Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 15 May 2017

New Terrain Boards

"Jablite" ((goodness knows why the black bits)
Although I have been very busy this week, it seems I have very little to show for all my efforts.
I purchased a pack of expanded polystyrene insulation sheets ("Jablite" from B&Q), iirc 8 sheets for about £14-£15. They're an awkward size (for me at least) being 4 foot long by 18 inches wide and about 1 inch thick. {1200mm x 450mm x 25mm).
They're only one step up from the old polystyrene ceiling tiles that very in vogue many years ago and not as strong as some polystyrene packaging that I've used in the past, but I reckon they're good enough for my purposes. There are other thicknesses available in similar sizes and larger, single sheets too (8' x 4' - 2400mm x 1200mm).
Each stage of prep work I left overnight to dry, so here's the pics:
The materials, filler, water, pva and paint.
                        
First step, pva and black paint covering the edges.
Pva, filler, water and paint
Final coat of paint (how boring is this?)
After coating the three boards I was working on with the pva, filler, water, paint mix they dried out to a much lighter brown than I wanted, but which I'd anticipated.
A further coat of brown was applied to get an even colour over all three boards; though it's not that apparent in the photograph on the right they are the same colour! (Blame my well-known photography skills).
These three boards will provide a gaming area of some 48" x 54", more than sufficient for a large skirmish and  well within the areas used by most "boutique" games (or games in a box as I call them) - "Frostgrave, Malifaux etc.).
Pirates, take 2 (- the four rows to the right are the newly based ones)







Most of my time however has been used either basing figures  (a thankless task I find no pleasure in) or painting figures (ditto) which can be seen in the  photograph below.
The figures below are from a project I started some ten to fifteen years ago, that I  came across once more during the upheaval that was my daughter's family living with us prior to getting their new home. (I'm as yet und3ecided if by finding these finding these, it  was a good thing or not!)




50+ figures - nearly finished.
So as was said at the start, a busy week (by my standards) with little to show for all the effort put in.

And that's it then for this week, thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomes and appreciated.

18 comments:

  1. Great progress on the boards Joe, that should provide a cracking space to game on.

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    1. Thanks Michae, I'm keeping them very plain too, so they'll be quite versatile.

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  2. terrific stuff Joe. I'm looking forward to seeing these finished and covered in minis :-)

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    1. Thanks Michal. Cheif ? Whatever can you mean ?

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  4. That's the trouble with the basics mate they are dull to do but so important. I hate basing minis and the prep work for the boards I do drive me to distraction but totally necessary

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    1. Thanks dGGm you of all people I knew would appreciate what I've been doing and if I didn't post about I'd be posting nothing!

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    2. A little tip I saw on t'internet last week is to add a bit of carpenters caulk to the mix too, it will make it super solid and get rid of the little bobbles

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    3. Tahnsk for the tip dGG, never heard of 'carpenters caulk', btu will look out for it and as for bobbles I can live with them!

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  5. I find I get more viewing my blog when making terrain. I hope the same for you. I should make more terrain I really need to. Hope the boards turn out well while the "grunt" work appears unrewarding it makes a HUGE difference when done right as the boards come out better. So every hour spent doing it now is a bonus.

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement Clint, I hardly call this 'terrain', but had it not been for the blogging and interweb community I'd still be playing on bare boards.

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  6. Good to get all the basics done, I quite like painting the figures I'm less keen on basing them so I have a 3 year backlog of figures I'm now basing!
    Best Iain

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    1. Basing is indeed an irksome task, one I truly hate but it is 'de rigeur' these days - no longer can I get away with green paint on the base of the figure!
      Good luck getting your back-log cleared !

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  7. Well, there's always something dull in any hobby. But just think of pushing on to the end result :-) !

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    1. Thanks C6, but I'm not really happy with them ...and there's at least another three to go!

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  8. I think the basing is looking great, but dear God 50 at a time how awfully boring.

    I also think your nation's Styrofoam looks funny, but perhaps our foam is just as strange to you.

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    1. Thanks BF, I'm not that happy with the basing, but it'll do I guess.
      Can't comment on your foam as there's so many different types.

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