Re: [Epic] Terrain question...

From: David Lado <lado_at_...>
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 15:29:04 -0400 (EDT)

>I've just completed cutting out 3 river sections for my sectional gaming table.
>It is now time to paint the river bed. I want to use this table on WH40K and
>EPIC40K scale, so I have a slight dilemma:
>
>How do I paint a good-looking river bed that looks realistic in both scales?

I don't know if I can provide the above information, but I can tell you
what I did for my rivers.

1) Slather on a thick layer of Gesso (primer for canvas) over the
    whole river bed.
2) When the gesso is tacky, pat the river bed with a wadded up paper
    towel. This removes the brush marks and gives the river bed a
    lumpy, ridged texture.
3) Paint the river bed black (black Gesso would work, but it's
    expensive).
4) (Optional) I used a blow dryer on the wet paint (paritally out
    of impatience :). If you heat the paint enough, it will begin to
    bubble, which can also produce a very nice texture. I ended up
    doing this to all the river beds.
5) Dry brush the river bed a medium-dark brown.
6) Dry brush the river (not the banks) a medium blue (I actually used
    blue green)
7) Lightly dry brush everything white or very light blue.
  
Notes:

This is very labor intensive. It looks nice (IMO), but I can say that
I wouldn't try to figure out a different way if I had it to do over.

As for the water, there are two options. One is to simply spray the
river bed with a gloss sealer, which gives everything a wet look
(good enough), or two, use acrylic water of some kind.

I actually went so far as to line the edge of the river with clumps
of flocking before I poured acrylic water in. Again, the effect was
very nice, but very labor intensive and fairly expensive (it took
alot of acrylic). Also, the water adds considerably to the weight
of the board.

>Also, has anybody used the Woodland Scenics water "beads" that you're supposed
>to melt and pour into your water area? How difficult is it to use? And do you
>think it would damage the foam I'm using for my board (pink insulation foam)?

I experimented with it, but quickly abandoned it since I was making the
terrain boards out of styrofoam, and the hot acrylic melted it (which was
a very neat effect also, but not what I wanted :). The pink insulation
foam may be more heat resistant, but I don't know. The other kind of
acrylic is catalyst based and has the disadvantage that it requires
24 hrs + to set. This means you need a safe place to leave the boards
while they set, where nothing will fall into the acrylic.

A word of warning about acrylic water of any kind:

1) It makes a huge mess, and will tightly adhere to almost any surface.
    Either work in an area you don't care about (basement, outside, ect)
    or work on some sort of very hard smooth stone surface which can
    stand being scraped. Do not work around wood or any kind of fabric
    unless it's expendable (no nice cloths). If you want to remove
    it, you will need to scrape it off and/or hit it with a strong
    organic solvent (acetone works, but wear rubber gloves).

2 You will need to tightly seal the river bed or the acrylic will
    leak right through. I used 2 thick layers of gesso, a thick layer
    of black paint, a spray sealer, and I still had a couple of
    leaks (see above).

3 Do _not_ spray sealer on the hard acrylic. It can turn the
    surface milky white :(.

Like I said, this is what I did, not what is best. I must say that
the river beds do look very nice (in my not-so-humble opinion :),
but I don't know if the acrylic was worth the effort. It looks
great, but the mess was a multi-day headache to clean up.

What ever you do, it is definitely worth the time and money to set
up one or two mock river beds (just get an extra board and cut some
text beds in it). Carry what ever process you want to use from
start to finish before you decide how you want to do it. It's
tempting to go at right away, but it is terribly annoying to
invest a week (or more) of effort into a set of river boards only
to realize there was a better/easier way.

Good luck.

David
Received on Tue Aug 05 1997 - 19:29:04 UTC