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Yeah Cam, waiting sucks . Cool I just got some baby talc for alternative snow and found it wanting. I have several methods I'd like to try on the cars, I want to ruin some and leave others viable for modern games.

Gonna try some spray paint dust/grime and of course some rust too. May even ice a couple over for the board.

Got the sand down for the pond and the bord is now white. Nasty brush strokes, but you'll never see them once the glue is down. More waiting.

Think I may largely leave the sand texture alone color-wise but I will try to shade it to imply depth towards the middle.

Super quick weathering on a toy truck going for dust and grime so its applicable in the post Apoc wastes or in modern times. Thoughts? Look ok or like I didn't know what I was doing with my spray cans? Possibly too heavy of the effect?

I like the different colored door panel, I'm sure there's a police emblem under there, but if not it looks like a beat up truck with a different colored door after an accident .

Maybe add extra mud or rust effects behind the wheel wells where stuff would be flung.

Yeah it's a police truck. Maybe some extra weathering later.

Hmmm. May end up scraping the pond. The cost store two part resin I have was yellow and too thick anyway. The polyurethane I put down too thick and it would take so many more coats to get the water to where I want it. Should have waited to try water till I was ready to spend money on it lol. Now I'm out at least 4 hours of dry time before I can move the board for any further steps. Oi. And really all that is is snow.

The truck looks a little over done to me. There's two things I would do at this point. 1) the windshield needs a clean patch. In its current state, the truck just looks dirty, like someone's been driving through a lot of mud. But, they need to be able to see while driving. 2) add physical damage or some texturing. Mud and grime build-up would add a lot to the look and help it look a bit more aged. Physical damage to the truck though would really give it that aged look. Dents, scratches, maybe a few bullet holes would really spice it up.

Yeah it needs something, for sure. Didn't expect it to be done with 2 minutes of spray paint, though I wasn't as sure as to what to do next. So thanks for the input, I'll have to see what I can do.

Think it definatly needs some crud/mud around the arches and some damage, nothing to drastic but some dents and scratches certainly.

I'll have to mix up some mud and give it a try.


Ok folks HALP. The two part resin I had was tinted yellow, blech. I tried a coat of polyurethane and i mean it's glossy sure, but it would take weeks of applications and that's only if it didn't cloud up. I'm not flush to buy any of that nice clear two part stuff as was linked before so what are my options?

I mean without throwing more cash at the board I probbaly have to scrap the pond and do something else right? What could I do with the crater I made for the pond? A nasty mud pit that's exposed for...reasons? A recently exploded/dug pit?

Should I leave it empty till I'm willing to spend the money for a proper water effect? I guess the smaller containers of woodland scenics water aren't sooo bad if you use the hobby lobby coupon.

What say you?

I don't pretend to be a terrain guru, but when I made my river, I applied several layers of clear gloss varnish over the blue and it seems to work well.

That's the technique I think I wanted to do but I built my pond for a deeper pour style substance. Whoops.

Well, then, I'm out of my league.

Well you could multipurpose the hole. Cut a few base pieces to cover the spot with and then make one be a snow drift. Have another be a campfire area, another could be a crash site (UFO or plane), a dimensional portal, all sorts of cool things to use to help make the board different for different games.

Paint the hole in the colours desired. Buy woodland scenics/masterclass whatever it is called (dang SWM taking the same thing and renaming it,) water and pour it on top mm layers at a time. You can even mix a wash on the layers to add depth.

For more variance - get vallejo water gel and apply on top of the above steps for waves and texture of the water.

Cover in gloss coat.

Cheap and easy way would be a sheet of clear acetate, clear perspex, or even a "laminated" laminate pouch. Cut to size and glue in, then a coat or two of thin varnish and you are away.

DrH just did a brilliant tutorial on exactly this here...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1410/549077.page

It is a bit of a cheat, but would work well, and if nothing else you could later rip it out, and use the good stuff once you have the cash.

I have also had reasonable success with clear hot glue, and clear silicone, but only good if you have them already.

The guru on water for me is Red Harvest, his water effect pieces are stunning, also obviously the internet, watched a few vids on it lately, this guy has had reasonable success...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tH3rnXESJ8

He gives some good tips,some of it is basic stuff, we all know, but it's nice and simple advise really.

Hope these help.

Well, if you have a flat surface, and scuff it so it is textured like water, then paint it, then paint a few coats of gloss polyurethane over it, you get a nice effect. It is laborious. Ah, here is an example. Spoilered
Also, thin clear plastic works if you hide the edges of it, and don't mind it being perfectly flat. I don't think adding ripples or waves with hot glue would be a wise idea. Silicone caulk would adhere to the plastic, but it would be cloudy if too thick. The advantage of the plastic is that it would leave a void where you could put interesting things. I've seen a koi pond made this way. Cannot remember where I saw it though. I've also seen a koi pond made with the pourable 2 part epoxy too. A tutorial for that is here. http://data-sphere.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=34 for your reading pleasure.

Wow thanks a ton everyone

Red I like those flat water ponds and will have to try it, though this piece is far too irregular to work with it. Those fountains are sweet.

The pair of suggestions for the clear plastic sheet and the fact that I may have a piece *just* big enough make me think that's a potential I shouldn't ignore. I don't mind flat because water does that anyway. Of course now I need to find a couple of interesting things to sink at the bottom of the pond

I also like the idea of a modular piece or three to swap out into the dip, and since the plastic piece is gonna be nice and flat, I should still be able to.

Alright I have a piece of plastic in place with glue drying. Then will come the gap filling and me muddling along to replicate Dr H's wash barrel tutorial. So that's happening. I think it should go well and i can always cover more of the pond with snow if necessary.

What I need your help with now is the final placement of the trees before I permanently affix them and coat the board in snow mix.

So be critical. Spread them out, clump them up, add some small shrubs and frost them over a bit, all good to hear. Does it need even more trees, cause I can get some. What are your thoughts folks?




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Displayed in both fantasy/modern and sci-fi Flavors. Oh also, ehat would you use to glue thr trees down? Plastic tree bases to white acrylic paint over the top of extruded foam. I'd say hotglue but I fear it may burninate the foam. Dunno how I feel about white glue though. Thoughts there?

Hot glue would be fine providing you put the glue on the tree base first, let it cool a little before placement, and would probably release a bit better if you wanted to rearrange things later.

I like the scattered look, no idea how well it would work in game, would depend on the game, for KoW it may be difficult with the movement trays. But skirmish battles will be fine.

Pond is looking great already, little blending in around the edge to hide the join and your golden.

I shored the pond up with hot glue and tried one tree last night, worked fine. I think I'll move forward with gluing them soon.

Trying to decide if the pond could do with a really weak blue or green glaze. I'm a little fearful of trying Dr H's method as I don't have another piece of plastic that size...but we'll see.

While I've got the snow mix going, I'll have to make some game specific scatter bits.

I like the pond as is. The snow is clean and pure looking, so clean and pure looking ice doesn't look out of place.

Cool. Right now it's just a base coat of white before the snow goes down . I've put together a trial spot of that. Im hoping it's fairly self leveling as brush strokes in my snow will make a sad Grimdork.


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So it's kinda self leveling... what would you folks suggest I do to Avoid leaving brush strokes as I slop the snow mix down on the board? Is there a technique or tool I can use to help minimise this? Strokes sort of melt down a bit, but not a the way, so if there's a trick to leave minimal tracks it may be just enough.

Checked my test patch today and the snow mix leveled out even more. If I'm a little more careful about brush strokes on the next applications, I should have nothing to worry about. Woo. Nkw i just have to do D form to do the whole board.

Could try a spatula instead of a brush. But looks brilliant as is. Could use the brush stroke to your advantage, indicating wind feathering the surface, or trackways maybe.

Yeah, it really leveled out a lot better than I expected as I was checking it dry. I think I'm going to use a bigger, softer brush for further applications. And I may let it lump up to either side of the stroke to give some extra texture, I'll experiment with it, I'll be doing this in multiple small applications due to time constraints.

Better brush was enough. Snow is now over the entire board so we may be able to call it done. We'll see how everything turns out, it was kind of a frenzied rush while the baby was sleeping so it may be good may be less so. Time will tell. Give it 24 hours though and it may well be playable! Need to devise some scatter for various games next. And a hanger on the wall so I can keep it safe.

Needs an igloo and snowman for terrain. Snowman with optional machine gun .

Haha, it's not...impossible?

Sweet the snow is 90% done. I'm digging it. A few spots need a retouch because I brushed the snow too thin and the glossy board is showing, but it's good enough to be soft-done. I wanna do some matching scatter terrain so ill do the snow fixes when I do that.

Included a shot of the board's tentative home.

Not sure what to do now...got the whole day, 8 hours to myself and there isn't much that needs doing.

Looking fantastic, Really nice, Nice that you have not been tempted to throw some dirt about, it looks amazing as it is and can totally see that being somewhere in the arctic circle.