheets have a blank border of about 5mm on all sides.
2) The sheets are exactly the same and it shows no matter how you arrange them.
3) The sheets came warped - they where very cheap on eBay and this may explain it!
4) There is very little flat ground for standing figures up.

Putting these aside I went back to the pink foam in the garage to find I only have 25mm thick sheets that would be overkill.  Fortunately, I had just come across Lukes Aps on You Tube and seen that he had purchased some 10mm foam used for underfloor heating (video and details ) so off to eBay I went.

Two days later a wonderful cardboard package arrived with two sheets of foam in great condition ready for use.  Turns out I was very lucky to order two sheets - I ended up using one to help block a broken window due to the gales on Christmas Eve and a loose roof tile from next door!

Finding myself with a little off-cut after patching the window (cut out the draft after using tarp and wood) I cut a few bits up to see how it would stick to the board:

1) Using wood glue / PVA was a waste of time as it was taking ages to dry
2) Using spray glue (picture mount) on the foam did not stick OR melt the foam (see later though)
3) Using spray on the board and leaving for 30 secs worked great and will be the way I do it on-going

Once dry, I used a small hammer to try to create a basic crater shape in the foam:

Not great - too regular / circular and the small impact areas are too neat...

So finding a flint from the garden I attached another piece with gusto and came up with a look I liked:

When getting the board, I picked up three bags of the Javis stone:

Trying this out I have to say the result was horrible (so bad you are not getting a picture) The flakes do not look like anything other than tarmac and not suitable at all - OK I know each bag was only Ģ1.30 but I've no real use for these other than this board - I'll have to see if I can manufacture a use for them. It's a shame as it looks great in the bag so I have no idea why it does not work on the board other than possible scale...

Obviously, a totally flat surface and even one with the odd crater would look a bit boring so out came the scrap, a few toothpicks and UHU glue and test rocks / mounds started to be built:

Slight problem - UHU melts the board - OK deep down I knew this but it was the first glue I found in the drawer...

At least I can say that a quick push with the stone again I had a small crater so face saved.

Going back to the plastic craters, I decided to see how they would sit on the board, so after digging a small indent and battering the test board I used Woodland Scenics Flex Paste to stick a cut out crater down and 'hide' the join:

I couple of things I found out:

1) It is very hard to indent the board without the marks being in line or symmetrical - two / three stones will help
2) Given I want to paint this, I should have undercoated the plastic crater first!
3) Flex paste sticks well to everything with indents no matter how small - I had no finger prints at one point
4) Hiding the join was a right pain - use the paste in layers and let it dry well between each thin layer

I masked off the board and decided to spray the crater (as I wanted to use acrylics to paint the board) using Halfords grey primer:

I'm happy with this little test board - the crater and rocks size well for the 15mm figs:

With luck, I'll get a couple of coats of paint on this BUT here I am a bit stuck - what colour is the moon?

Normally in the regular NASA pictures (colour ones not B&W), the moon surface is shown as a grey / black surface with harsh shadows except in this classic Apollo 11 picture (Earth Rising Above the Moon Surface - crop):

This had me searching the 'Net to understand why this is brown (my other hobby is photography and my monitor is colour profiled) as others from the same moon shot are grey (NASA have a FLICKR account - 140+ pages of pics so far).  This bafflement became worse as even the Jan 2016 Chinese probe colour pictures (review on PetaPixel here) did not help as they have both grey and brown shots. After a very interesting surf, I tracked down an English translation of an investigation by a Russian Associate Professor (full report HERE)

After going through this report and trying to work out if it was serious (Aulis seems one of the more 'interesting' sites that populate the web) and hunting a bit more I decided that I cannot tell.  NASA have the famous Apollo 17 Orange soil (Transcript here) but says this was in grey soil - looking at the video the last seconds show a slight brown tinge to the soil at the top of the frame compared to the lower part and a great brown sample from Apollo 15 is HERE!

Other advantage of the grey surface - this is what most people expect to see of a moon surface as that is what we are taught from an early age and to be fair it looks like a lot of the rock is grey / black:


Note this pic has colour markers in each shot - you should be able to tell the actual colour from these BUT they are different tones themselves in the shots (possible light / film / age / processing differences) and I cannot be bothered to match them in photoshop now.

For now, I'm going for a basic grey with possibly a brown / purple over wash in areas with the odd bit of orange - unless you know different?

Not sure about gritting the surface - 15mm figures + sand can look a bit odd.

[supervike]

You have done your homework!!

Very interesting read! 

I think the basic grey does make the most sense, just like you say, this is what people would expect to see.  So, to keep it instantly recognizable, I'd stick with it.

[robh]

I think that test board looks great.

You can use a tube mounting adhesive ("No Nails" or similar brands) to stick foam and plastics together. Apply a blob and spread it out with scrap plastic or card. Dries very tough so try and avoid areas you may want to carve later.

[Michi]

A brief read of moonīs geological composition says that itīs mainly blackish basalt-like fine grain in the lowlands (mare) and lighter in the highlands (terrae). The darker soil contains magnesium, titanium and iron (therefore the brownish look?) and the highlands have more calcium and aluminum. Only 12% reflection of sunlight (less than tarmac) implies a rather dark surface.

[OSHIROmodels]

Interesting stuff and you're 'sample' looks very suitable 

cheers

James

[AndrewBeasley]

OK - I decided on a grey brown colour with the leaning to grey

I mixed sand, small talus and grey paint together and slathered on the foam and plastic crater.

A wash of brown / grey mix went on top followed by a dry brush of light grey

A wash of thin black and a touch up of thicker black in the hollows

The final dry brush was the light grey again.

Final result:

Depending on the angle of the light - the could changes from grey to brown nicely (OK fluke):

A couple of bits I do not like:

a) The talus was hard to get out of the paint pot - despite using small bits it fell off the brush often.
b) I do not like the sand on the rock mounds - happy with it being at the bottom but not the sides and top
c) Oddly, the plastic crater still remains shiny - I think its due to it being smooth and reflecting more light as the paint is matt...  The good news though is that its blended in fine with a slight 'lava' flow effect:

From this test my plan for the build sequence becomes:

1 ) Cut out the craters from the plastic sheet making sure they lay flat and have been sprayed grey first
2 ) Glue the foam onto the base
3 ) Glue the craters onto the foam and smooth with flex paste
4 ) Add mounds / hiding places from foam and carve / hack to shape
5 ) Indent / crush foam using flint stones (at least two different ones) - I may try rolled up silver foil as well
6 ) Glue odd bits of talus onto the board (not in craters or on mounds)
7 ) Mix up lots and lots of grey / brown paint
8 ) Paint the mounds with the plain grey / brown paint
9 ) Add sand / small grit to the grey / brown paint and paint the rest of the board (inc craters)
10) Wash and dry brush as the mood takes me
11) Paint edge black

[Jagannath]

This looks really great - it's rekindled my moongrunt ideas, very cool.

[Christian]

A very convincing surface, good job!

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks very nifty 

cheers

James

[AndrewBeasley]

Thanks for the complements - looking forward to doing the large board next 

[Mason]

That is a very impressive result!
 

[dijit]

Really nice work there! You've nailed it.

[Michi]

Really nice work there! You've nailed it.

I second that!

[Andym]

That's great! Superb texture!

[AndrewBeasley]

Found time to paint two figures - not easy with the eyes but happy with the result.

Spray can white
Dark brown wash
Dry brush white
Blue / black highlights
Metal and red for the gun - over wash in brown again

Bases are 15mm magnets covered in large grain gel from Galeria and sand then painted as per the surface.