Terrain Time #2

 

Two weeks of posts in a row?!!? Let me explain... So as I said in my last post I had my birthday.  In honor of the occasion  I will be getting the Indianapolis division of Team Waynedale together.  Yes, 3 of us in the last 3 years made the 2 hour move south to the state capital.  As and added bonus the Oxford division also is also able to join.  We are doing things a bit differently this time around and meeting at my place on the south side instead of meeting up at Clint's place on the north side.  This event gave me the motivation to finish two pieces of terrain I'd been working on that have fallen to the way side in the past few months.



The first piece was a second tower.  It was constructed from found materials (Cardboard tube and scrap cardboard) I had laying around my place just like the last one.  This time however I added a ruined section of wall to the side of it. Once I had the wall and the tower glued together, and I had cut the stone lines with a rotary cutting tool.  I spray painted it a brownish gray color (or grey color which ever way floats your boat).  It then sat on my desk from July until the second week of October.  I then mixed up differing shades of brown, brownish red and gray and applied them as I saw fit to differing areas to show differing stone sources.  I also applied some white to the stone lines (I may go back over them in gray at a later time but for now they are white).

The second tower before painting

Second tower after painting and addition of plant life for aging

Top shot, showing the extra detail

The second piece that has been sitting on my desk for the same amount of time is a reflecting pool.  At school we were throwing away some Styrofoam packaging, so as I sometimes do I grabbed a piece that looked interesting.  I saw several pieces that  could cut out and with minimal shaping make into some useful terrain pieces.  One such form I saw was a reflecting pool.  I have for sometime wanted to experiment with a water feature for the table top.

There are a few differing methods for making water for the table top.  Obviously, good old H2O is not one of them.  The simplest but least convincing is a mirror.  That works for frozen surfaces, and is seen in Christmas Villages often (lets face it we aren't that far away from these or train sets so borrowing or stealing ideas from them isn't the end of the world; why reinvent the wheel?).  The next common method is PVA glue.  However, over time this turns from clear to cloudy and can become brittle and break. Another common substance is "fake water" this comes in two forms and can be found in the floral section of most craft stores.  One, that is probably the best is a two part clear casting resin.  It is very similar to epoxy, and as such should be used carefully and in a well ventilated area.   Also, use disposable plastic cups as  the epoxy will eat/dissolve Styrofoam.  Also, it is best to wear disposable gloves and lay down newspaper.  This stuff has its nasty side but it is minimal in the grand scheme of things and some caution and common sense is all that is needed.  The second form is a gel that is more or less solid at room temperature.  When heated in a pot of water this gel liquefies into a pourable liquid.  This the method I used.... It is less than ideal but when life gives you lemons make lemonade.  I used about 3/4s of the 7oz bottle for in this situation.

Foil liner and the 1st pour

I had intended on using the resin and being that my stone wall on the pool are just painted Styrofoam I built a foil liner for the resin.  But things didn't go 100% to plan but I didn't scrap the liner, I just poured the gel in.  I then ***Caution*** totally disregarded the directions.  The gel poured really unevenly, so I took a stick lighter and used it to heat the high and uneven spots to somewhat level out the gel.  I then applied some cheap blue paint to the gel.  It sat for about a day.  I then decided to pour another layer to help and even out the surface some more.  I again used the stick lighter to even out the surface (It isn't totally even).  I then applied more cheap paint and a little bit of some hawk turquoise.  It turned out pretty well, but not exactly as I had envisioned.  The cool thing is the paint does totally cover the foil liner.  This gives a a layered wavy effect to it.
The stone is portion follows the same process as the tower above.

More or less the finished product

That is all I've dug up for the moment I did get a few models form Sir Dragon but those haven't arrived yet.  So a future post about those will be forth coming.