By the way, I don't know about you but I create a terribleness when terrain making. I've tried to be organized but fail epically.
When cutting lumber, it's best to do it in a large batch. It's important to be "in the mood" so the cuts are precise and you end the session with the same number of fingers attached as you started.
Each 2x4 panel requires 2, 24" lengths for the short edges, 2 46.5" lengths for the long edges and 1 22.5 inch length to run down the middle as a support. The outer edges are placed on their 0.75 inch side and the central support if placed on it's 1.75 inch side. As you can surmise from the dimensions I'm using butt joints rather than miter the edges. Why? butt joints will provide a bit more strength and these aren't furniture. I will dress the sides up with a gunstock varnish which does a good job hiding the edges.
One of the lumber pieces was a bit warped so I broke out some clamps and locked it in position to work out most of the warping. One can never have too many clamps when building something with wood. I've got over 100 of the orange handled clamps above and have worked on projects where they've all been in use at the same time.
Lastly, at the very top of the photo are the new edges for the hill sections 2, 18 inch and 2, 9 inch matched mitered edges. These will raise the hill profiles from the current 2 inches on the edges to 3.5 inches but it's worth a little redo work to get rid of that ugly gap.
One of the 2x4 sections will have a river running through it length wise so I'll need to cut opening in the edge sections to allow the 3.5 inch wide river through.
After cutting the river exits, the next step will be to assemble the sections. I use water proof wood glue as the main binding agent and brad nails to hold the sections in place. Once the glue dries the wood will break first before the bond so these panels are really solid. After that theres a lot of sanding to ensure the edges match up up to each other and no splinters for players.
Not the most exciting of updates, but it's a necessary one.
"I create a terribleness when terrain making"
ReplyDeletePersonally I create a terrible mess, but each to their own :-)
The auto spell correct is driving me nuts. Of course I could either turn it off or actually proof read but either one of those ideas seem to "practical" for me. It's a good thing I'm a "numbers" vs a "words" person or I starve to death!
ReplyDeleteAuto correct aside, this is a great series of posts. Very interesting to see how you're doing it. I'm trying to get past the theoretical stage on my terrain. A lot of it was half started around 1990 and never finished.
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