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

[AndrewBeasley]

And BEFORE any one says:

1) No they are not cricket pads on the legs of the standing figure (though they do look like it)
2) The background should be black and white of course...

 

Corrected background:

[AndrewBeasley]

Well its been a while since I added anything to this but I've sorted out a few pictures while moving house to explain what happened in the end...

First up is the general layout on blue 10mm foam with a plastic backing:

After a fair bit of work with the odd stone or two and lots of Woodland Scenics filler I created:

On top of this went glue and sand / small talus all over the place.

Then it was time for painting - a quick grey undercoat, followed by a mix of black and brown paints and washes gave me the look I was after:

Now for the lessons I learnt the hard way:

1 - For some reason the paint and washes decided to create solid lines rather than blend together
2 - The join on the hill to the ground needed to be smoother similar to the higher portion of the hill:

3 - The plastic craters where too smooth and the filler really did not help:

4 - I went totally overboard on the talus - a few minor rocks would suffice:

5 - Despite care and different glues, the plastic board still came off the back of the foam more than once!

Still I give myself a solid 7/10 for a first attempt and when I get settled in the new house I'll resurrect this project (mid 2018 at this rate) and try to use paper mache for the craters.

So from this post - Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year 

[zrunelord]

Nice work,
Have you tried to use expanded foam instead of filler?
 I know it has a mind of its own but it can guided & moulded.
 It will also stick to practically anything. Look here for examples.

http://castrarunis.blogspot.com.mt/search?q=Terrain

Z

[Andym]

Excellent work! I like that a lot!

[Connectamabob]

Very interesting project. I confess I have a love for stark landscapes like the moon ( and other planets, as well as some Earthly deserts).

A paper mache based clay like Das or Sculptamold would be ideal for making craters and other shallow topography IMO. Used to be able to get bags of the stuff in dry form at the local craft store for cheap. That or maybe sculpt down into the foam with sandpaper instead of building on top.

A brief read of moon´s geological composition says that it´s 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.

IIRC moon dust has on paper a really low albedo in terms of its mineral composition, but in practice it has almost retroreflector like qualities because it's in the form of tiny long crystals. It's mostly the product of meteorite impacts spraying up molten material, which without any air crystallizes as it resolidifies instead of forming rounded droplets. With no air and no tectonic activity, there's no movement to wear things down either, so they all stay like tiny sharp, glassy crystal shards. Apparently the stuff had a habit of permanently imbedding itself in the fabric of the Apollo suits, as it was mechanically sort of like fiberglass dust with a static charge.

That's why the lunar surface looks middle to light grey in photos, and is so bright and white in the night sky, even though the actual minerals are almost black. I'd speculate it's also why it looks so perfectly monochromatic grey in most photos: much of that grey may be highly granular specular glare rather than regular reflected light. I know the Apollo cameras had removable polarized filters, so that may explain why some photos show more color to the soil (the pics with more color might be ones taken using the filter). This would be supported by the pics with more color also looking much less contrasty, with much fewer white highlights.

No idea how one would simulate that realistically on a tabletop though, so grey paints are probably good enough.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice terrain.

Model railway ballasting techniques might help, ranging from a dry mix of ballast and powder glue (mist with a sprayer) to dry ballast and a water/PVA/washing up liquid mix applied with a dropper.

The former does have the advantage of allowing you to have a gradual change in particle size and to move it around until you are happy with it.

[AndrewBeasley]

Thank you for the comments and ideas folks.

@zrunelord
Thanks for the link to your blog - spent a pleasant hour looking at the work you did esp the cardboard and disk heads.  The main issue I have with foam (other than it running down the garage roof - but that’s another tale) is getting the sharp edges I’m looking for.  I may give it a trial if I get some for the new house.

@connectamabob
I did wonder about using thick foam but decided the mess of carving away 70%+ was not worth the arguments with my wife!  DAS looks possible to use as a form and then add paper over it to hide any cracks... it’s been a few years since I used it and have a possibly warped view of it cracking and holding fingerprints.  As for colour - an earlier post had some interesting links but the grey / brown sat very nicely with me except for the damn line - more wet blending practise for me.

@Ultravanillasmurf
I’ve never tried powered glue in the mix as I normally use watered down PVA and scenic cement to hold talus.  If anything, I need a smaller size and less lumps!  I also fancy trying isopropanol alcohol as ad wetting agent as the scenic cement is hard to get locally (80 mike round trip or post) and I am sure I’m down to my last bottle.

[zrunelord]

You're welcome Andrew & thanks for the comments.
You reminded me when a friend of mine installed several aluminium
windows at my house  & i forgot to put masking tape fences on the back, i spent around 2
hours removing cured foam from the glass. . I told you it has a mind of its own!!!!

What if you were to make a Das or plaster master cast it in hot melt rubber or silicone & then
use exp foam to cast ?. When it starts to froth put a peice of card on it & weigh it down with something
Heavy. It will flow in the sharp corners.
Once cured it can easily be carved further with little mess ( well not so much as exp polystyrene )
Exp foam is great medium to work with.

Z

[Ultravanillasmurf]

By the way, what is "talus"? I have assumed it is foreign for ballast.

If so, I tend to use Woodland Scenics materials (plus the remains of a half pound bag of "granite" chippings bought for pennies sometime last century). The fine ballast works for texture, the larger stuff for more broken ground. The big bottles will cover a lot of board.

[Connectamabob]

DAS looks possible to use as a form and then add paper over it to hide any cracks... it’s been a few years since I used it and have a possibly warped view of it cracking and holding fingerprints. 

Been a while since I've used it, but IIRC the cracking is not as big a deal as it might seem. It cracks because it shrinks as it dries, but once it's dry, it's stable, so you can just glue it back down and/or patch cracks with more clay and it'll be right as rain. Fingerprints are easy to smooth away by wiping with a wet fingertip while the clay is still wet, or you can stipple it with a stiff short bristled chip brush, and that'll give it an intrinsic dirt-like texture (less need for sand/talus) which will also obliterate fingerprints. With a little practice you can feather the edges without needing paper or anything like that.

One very handy trick IMO is to poke holes through the sculpt at regular intervals with thin wire. This exposes the inside of thick applications to air, allowing it to dry much faster and more evenly (basically changes the surface area to volume dynamic so no part of the inside is more than the hole spacing's distance from air, no matter how thick the application is). If you use really thin wire the holes will be easy to hide in the surface texture, and won't disrupt already sculpted details. Same trick also works with polymer clay to ensure full and even curing on thick sculpt.

[Connectamabob]

What if you were to make a Das or plaster master cast it in hot melt rubber or silicone & then
use exp foam to cast ?. When it starts to froth put a peice of card on it & weigh it down with something
Heavy. It will flow in the sharp corners.
Once cured it can easily be carved further with little mess ( well not so much as exp polystyrene )

Not needed, as with minor practice the Das will work just fine on it's own.

That said, this stuff has been on my "to try" list for a while. Reviews I've read say it's similar to that Crayola Model Magic stuff in weight, but with the strength and toolability of epoxy putty. Have seen no mention anywhere of how it handles sculpting-wise though. It's kinda expensive, but if it can be used to sculpt with, it may be worth it for all kinds of terrain or big creature stuff. Not foam, but the benefits would be similar, and if it can be sculpted, that would cut out the extra work and cost of mold making and casting.

[AndrewBeasley]

I think the advantage of DAS will be at the edges where I can smooth it into the board rather than leave the edge the plastic craters gave me despite the Woodland Scenics foam filler.

This would make the assembly sequence a bit different:

a) Stick hills and sand smooth edges
b) Mark out locations of craters
c) Add indentations and small small craters by using a rough garden stone
d) Build craters from DAS
e) Fill any cracks and make sure the joint on the base is smooth
f) Paint with a gritty paint

I need to find out how well DAS stocks to the foam as the blue stuff I use is very smooth (it’s almost melted on the top) but a good sand paper rub first should fix that.

I also need to think about using MDF or something similar underneath the foam to stop it flexing as the plastic sheet bent as I lifted it up and I would not want the DAS to ‘pop’ off one day

[Dezmond]

I tempted to try



for my Moongrunt Bases.

(Being a basecoat of Castellan Green followed by drybrushing with Dawnstone and Administratum Grey)

http://row40k.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/basing-your-miniatures-basics.html?m=1

I mean, there is kind of a greenish ting to some moon photos, and since I want to do the little men Classic Astronaut White it would give a bit of colour to the figs.

[AndrewBeasley]

Thank you for the link to all those base types - I’m sure I’ll find use for a few of them!

I would be tempted to add the odd larger rock here and there just to break up the flat surface - maybe even use a fine grit to equate to dust pools