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COMPLETED PROJECT LINK:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/772778.page

ORIGINAL....

Gurus,
I'm making lots of ancients/natural terrain for DBA. The bases are hardboard +/- housing foam. I have used PVA + water to milk consistency to fix the sand/gravel. I generally don't paint the gravel, opting instead to use polyurethane. Pictures attached. Now, I have woodland scenics "blended turf" and various types of static grass and lichen clumps. What I want to know is how do most of you fix the blended turf which is nearly dust-like.

Normally just glueing it down will suffice but it'll be fragile, it'll shed but that's just the nature of the beast.
You can flood it or use watered down pva with a spray bottle but that will change the texture and finish.

Hairspray is probably your best option to preserve it but that won't be particularly hard wearing.

As always it's a trade off between durability/playability and something that looks super realistic.

If something is nearly dust, like dry pigment or fine turf.
For small areas brush on some wood-glue and sprinkle the material, then use paintbrush or dropper to soak the material with the Glue-Water mixture.
Just like you do with gravel.

For large areas use Spray-Adhesive to provide sticky surface for material to stay, and sprinkle the material, then use squirt bottle to mist the Glue-Water mixture to soak the area.
Also had experience with (PREVAL sprayer bottle) used to wash/ink large pieces of terrain with darker tones using acrylic and also apply watered down glue that way too.

Watch this one, turned-out very well. and He usually soaks everything. Before gluing a misting of isopropyl alcohol is used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEG3d0cMuv4&t=1s

Thank you. I will watch the vid and update. In the interim, I opted against the reticular look for the scrub bases and the forest bases. I thought that watered down PVA OVER the gravel then green turf would hold a little better.


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EDIT:

For all my armies' bases, Orks, Eldar, Tau, american Civil War and Early Imperial Romans I use the fine gravel mix (alluvial volcanic) and then coat it with this.


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Wow. That video was F***ING AMAZING.

Here's some updates. There is an infantry base of a single DBA element for scale. Marsh is still drying.