Yet another Sectional Terrain Project

I've embarked upon yet another sectional terrain project.  Why?  The likely answer is because I'm nuts.  The reason I tell most people is that I just prefer sectional terrain to terrain cloths.  Terrain cloths aren't "bad", it's just I don't like how they don't stay flat.  The fist pictures shows 2 of the boards with some testing for ground cover.

This third iteration of terrain squares are based on a 24 x24 inch  base size.  To make them easier to transport they are only one inch in height, which is plenty of room for terrain depressions like craters, rivers and trenches.

Why 2x2?  It's the Goldilocks principal - my first iteration used mostly 2x4 panels which I found two hard to both transport and store.  The second iteration used 1ft x 1ft precut panels for Sally Forth which is a great product but I found them tedious to set up and I've got a good workshop to build my own.  2x2 ft seems "just right".

If you don't have access to power tools the Sally Forth stuff is a fantastic option.  I will incorporate the Sally Forth sections I build last year so the can be used with these.

I'll do a series of posts on how to build these but the construction is rather simple.  The sides are 1/4 inch plywood, the bottom 1/4 in MDF and the interior is 3/4 inch Extruded Polystyrene (EPS)

Here's a rather boring shot of my cutting the sides to length.  I went with a simple but joint so two of the strips are 24 inches long and 2 are 23.5 inches.

After an hour or so at the Miter Saw, I've got all the wood parts cut to length for 10 2x2 ft sections.  I'm making a lot of these

 These sections will be held in place with wooden pegs.  I went with pegs over magnets as they are a good bit stronger and way easier to install as one doesn't have to worry about polarity with wooden pegs.

 Another test of different ground covers.  The base ground texture is pre-mixed and pre-colored tile grout mixed with a little PVA glue.  It provides a nice ground texture and dries rock hard.   I went with the "earth" colored grout and was very happy.  I also has dome paint mixed up to match the Vallejo "Tan Earth" color to use to paint the sides and touch up thin spots.

I'm not using static grass as the base ground texture as these boards will be used for lots of different scales form 6mm up to 28mm.  A few are planned to be savanna type terrain and those will use static grass.

 Of course there will be rivers!

Lots of river options.  There was a bit of a resin pour disaster so most of my river sections require a good bit of "restoration work"

 Lastly some shore sections.  I'll still use terrain cloths for sea but did want to build 6 feet of "shore line" to effect the transition

These terrain sections will likely make their debut at Historicon this summer.  There is a slight chance they'll be ready for Cold Wars.

By the way, If anyone is interested, I've got a bunch of nicely used 2x4 panels for adoption if one is willing to come to Maryland and pick them up!  They need a little touch up work but I'll throw in the storage rack and a bucket of the static grass mix for patching.

Please, somebody adopt us.  Our owner keeps saying terrible things about being torn apart for spare parts.  Historicon veterans like ourselves shouldn't be treated this way

A picture of the boards in their youth....