Terrain Journal: Part the Second

 

Whilst I admit to juggling three hobby tasks at once, I still managed to advance my terrain today. The above terrain tile, as you may recall from Part the First is not a hill but a mere rising section of ground to break up the uniform flat. I chamfered the edges before hand sanding with 180 grit sand-paper. Once the surface is covered it will be less obvious. It stands only a few millimeters high - not even waist height for a based 28mm figure.

The next board has a little bit of 'up' and a wee bit of 'down' for some variation. I sliced and sanded the depression but I'm wondering if pressing the foam might have done the trick.

 

As for my hills, after scrutinizing them I decided to do some more sculpting. I had checked that my figures would balance on the slope okay but the rise of the slopes was still not gradual enough for my liking. You can see I traced a line around the top 'crest' sections and commenced carving the slope further back.

The next shot shows the base section carved back to the trace-line and the top section before refining it further. You can also see in shot the tool to use - this cheap and effective blade is just brilliant for this kind of work. My recommendation to anyone modelling XPS foam like this is to save sanding till the very last finishing stage. Keep persisting with carving, shaving, whittling away - quicker, less messy and just plain better.

 

Alright then, the next shot is after I finished carving ...

... and sanded.

I imagine this base section will get most use. I'll base the crest sections in thin ply (or something) to protect them. I have been contemplating sculptamold to build up an even more gradual slope but I suspect the results so far are more practicable for wargaming mechanics.

I was going to sand depressions into the roadways but I'm thinking now I'll just texture them with some caulking and have them looking ever-so-slightly raised - at least the first four sections. I have decided that the first series of tiles will represent a drier, Mediterranean spring/summer climate. The colour palette will range from light brown/straw to light beige/greens with white, dusty roads. The ground will be hard, hence the slightly raised roadways. I have a large Roman army, a ancient Spartan and a Napoleonic British Peninsular army so terrain which replicates Spain, Italy and Greece is all good for me. I'll worry about green Western Europe later on.