Board Project 2 - Painting roads (part 1)

   Onwards with the terrain board making!
Today it was painting roads, three coats today and I think they will be finished tommorow (possible everything else as well.

   In terms of painting, I basically drybrush a series of coats onto a black base - finishing with a series of very pale highlights.

  To begin with I sprayed the filler on the roads black, with paint from a spray can. It is a really good base for the rest of the paint (I really like black base coats they fill in the crevices and create shadow effects where you can't get your brush).

   Next I added a coat of burnt umber pretty much everywhere, when it dries it looks very black anyway.

   The last coat for today was some raw sienna - the first one that really brings out the texture of the filler. I applied it as a moderately wet dry brush layer. It dries to a very dark shade as well, and further coats are applied over it so I was pretty careless with applying this coat, caution comes later.

  And that was it for today. I hope to add another update tomorrow.

Some Terrain philosophy (sorry no pics)

 In my previous experience of making terrain a plan means everything.
To be instantly hypocritical, I did not do much planning for the current two tiles. I have however made them to match the measurements of my other boards, which were meticulously thought over and designed.
 
    The thing I have found making these 2ft tiles is that you are constantly trying to fight the square. No I am not talking about Napoleonic warfare, what I mean is that you are constantly trying to hide the fact that your basic design elements are squares (which are not often found in nature). It is too easy to end up with a bunch of terrain features which are also squares, sharp road corners in the centre of the tile or hills that do the same. Even worse you overemphasise the wrong things: mountain hills or ditches that look as if they could be WW1 trenches (which may be the thing you are aiming for after all).
    To counter act this I have tried to follow three simple rules in drafting and building these boards.

1. Never have any terrain feature or boundary (like the edge of a hill) on the centre point of the board 
2. Try to move away from the entry point of a feature as soon as possible - just because a road enters and leaves a tile in the middle of and perpendicular to the edge, doesn't mean it has to continue that way, try to curve it as quickly as possible.
3. If you think a hill is small enough and it's slopes are shallow enough, make it smaller and shallower. Repeat for hills that do not continue off of the board

   I also try to think, what would happen in the real world - why is my road suddenly swerving to the left?, would this spur really be dead straight for 200m?

   In cases where I decide I want my terrain to do something opposite to common sense, I try to find a reason for it, putting a hill in the way of my road or carve a cliff to meld the hill with the dead flat plain beside it. 

  I have also tried to model my terrain on real places, which is probably to make your terrain feasible.

  Anyway, enough random stuff, I'm sure I'll come round to talking about something more interesting than even more terrain next time. 

A new board project ... to make up for the other one ending

       Well I got carried away with the other boards despite my best intentions, and they were finished before I had a chance to properly photograph each stage (Boo - no photos) (Yay, a quick and easy way to make terrain boards). Then Christmas came around and I completely forgot about this blog.
       They looked fantastic, but were limited by the fact that they are only a 4ft by 4ft piece. So to solve two problems at once I decided to make another two.
       I couldn't summon the willpower to make a pair of river boards (an eventual goal) so I decided on a couple of road corners instead, in terms of layout they will give me a good ratio of road/empty edges, meaning I don't have to continue making roads in the future (frees up space for other interesting things).

      I managed to get 3 cm thick foam this time, meaning no more tedious sawing. Instead I was able to draw my plans straight onto the foam and get started.

A trusty felt tip pen, safe from the perils of cutting into the foam

The road being marked out, I drew a centre line where I wanted the road to go (and leave the terrain tile) then marked out the width of the road either side of the centre line.

   On one of the new tiles I wanted to sink the road into the foam, I worked really well on my last ones. To do this I gouged a hole with my knife, a tricky task, but it pays off. I cut the hole in two overlapping sections with two main cuts, a vertical one along the edge of the hole and then a slanted one from just further than the middle. What you end up with is a very deep looking set of ruts, you can solve this by hacking at the middle part and covering your mess with filler (later).

The first section's two cuts completed

Sorry for how weird this one looks, I think I had some dodgy lighting.

    Next I wanted some mounds on the boards to add some height and interest to them. Like an idiot I chucked out all my cutting from the other boards and so I had to use ... white polystyrene ... (anything but this, please nooooo) which I had lying around from another project.

Just close your eyes and this horrible dream will end.

   Not that there is anything wrong with it, I just vastly prefer the yellow stuff now I can get it.
   Anyway, I hacked out some hill shaped polystyrene ( an example above) and put them on the boards in various ways until I found one I liked.

   In the picture above I finally settled on the shown layout as it will increase the perceived depth of the cutting, while not being too geographically insane.

    Next I fillered up the roads (covered them with all purpose filler).

Disregard the PVA glue bottle, that has nothing to do with the road filler

   This does many things, firstly it provides an obvious reminder that they are there so I don't end up towelling them over (you will see this later). Secondly It means that I am able to add some texture to the roads ( adding wheel ruts - the filler also looks very 'roady' when dry). Thirdly it means I am able to put a spray paint a base coat on the roads before I paint them (polystyrene and foam do not like spray paints at all, which I am sure you know). Finally it allows me to smooth out the road cuttings I made earlier.

   Now one thing I have forgotten to mention is the MDF base I am adding to all of the tiles. This does many things such as helping to prevent warping (especially important if you are cutting down into the tile), and helps to protect the tile. However it does make the tiles rather heavy so they are optional I suppose.
   All I do for the MDF is saw it into shape, and then whack it onto the foam, using PVA glue to make sure it stays there.

Sawing

PVA for stickyness (I smear it around before I stick the foam to the MDF to make sure I have a good bond)

   And that is it, all done for a day, waiting for various things to dry. I'll post more progress later (honestly).

   Starting a set of tiles anew, I was again amazed at how low cost this project can be (provided I don't want any rivers - resin is very pricey) - $14 for the foam (only 3 cm thick this time) and $5 for the MDF. I think the PVA cost my another 5 a wile ago, and is only just starting to run out. Filler is a bit expensive, but I have used very little to make all six boards, about 1/4 of a pot.