Monday, May 3, 2010

Trench Table is Brown Now

I found some time and made more progress on my trench terrain. First, I covered the playing surfaces in a 2/1 ratio of plain glue/water. After that I sprinkled, tossed, poured, threw, and dumped paving sand on top of the glue/water mix.

I let the sand glue mess dry overnight, but the next day it hadn't all dried. The wet parts were mostly crater bottoms which came off when I tried shop vacuuming up the loose sand. Other sand came off flat surfaces of the boards where I hadn't placed enough glue. Worst of all the sand was extremely fragile and came off the boards with the slightest touch.

I had some extra cans of unwanted wood stain; I thought I might save some cash and use these to stick the sand to the board and then I could spray on paint quickly. My plans failed quickly. The first can I tried wasn't water based and started melting the styrofoam! The second quart was water based and looked great after it dried but didn't do the job; and the sandless patches shined through obnoxiously.

Stain was a failure so I went to Lowes and bought some flat latex 1 one gallon paint tubs (cheap as possible). I bought a dark brown and a lighter brown. I'm in the middle of applying them in that order. Completely cover in dark and dry brush in light. Then I will will stain with an Onyx Minwax non styrofoam melting water based stain and another light dry brushing.

After the painting, I'll start adding shoring to most of the trench sides. I'm going to use bamboo on the first try. My back up plans for this are wooden match stick and popsicle sticks. I cut the heads off several thousand matches and ate about 300 popsicles. Popsicles help stave off the minor thirst/hunger for human blood/flesh I acquired after cutting myself working on zombie models.

The picture shows several steps along the way. Left to right: failed cocoa wood stain, brown paint, dry brushed two tone brown paint.
Hopefully I won't be to busy after family with work and stupid school to get some more terrain work done soon.

very respectfully,
Brainsfat.....I mean Baconfat

2 comments:

  1. I saw the WIP, how far along is this now? You know I have some WW1 Frenchies & Germskis, right? Would love to try 'em out on your battlefield. I even have an A7V to plow through barbed wire. Dean

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  2. I am maybe 75% done with the project. The wooden parts in the trenches is super time intensive. Mindlessly gluing thousands of little logs on walls was killing me and I needed a break. I'm trying to make it modular so it you can have different setups every time you use it. Your interest has resparked mine and I'll see about getting it done.

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