Saturday, January 14, 2012

Modular Terrain WIP: Day Two

An update on my progress and method. Yes, there is a method to my madness.

Well, everything had plenty of time to dry during the week. So, with all the glue dried, I was ready to put on a base coat of paint. I was off to Leroy Merlin in order to buy a gallon of paint.

As an American living in Italy, I had a pretty fun time trying to buy the right paint. The gentleman working in the paint department didn't speak English, and I don't really speak Italian (enough for greetings and ordering food or an espresso at the Caffe Bar). So, he logged onto his computer and navigated to Google Translate. I typed in what I wanted, and he typed in the response. All in all, it was a pretty cool experience.

I learned a few things. One important one is that we Americans are fond of talking about latex paint. The Italian paint industry does not follow this pattern. My understanding from further research is that there is not any actual latex in latex paint. It is a term which we use to describe several different polymer compositions which act like latex after they dry.

Asking for textured latex paint did me no good. After telling him what I was doing, we found a non-textured acrylic paint which is water soluble for cleaning and dries to form a flexible and resilient coat of paint.

I painted this on with a brush. It took three coats to cover the yellow polystyrene. After this had dried, I began putting modeling sand (I used a tub from GW) into the craters. I painted on PVA glue and poured the sand in on top. I also glued on some small rocks which I grabbed out of the parking lot at my apartment. I brought the rocks/pebbles in and rinsed them off. After drying, I placed them into some of the low places with PVA glue.

I want to mention that I traced out a pattern for cement/asphalt on the raised terrace. I cut a small 'v' into the surface to imitate the joints in cement or concrete. I also cut some small squares of thin, one-layer cardboard (from a cereal box) and glued them on the side of the raised terrace area. This will add a bit of detail to look like joints in concrete or the like.

We are well on our way. I ordered a bunch of flock and static grass, but the next step is more painting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice ork Feldmarshal. I enjoy these mini related but not mini posts.

I remember Karitas' from last year (?) and picked up some good tips there.

This is looking good. Looking forward to seeing how you detail it up and what (if any) scatter/terrain you develop to put onto it.

Feldmarshal Goehring said...

Thanks a lot, friend. I learned a lot for Karitas.

Concerning the terrain, I decided not to build static terrain in order to be able to mix the table up a bit.

I have started some ruined buildings. I will do barricades and rubble piles. I also have plans to do some trees. We will see what happens. I have the grand idea of something like the Imperial Cathedral/Palace at some point in the future.

Thanks for reading.