Sarcophagi: Work in Progress;

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Monday, April 13, 2015

Bushido: WIP Board Part 2 (Resin River)

In part 1 of this build I showed how I rehabbed an old board as a sketch for new water techniques through the assembly of a large river section.

Now, in part 2, I wanted to show some WIP pics of the refinishing and painting of the riverbed and the prep for the resin pour, then, the initial resin pour itself.

As mentioned in Part 1, I added rocks and grit, then sponge painted the rocks, using earth tones. I added some washes to the riverbed itself for some contrasts. If you try this you will notice that what is understated painting without resin becomes very prominent under the lustre of gloss resin. If you have painted a miniature somewhat matte and then gloss sealed it then you know what I mean. Saturation and contrast bumps up a few notches so it is best to be subtle.

In this pic we see the Duralar and foam core "dams" that will be used to form the resin. My method uses Duralar facing the resin, backed by thick foam core and attached/sealed with clear silicone. Especially with deep resin pours, the outgassing process will force the hot, molten resin into every nook and cranny on your board and if it hits foam then the gassing becomes dramatic. Whatever silicone remains attached to the resin after the removal of the dams can either be left or scrapped away.

Here is the dam on the other side of the board.

Here is the first resin pour. This board took more than 33oz.of resin for the entire length and even then I had to fill in the other end in this picture after this first pour with another smaller pour. Note the finished dock, I seated this using clear silicone. The legs, or footers, are attached to the floor of the river bed with silicone which is a great adhesive that is strong, yet is near-invisible in resin and as importantly, won't bleed or be attacked by the resin's chemical reaction.

Another view of the dam and dock section. This is the deepest water on the board, hence the dock for boats.

Some riverbed painting detail. If you texture it right, the painting is easy and natural. See part one for a description of materials used.

Here is the whole board curing, with a large plexiglass cover to ward off dust.

Checking out the boat with the dock, after the resin has cured. It takes about 24rs for a thorough enough cure for this sort of horseplay but it was fun to put down some figs and see how it is all coming together. Note that I kept all scenery away though, the resin has set and was not impressionable but it could still catch flock and adhere it. Resin is weird. Note the bubble trails from gassing, likely from inside the rocks themselves.

A WIP sampan on a WIP board.

So that is it for this update. I will be back after I remove the dams, finish the facings on the board, add wave elements to the water and flock. After that, I need to finish the aquarium bridge below for the board set, using Apoxy Sculpt and a little ingenuity.

This set up is the board before the riverbed painting and resin. I wanted to see how the other terrain elements I have been making matched the feel of the board. So far so good I think. Chiyo seems to like it.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Bushido: WIP Terrain Board

Ok, some backstory on this project. I'm into Bushido now in a big way... love that game. I have an idea for a series of linked terrain boards, the first being a beach board with a dock, village and other assorted features I'll save that for later. From this first board I would expand out the series but I know I need to up my game with rendering water. I have done more than my share of resin forming and pours for water in other projects and while cool and fun, they aren't very animated or alive looking. So I've been expanding my vocabulary with resin water elements through various techniques.

This is what an old, "finished" board looks like. If it was a restaurant it would be called, "Passables"

WAY back in the 1990's I completed four panels towards a 4'x6' river board for 40k. It wasn't very well conceived but it was well-made and survived intact after more than 2 decades of games, including use at a GW store. I still use the flocked side of one board for Strange Aeons games but that is about it. Since I managed somehow to hang onto them all this time and not use them and decided that I'd want to try out some of the water effects I've developed on my own and learned along the way from others. So, I needed to do a sketch or practice piece.

I am a full time dad, full time worker and part time Grad student, so I don't have time to burn but I do have extra terrain to burn.

So I took a good section of the river and re-tasked it towards trying out some water and at very least, it can be a basic Bushido board.

I scouted out a 2'x2' section on a 2'x4' board, similar to the one above. I then mounted the foam board to a 1/4" thick 2'x2' wood backer using Tub and Tile Liquid Nails (so it won't attack the foam) and spiked it with my nail gun. I weighted the whole deal down with furniture and such and then used a hand saw to trim off the extra. All told, an hours worth of work, vs starting from scratch.

Grit and rocks and glue. Sounds like a Friday night to me.

Next I trimmed some of the riverbank to look more gradual and worn, instead of a 90 degree drop from ground to the creek bed. The more you trim the shoreline on an angle the more usable table space for minis you lose. So I didn't go nuts. I then added a layer of "deck grit" in the riverbed; this is a product sold at DIY that is basically a super tough sand texture in paint form, it is very liquid and applies well. It also happens to be great for sealing foam against resin (which attacks the crap out of foam) so this is a great fit for anything that will have resin on it. Finally, I used Mod Podge as a layer and poured out concrete rubble from my broken front step. You can see I went for a natural lay out and only added one or two really large protruding rocks, which I hope to show current behind them, downstream. A few coats of Leather Brown Army Painter primer (thank god for that stuff) and it is basically ready for paint. I am in the middle of converting a cheap aquarium bridge with balsa and Apoxie Sculpt. I made a balsa dock to go on the shore too.

So that is where I am so far, stay tuned for more progress! (edit: Part 2 is here)