TERRAIN JOURNAL: PART THE SIXTH

 

A beautiful sunny day again this Saturday but a bit too windy for a spray gun. Nevertheless, as I finished covering my eight hill boards with synthetic fur during the week, it was time to trim 'em down. If I didn't clean up after each tile as I went, the back room would have looked like a scene from Tom Robert's "The Golden Fleece".

As you can see from the top shot, I shaved down the tops of each hill section with a number 1 comb to better allow the peaks to sit flat as the following image shows.
 

I haven't quite decided how I'll texture the tops but I'm thinking of basing them on vinyl to give them a bit of weight and protect what is quite thin foam on their edges.

I have made three hills in two halves each - a small (above), a medium and a large hill in terms of how far they extend into the board from the edge. They were all measured and sculpted in reference to each other so that they can mix and match, giving me six hill type options.

Above is the medium hill. I also created a tile wide hill mid-section or saddle if you prefer to join together any two ends and create a running ridge line. The last section which really stands alone is a corner section. I can't recall why I made that unless it was a bend which I forgot to finish properly before covering it. It will come in handy I'm sure.

When weather and opportunity permit, they will be painted in a day and edged with tape. That will bring the total number of my new boards to 18. In the meantime, I've purchased a pack of 14 more foam pieces which will make for 28 more 600 x 600 mm sections. I'm ready to start on a road junction, some higher ground for villages, a crop tile or two and a road/hill section.