Post by darkjedilaw on Feb 22, 2012 12:13:39 GMT -7
Well, I had intended on posting some pictures of the process, but that idea was shot to crap when I found the photo files were corrupted.
Anywho....
After attending the GengisCon FoW tourney I discovered that apparently a "good" FoW table has a river on it. So, wanting to make a good table, I set out ot make my own.
This is where there would be a picture of the materials I started with. You would see a picture of 1/8" pressboard. You can pick up a sheet of this for about 5 bucks at Home Depot or Lowes. Its about 2' by 3'. Next to it you would see my jigsaw. You could probably cut the pressboard with a hand saw, but a dremel would be better for curves. You would also see a hot glue gun, a bucket of sheet rock mud, and various cans of spray paint.
Next you would see a picture of pieces drawn on the pressboard. I picked a 3 inch wide river to give me a bit of double duty for 28mm stuff. It is a wide river for 15mm games, and a creek for 28mm stuff. The key here is to put 3" markers every so often between your stop and end points. You can meander in and out, but make sure at the ends you maintain 3". That way the pieces line up together placed on the table. Also, and this is something I forgot. Make sure you have "pairs" of 90 degree turns. That way, you can make sure to have enough curve your river, but have the correct turns to come in and leave on both short or long table edges.
Also, make sure to put a couple narrower spots on the river to act as fording points. Nothing sucks more than to play with a river with only one bridge. It becomes a natural choke point and can lead to some really unfun games. My river will have two natural "fords" and then when I get a bridge, I will be able to put it anywhere else. The river should act as a deterent to movement, but not totally prevent it. (save that for your pioneers and their minefields! :angel:)
Now you would see a picture of river pieces with hot glue "banks". Hot glue is easy to use, cheep, and holds paint better than silicone. I doubled up on it...ran one bead the entire length, then stacked another bead ontop...to give it some depth.
Next picture would have been showing the sheet rock mud forming the "river". The stuff is pretty darn useful. I think the bucket cost me all of 7 bucks and itsn't 1/4 empty yet. It doesn't have to be wall smooth, and actually looks better with some texture on it. In the "ford" locations, I put some pea sized and smaller pumice stones I had to delineate the fording locations. The sheet rock mud should have been a bit thicker to hold them better, but most of them have stayed in place.
Thus concludes day one of the project. The mud needs 24ish hours to dry, though the dry Colorado climate helps speed this up. Also the pressboard helps pull some moisture out.
Day two, and a lovely picute of primed river pieces. I used my normal Duplicolor primer...I pick it up at pretty much any automotive supply store. I find it works as good as any GW primer, costs less than a third, though it can take a bit longer to dry than the GW stuff. This can is giving me a few fits as its it getting "thin" as it is emptying, but for terrain purposes, it is fine.
From this point on, its pretty much up to individual tastes on how to finish them out. I hit them with a dry brush of an old pot of Space Wolf grey, then covered the entire river section with old "blue ink" as I had an old pot of that as well.
The important thing to remember here when doing terrain is DONT USE YOUR GOOD PAINTS! Seriously. Go to one of the hardware stores and ask if they have any discount cans. People mix paint, then take them home and decide they don't like it in "that light" all the time. Thier indecision is your benefit. "Green" is usually "green" enough for terrain purposes. Especially base coats. Even if you want "goblin green" it is still better to take your pot in, ask them to color match, then get a lower quality pint of the color you want, rather than buying a dozen pots of goblin green. I know Jesse will disagree with me on that point, but it saves more money to buy models, which is why we need the terrain in the first place.
I should have the river with me Sat night for anyone that wants to come see it first hand, rather than in the stunning, high definition photos I included in this post. I'll probably also have some hills I made as well.
Anywho....
After attending the GengisCon FoW tourney I discovered that apparently a "good" FoW table has a river on it. So, wanting to make a good table, I set out ot make my own.
This is where there would be a picture of the materials I started with. You would see a picture of 1/8" pressboard. You can pick up a sheet of this for about 5 bucks at Home Depot or Lowes. Its about 2' by 3'. Next to it you would see my jigsaw. You could probably cut the pressboard with a hand saw, but a dremel would be better for curves. You would also see a hot glue gun, a bucket of sheet rock mud, and various cans of spray paint.
Next you would see a picture of pieces drawn on the pressboard. I picked a 3 inch wide river to give me a bit of double duty for 28mm stuff. It is a wide river for 15mm games, and a creek for 28mm stuff. The key here is to put 3" markers every so often between your stop and end points. You can meander in and out, but make sure at the ends you maintain 3". That way the pieces line up together placed on the table. Also, and this is something I forgot. Make sure you have "pairs" of 90 degree turns. That way, you can make sure to have enough curve your river, but have the correct turns to come in and leave on both short or long table edges.
Also, make sure to put a couple narrower spots on the river to act as fording points. Nothing sucks more than to play with a river with only one bridge. It becomes a natural choke point and can lead to some really unfun games. My river will have two natural "fords" and then when I get a bridge, I will be able to put it anywhere else. The river should act as a deterent to movement, but not totally prevent it. (save that for your pioneers and their minefields! :angel:)
Now you would see a picture of river pieces with hot glue "banks". Hot glue is easy to use, cheep, and holds paint better than silicone. I doubled up on it...ran one bead the entire length, then stacked another bead ontop...to give it some depth.
Next picture would have been showing the sheet rock mud forming the "river". The stuff is pretty darn useful. I think the bucket cost me all of 7 bucks and itsn't 1/4 empty yet. It doesn't have to be wall smooth, and actually looks better with some texture on it. In the "ford" locations, I put some pea sized and smaller pumice stones I had to delineate the fording locations. The sheet rock mud should have been a bit thicker to hold them better, but most of them have stayed in place.
Thus concludes day one of the project. The mud needs 24ish hours to dry, though the dry Colorado climate helps speed this up. Also the pressboard helps pull some moisture out.
Day two, and a lovely picute of primed river pieces. I used my normal Duplicolor primer...I pick it up at pretty much any automotive supply store. I find it works as good as any GW primer, costs less than a third, though it can take a bit longer to dry than the GW stuff. This can is giving me a few fits as its it getting "thin" as it is emptying, but for terrain purposes, it is fine.
From this point on, its pretty much up to individual tastes on how to finish them out. I hit them with a dry brush of an old pot of Space Wolf grey, then covered the entire river section with old "blue ink" as I had an old pot of that as well.
The important thing to remember here when doing terrain is DONT USE YOUR GOOD PAINTS! Seriously. Go to one of the hardware stores and ask if they have any discount cans. People mix paint, then take them home and decide they don't like it in "that light" all the time. Thier indecision is your benefit. "Green" is usually "green" enough for terrain purposes. Especially base coats. Even if you want "goblin green" it is still better to take your pot in, ask them to color match, then get a lower quality pint of the color you want, rather than buying a dozen pots of goblin green. I know Jesse will disagree with me on that point, but it saves more money to buy models, which is why we need the terrain in the first place.
I should have the river with me Sat night for anyone that wants to come see it first hand, rather than in the stunning, high definition photos I included in this post. I'll probably also have some hills I made as well.
