New Terrain Tiles for the New Table

[Lord_Bryon]

I can't wait to see these painted up. They look fantastic!

[chaoshead]

@Lord_Bryon  --  Thank you.  Painting has started!

 

Now that the travelling part of my vacay is over and I am back home, I have a little bit of time to hobby before the gf drags me to do other stuff with her again.

 

I forgot to post this update yesterday, oops...

 

I finally finished getting all the ballast onto the tiles.  I found that instead of using two layers of glue and ballast to get a less than smooth effect and cover up the texture of the mdf I could just use extra glue and press the ballast into the glue.  This saved a bit of time as the wood glue takes a solid four hours to dry/cure enough to apply a second layer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More coming in the next post!

[chaoshead]

Forgot to include the score card in the last post for those keeping track at home.  All the tiles that are getting rocks and ballast have been rocked and ballasted.

 

 

That all dried overnight last night.

 

Today I broke out the airbrush and sprayed the first layer of paint into the riverbed.  I did all the sides and flat ground area by hand with a 2" brush.  A very dark brown to represent very fertile soil...until I ran out of cheap black paint then it was just a moderately dark brown.  It will be fine since 99% of the flat ground area will get covered by flock and the river will get more paint then water effects.

 

Does anyone know if I can tint water effects without ruining it???  I will have to look into that.

 

Ten tiles on the table..

 

 

 

Two on boxes on the floor drying.

 

 

Three on the shelves.

 

 

One very wet one drying on the workbench as I am out of space.

 

 

I hope to get more painting in after dinner.

 

I have a few days of my vacay left and I would love to get these finished before heading back to work.  Unfortunately, I have a very big obligation on Friday that I can not skip and another Monday, we shall see what happens I guess.

[chaoshead]

Today's update is a pretty decent sized update, completing a full stage on all the tiles!  Woohoo!

 

Started the day off airbrushing the rocks on all the tiles a nice dark grey color.

 

 

 

 

Then I cleaned the airbrush, put it away and pulled out a nice soft 1 1/2" brush and started dry brushing a medium brown over all the riverbed sections.

 

 

 

Then a creamy light brown was lightly dry brushed over all riverbeds.

 

 

 

Then the beach sections received an ivory dry brush.

 

 

Think they need more of the ivory?

 

The next post will have more pics since I am sure there is an image max per post that I am probably getting close too.

 

 

[chaoshead]

With the browns finished I moved to the greys of the rocks.

 

A nice medium grey was dry brushed over all the rocks.

 

 

 

Then a very light grey was dry brushed over all the rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for the painting portion of the project.  All the tiles are painted!

 

For those keeping track at home, the score card...

 

 

Anyone see any problems or have any suggestions up to this point?

 

C&C is always welcomed.

[robinh]

I would suggest the grey of the rock area be blended a bit more into the general browns of the main riverbed.  As it is, they look very stark in comparison and stand out in an unnatural sort of way.  Usually sediment gathers up around the rocks and does not normally leave gravel beds like you have there.   The rocks themselves should stay grey. 

[chaoshead]

Yeah, I was thinking about that after seeing the pics.  Not sure how much I want to blend it all the way in but I do think it needs some blending.

[Lord_Bryon]

Looks good.  I agree that the rocks need to be toned down a bit but only a little.  As is it's still better than a lot of terrain I've seen.  Keep it up. 

[chaoshead]

@Lord_Byron  --  Thanks for that sir.  I did tone down the transitional small rocks this morning after sleeping on it last night.

 

Here is the proof.

 

 

Not a lot, just enough so they it doesn't really stand out as much as it did before.

 

Then I started adding clump foliage to the riverbank, got all of that done.

 

 

Then I started detailing the riverbeds and banks with deadfall and other grass, I only managed to get two of these finished before it was time for me to go.

 

 

 

That's all for now, hope to get more finished tomorrow.

[chaoshead]

Today was "finish the vegetation in the riverbed day" and it was a success, for the most part.  I made my son help me since he had the day off work and I am tired of him just sitting in front of his pc all day(I know that makes me a mean parent and frankly, I don't really care  ).

 

The barbarians are starting to actually like their new homeland, with the exception that there seems to be no water or food anywhere.

 

Here they are exploring most of the new land.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They discovered a natural dam that will hopefully make crossing any river that may appear in the riverbed at least a little easier.

 

 

The full pics in the next post.

[chaoshead]

With the help of my son holding tiles at the end of the table I was able to lay out the tiles and take pics of possible layouts.

 

Looking down the left side of the table here there are five tiles, that's roughly eight feet of river.

 

 

Looking down the left side again, here are four tiles making a shorter river with a branch and a curve at the end, roughly six feet of river.

 

 

Here are the last three river tiles, a curve and the two beach pieces.

 

 

If you look closely at the two beach pieces you can see the rocks I added out in the water area.  I felt that the beaches were too open and empty.  I will need to paint them and get them finished tomorrow so I can move along to the next step of the process.

 

Flocking!!!

[hosercanadian]

I would suggest adding some thin green washes to the rocks in a few places. Very fine patches of algae form on river rocks except in the fastest rivers. It will give a bit of contrast and add realism when viewed both under the water and above.

[Chaoswolf]

That's going to be a pretty impressive table when you're finished with it!

[chaoshead]

Thanks guys.

 

I had thought about adding some green to represent algae, and I still may depending on how my little test pieces turn out.  I am either going to tint the realistic water a very light brown/green color or paint in some algae and leave the water clear.

 

The test pieces need to dry for a day or two before even thinking about pouring water apparently.

 

Pics when those are done.

[spencerjohn]

Love this project!  You are kicking some butt!

 

Apparently they key is to build a good game table first.....