Modular Gaming Table: Part 9

Hurray! I just finished my first panel... I wanted to finish one before the holidays, otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to enjoy myself. Then again, the cheer pressure of keeping my followers happy might have had something to do with it. Well enough already, here it is...

Let me take you through the steps. I started with painted the borders black and varnished the surface with a clear acrylic varnish, no I didn't bother doing the bottom.

I bought a low quality grass from a dutch company called Berka Scenery which sells Static Grass (100 gram) for 6,75 euro. That's the same company that ripped me off with the stones I bought. The actual costs of making this stuff is probably way lower, at least it's about 6 times as cheap as the GW Static Grass.

The color isn't great, but that's actually not important if you dry-brush it. This article explains and shows some of the effects when you dry-brush static grass. The original color of Berka's grass is much greener than GW's grass. When dry-brushing you can do a lot with it.

I used three different colors of green grass and mixed these together to form one big bucket of grass. I'm not sure, but I believe the colors are called summer, spring and autumn.

My precious spice

The tools for the job

Application is pretty straightforward. The difficult part is getting a neat transition between the grass and the bare surface parts. I watered down some wood glue (1:2) and applied it with the medium brush. While working quickly I made sure the inner borders of the bare surface parts contained a thinned down layer of glue. Almost as if you dry-brush the inner borders with glue.

Not depicted on the picture, I used a strainer to apply the static grass mixture. After removing the excess grass, I thinned down the inner borders of the bare surface parts with the small brush. I did this while the glue was still wet.

The results after applying the grass mixture

I dry-brushed the static grass with the same paints and in the same sequence I used for the panel surface. I dry-brushed it until I got the desired results, not really using a clear method. It's a creative process.

TIP: Make sure all excess paint is removed from the brush, failing to do so could render the grass unrepairable.

A dwarf try out

It's hard to see on the picture, but the underlying surface does have its effect on the grass. Maybe I will add some tuft later on, after all panels are finished. Far now I'll keep it as it is.

In my next post I'll cover the water effects.

Modular Gaming Table: Part 8

Completing the sixth panel, overwhelmed me with joy, I immediately set out and did a test with a 3x2 configuration.

Config 3x2 x11:y0

Config 3x2 y21:y0

I tried to capture some of the coolness I've witnessed while assembling the hill panels. I have to say the pictures don't do it justice, it looks better in real life. However, you can see that they fit nicely and that the slight down curve of table help pushing the hill panels in place.

Ohh... Tight fit!

I'm painting the panels with a medium quality acrylic paint. I've bought 4 different colors for the ground surface, these are: Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre Extra and Titanium Buff Light. I started with painting all panels with Burnt Umber (shown above). I watered the paint down considerably (3:1) as to avoid blogging the surface with paint and to improve application. It takes two layers on a black surface to get good coverage. The pictures above show coverage of the first layer. In overall I needed two bottles (500ml) of Burnt Umber to paint 12 panels.

TIP: I added black paint to the foam-coat mixture to get a black base color. It would have been easier if I bought black latex paint in the first place.

At the time of writing I've finished the ground surface of all the panels and painted them all with two layers of Burnt Umber.

The panels are now ready to be dry-brushed. This is done with a LARGE brush. I'm dry-brushing the panels with the remaining 3 colors in the following order: Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre Extra and Titanium Buff Light. Below the results of the first two panels.

Don't worry, the panels are far from done, these are just the initial results after dry-brushing. I'll cover the details in upcomming posts, but first I'm taking a one month holiday.

Modular Gaming Table: Part 7

There are many ways to make realistic ground surfaces. You can use foam, plaster, clay, stones, sand and whatnot, hell, even teddy bear fur is usable. Whatever methods you use, just make sure they create the required effect. Try out different methods by creating test samples to see which method best suits your needs.

Three factors determine my ground surface needs:

1. Modular terrain boards
2. Modular terrain pieces
3. Playable for large-scale wargames

The first factor requires that all sides of the board are the same. This makes the board connectable with other boards. See Modular Gaming Table: Part 3 for more information on this.

The second factor requires a flat surface, at least on some areas. Unless the modular terrain pieces themselves have flexible bases, little rocks or an uneven ground surface could easily lift it up, letting them stick out.

The last factor confirms my need for a flat surface. Large units don't stand well on uneven ground. The scenery should of course look spectacular, but above all, playable.

Putting the above factors together I have decided to keep the surface flat. I will only put stones near some of the terrain features. The modular terrain pieces will allow me to introduce a variety of scenery without limiting the modularity and playability of the table.

Having said all of this, let's continue with the process of creating the surface.

The surface is flat, that much we know already and because the panels are already flat, I don't have to worry about it. However, I do want to give the foam a protective layer and in the same time give the surface a natural looking texture. For this, I'll be using Foam Coat for protection and aquarium play sand for the texture.

In the process of figuring out a suitable texture, I created various test samples and while doing so, collected various types of stone materials along the way. Most of which turned out useless, but some made it through, namely: the aquarium play sand, "brekerszand" and "invoegsplit" (gravel). The last two mentioned are paving jointing materials. In total, these materials give me three types of textures: fine, medium and rough.

Fine

Medium

Rough

Although most specialized modeling stores offer a range of stone materials, it's often cheaper to look elsewhere. To illustrate this, I've bought the following stone material at two different stores. The left I bought for 1.75 euro at a railway modeling store and the right for 2.50 euro at a garden store. I don't know how many exactly, but you can tell the difference.

They have exactly the same stones

The Foam Coat I bought has 3 lbs or 1.36 kg. According to the Hot Wire Foam Factory this is enough to cover 30 square feet. Dividing it by 12, I'm able to use about 100 grams on each panel. To be on the safe side I added modeling plaster of the same amount, creating a total of 200 grams. I added about 40 a 50 ml water and mixed it all up with 120 ml Latex wall paint. Creating a total mixture of roughly 200 ml. Below a picture of the materials:

I applied the mixture with a large paint brush, then covered it completely with the aquarium play sand and pressed it into the mixture with a paint roller. Not too hard of course, but slightly rolling it over the sand.

Covered with the Foam Coat mixture

Medium sand material near the edges

Covered in fine sand material

When dried, I carefully remove the excess sand with a dry paint brush.

Looks playable, right?

This covers the ground surface. In my next post I go through the process of painting them, but first I need to finish 11 more panels, Joy!

Modular Gaming Table: Part 6c

I plast, you plast, we all styroplast!!! I'ts finally been done... All the hill panels are carved out, plasted and coated with white primer.

The styroplast works great. I only needed to create the 1:3 mixture and apply it with a brush, just like painting. I started out with 200 ml, but only need about 50 for each hill. So, when doing the first hill I thought hell, why not do another one. While doing the second hill I noticed the mixture was beginning to set, but still continued doing a third one. 

The thinker the mixture, the harder it gets, getting it between all the crevices. The third panel lost some of its detail because of this. It's hardly noticeable from afar, but up close it looks like it's snowed under. Below some pictures of the result:

Before being plasted

Styroplast just applied

Completely dry and rock hard

Assembled and coated with white primer

Apart from the sand, stones and grass, the hills are now considered finished.
This brings us to the next step. Applying the surface to all 12 panels. In my next post I'll go through the process of creating the surface getting everything ready for painting.

Modular Gaming Table: Part 6b

Well, this is taking me longer than I thought it would. At the time of writing I've finished a rough cut-out of two hill panels. I still need to add in more detail and fine-tune some of the rocks, but in overall I'm quite happy with the results.

I started out with taping the borders with masking tape. This will keep the plaster from falling off the sides. I then mixed up some wall plaster and placed it on the hill sides, like this:

It takes a while to completely dry on the inside

It's easy to cut the plaster while it's still a bit wet, but after it has completely dried you will need something sharp and hard to cut through it.

The perfect moment to try out my brand new dremel set my wife gave me for my birthday. The set has various bit attachments, each having a specific purpose. I tried a couple of them, but quickly discovered the dremel not to be very effective for cutting large chunks. Besides generating too much noise for me to work at night, it pulverizes the plaster, filling the already dusty room with even more dust.

The little dremel that could

I used a set of modeling tools instead. They allow me to use different techniques, each having its own unique effect on the plaster. For example, breaking off pieces of plaster creates a more natural effect than cutting it straight with something mechanical. I'm planning on using the dremel for adding in the details. It's much more suitable for that kind of work.

Modeling tool set

Below the results so far:

The smallest of them all

Grand canyon inside out

Two hill panels put together

Although it takes much longer, I like the process of moulding them. It's actually quite soothing, almost like meditating. Just me and my tools and a large blob of plaster to shape as I please.

Aligning the corner was surprisingly easier than I thought it would. Just place them together and duplicate it.

Sigh... right, only two more to go...

Modular Gaming Table: Part 6a

Finally, some materials have arrived all the way from Los Angeles! I've ordered Foam Fusion, Foam Coat and Styroplast from the Hot Wire Foam Factory. For those not familiar with these products below are some review videos done by Terranscape:

I'm planning on using Styroplast on the hill-sides and the Foam Coat for the flat areas. But, before I can apply these materials I need to do some preparation work and various tests to get familiar them.

First, I continued with the river panels. Using a sharp knife I carved out more detail into the river borders, then I sanded the whole panel and poured modeling plaster into the river. Not too much, just about 3 mm thick. The plaster functions as a ground surface and helps to smooth out the borders. It also allows you to put some stones in place, like this:

When the plaster completely dried I sanded it again and made sure all connecting points matched. At this stage the river panels are ready for the Foam Coat. I'm planning on combining the Foam Coat with Latex wall paint and various stone materials to create the required surface. Normally the Foam Coat dries within 10 minutes, adding Latex will extend the drying time, furthermore it allows me to apply a thicker layer without wasting the three pounds of Foam Coat.

As for the hills, I wasn't quite sure yet on how to make them. I knew the basic shape and size, but didn't want to cut-out the cliff-sides with a knife or foam cutter. So, while working on the river panels I tried out different tests with plaster. If you combine the foam with plaster you can mould all kinds of intricate details into the plaster with some simple cutting tools. So, the plan is to put blobs of plaster on the hill-sides, mould the cliffs out of it and put the Styroplast over the plaster to give it a rock hard surface. Something like this:

Having worked out which methods to use for the hills, I started out by cutting the foams boards. I glued these together with Foam Fusion and created two pieces of 40x40x4cm and two pieces of 40x20x4cm. I placed them on the panels and outlined the initial shape of the hill with a marker, then I cut them out with a foam cutter and sanded the entry points of the two hills, like this:

Dutch mountains

As you can see I've cut out the sides of the hill in a 45 degree angle. This will serve as a bedding for the plaster. Maybe I'll remove some more foam later, a curved angle would be better than a straight one.

Just like the panels, the hills get a wooden border for protection. Incidentally, the hill border is a bit smaller than the panel borders. This has mainly to do with the fact that I ran out of materials than anything else. In this case only the hight and length are important. I made the hill borders a bit shorter than the actual hills, the plaster will straighten this out in the end.

Don't mind the markings, they're incorrect

All four hill panels with hill borders in place

The plaster takes awfully long to dry. When it does, I'll take you through the process of the actual moulding of the hills. After that, we're on our way for some serious foam coating.

Modular Gaming Table: Part 5b

I just couldn't help it, I wanted to do a test with a 4x3 configuration. I was amazed by how easy all the panels just clicked into place. I did have one setback though. I discovered that I made a mistake on one of the panels. Somehow the panel borders where assembled in the wrong order, rendering the panel useless. I will have to remake it or adjust the cut-outs in the borders. Luckely for me I did anticipate the chance for human error and bought some extra materials upfront. When doing 12 panels one is bound to go wrong I guess.

When seeing the whole thing assembled it did bring back a smile on face :)

This is the configuration I made

Bringing everything downstairs and assembling it took me 30 minutes. The whole test did made me realize that the bars underneath the panels should have a total margin of 4 mm. This will give the panels more movement for adjusting their position. In overall I'm very content with the result so far.