Next I need to 'fix' everything with a spray of varnish or something. If anybody has any ideas on what to use to spray the tiles with that will give a hard seal finish but without darkening down the grass too much I would appreciate any advice. I tried an experimental 'Klear/magic wash thinned with about 50% water and a touch of black ink - the dry was very good but it killed the static grass too dark, obviously a touch less ink!
Anyway, on Saturday I practically took over the kitchen and dining room and covered every surface with wet and drying hexes, a true production line job, I think I covered about 150 hexes to begin with which gave me plenty of spared to play with. I was glad when it was over and I could tidy up and have a shower, but it had been worth the effort I thought.
Sunday it was all change as it was our Grandaughters 4th Birthday and we had 10 around the table for dinner eventually. I was coaxed into having my photo taken with 'Peppa Pig' in order to prove to the birthday girl that she was not in the least bit scary, but to no avail, she went back upstairs and refused to come down until 'Peppa' left. Funniest bit for me was seeing the cash exchanging hands outside the front door, she still in full Pig costume.... cost my Son in Law £30 for that 15 minutes of 'interaction' I just could not help laughing.
Back to painting tomorrow, but here's a few shots of the last few days production on the terrain board. Much to still do including a thin edging strip to hold everything in place. There's still a bit of loose flock floating about as you can see!
*Edited to add ..... the Hardy's Ale 1981 is going to be saved for the inaugural AWI battle on this board, soon as it's sealed and framed.
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| I made those fieldwork strips especially for my Militia units! |
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| This is Foy's nightmare, look at all that loose flock Captain. |
I had to lie down for a bit, but I have to say the hexes look very good indeed. I am impressed by your rivers as well - I've been putting off painting rivers, but your efforts inspire me to get on with it. The picture with all the hexes laid out on the worktops looks a bit like a very strange day's baking…
ReplyDeleteThe Peppa Pig story is very funny - isn't life just like that?
Are the trees free-standing on the hexes?
Cheers - Tony
Hi Tony, everything is freestanding. The river was fun to do and a coat of varnish or Klear wash gives it a convincing shine.
DeleteMy wife is still finding flock in the kitchen!
Cheers,
Lee.
Terrain hexes look great. What are you using as the foundation for each hex? Are you cutting these yourself?
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan - I'm using laser cut 2mm thick MDF hexes, just added a link to the latest post.
DeleteLee.
Thanks, Lee!
DeleteHi it looks as though you are doing a fine job, I particularly like the road tiles. Out of interest are the roads purely decorative as I believe that they are not used in C&C or do you plan to modify the rules to use them? I have gone down a slightly different route to you in that I am avoiding flock/sand as I am worried that they will 'shed' a bit, so I am going for a more abstract look and purely painting the hexes. I have spent ages thinking about the grass colour and have had numerous sample pots of Dulux colour matched emulsion (my early attempts colour matching with the C&CN board were too light for my taste). I have now settled on Humbrol Grass Green 80 acrylic spray the colour is quite dark (about the same as WW2 US tank green) but I quite like that.
ReplyDeleteOne idea that you might want to adapt was in making river hexes, I got a fair few 2mm MDF hexes (I am generally using 3mm thickness) and painted them with a blue colour. I then applied a coat of Ronseal plain gloss varnish making sure that the brush strokes were visible to give the effect of flowing water. In order to make the river banks I used artists mounting board cut to shape and glued to either side of the hex (initially I used a green shade, but in future I may use white sprayed with the Humbrol acrylic). This then gives a nice sunken effect to the river.
Currently I am agonising over tree hexes as I want the trees to be quite low so as not to tower over the hills. Currently I am thinking of creating a base built up with matchsticks around the edges with another tile on top. The top tile would have a canopy built up of layers of 1mm thick 'Fab Foam' (50p for an A4 sheet from Hobbycraft). The advantage of this is when troops move into the woods I can just lift away the top and put them on the underlying hex.
INteresting Keith, like you I have spent hours thinking about how I wanted to do this and I tried the painted hex effect as well initially, but just could not match the shade of the C&C board to save my life! I play standard C&C Napoleonics with the blocks on the game board and enjoy it, but for my AWI variant I wanted it a bit different and so went for the flock option. The hairspray trick really works well at setting the flock, surprised me.
DeleteI like your trees/woods idea, that could work well. I gave my rivers a coat of Klear wash which dries with a nice shine in about 15 minutes. I'll add a link to your project if you don't mind? I'm keen to see how it goes.
Cheers,
Lee.
I had much the same problem with getting the board colour, I think part of the problem is that the actual shade varies subtly across the board. Feel free to add a link I will be posting an update in a day or two when I get some free time, I have just completed putting together the base board, although I have to sand down the plywood base. I gave gone considerably bigger that the standard C&C board and have gradually expanded to 21*13 hexes about the maxim I can fit on my table. So I am thinking of possibly adapting some other rules as well as C&C, currently looking at the Snappy Nappy set.
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