Monday, May 11, 2015

Sectional Terrain: More mountains and a river


 A bit more progress on the "mountain" sections with the basic ground paint being applied.  I have noticed that the grout / white glue mix takes a very long time to dry when it's more than 1/16 of an inch thick.  I may switch to using hydrocal plaster or plaster cloth for basic contours and then keeping the coating of grout very thin.  The rock faces have also been carved into the two sections.
 Lighting can be a funny thing in pictures - the shade of light brown is the same between the two sections but shows up much darker in the pic.  My garage workshop could use some better lighting.
 Some "boulders" ready for painting.  Just random pieces of foam foam from cut-offs that are tacked down to a piece of 2x4 and awaiting painting.  It's easier to put paint boulders separately and then apply once the basic ground foam is down - keeps unwanted glue and flock from getting on them.
 While I was waiting for the mountain sections to dry, I decided to add the plaster contours to the river bank and then texture with my trusty grout/white glue mix.  The banks are lined with plaster cloth and then covered with grout.  The river is 3" wide and enters/exits each board in the middle.  Once I get comfortable I can do the water (which is a tricky subject) a 2x4 foot river section will also be built.  About 1/3 of the way from the top of the picture there's a spot for a ford.  The plan is to scratch build a few bridge options (one in 15mm and the other in 28mm scale) so there's a few methods to cross.  As Sunday May 10th comes to a close, 24 square feet of the planned 70'ish is close to done so progress is being made - which is good 'cause my time allowed to lobby stuff is about to take a big hit....

My sailboat goes in the water this week.  The anti-floulent paint on the hull (the red) had to be repainted as it was peeling off (the builder didn't do it right).  I've still got to have the electronics installed (depth finder, GPS plotter and wind gauge) but that's supposed to be done early this week.

Despite the distraction the Bucentaure poses, I'm still feeling comfortable about getting everything done in time for Historicon.  We shall see....

More Stupid Terrain Modeler tips - this is a rolling list of things I've learned while doing this project

(1) Ground foam crops look awful when they are different sizes and not spaced evenly - take the time to add details in the right way and don't rush

The additions from this post:

(2) Gravity stays in effect while building terrain.  I had forgotten that water flows to the lowest level and after leaving the risky depression board to dry overnight and came in to discover that the diluted glue had kept into the sand bottom and brought along enough flock to cover it - the whole section had to be redone.  I should have put some dam's in place.

(3) Plaster cloth is great for terrain but don't but the hobby version which is expensive - buy the cloth from a medical supply house (it's the stuff used to make casts) - you can get 5x the amount for 1/3 the price.



3 comments:

Peter Douglas said...

Miles
Great looking terrain. But the Bucentaire looks wonderful! I am jealous. Anti fouling paint was the source of many minor issues on my boat. I recall once having a tin run dry with about 4 square feet of hull left bare - requiring a new tin of very expensive paint.
Cheers, PD

Curt said...

The 'Bucentaire' is brilliant. Nonetheless, it could use a bow chaser. Perhaps a compact 32 pounder would do the trick? ;)

marinergrim said...

Interesting watching this project develop. Keep up the good work.