Gaming Boards.

I've been busy but also really unmotivated to tackle posting this.  But I've got free time and here in a minute the coffee fueled motivation to plow thru these fields.  I will start with the materials I used.

Lets see.

Tools
   Trowel
   Caulking Gun
   Spray Bottle
   Saw(anything would work depending on  your skill level)
   Box cutter
   kitchen knife
   surform
   Paint brushes

The foundation
   2x4 styrofoam sheets 4 of them
   2x4 1/4 MDF sheets 4 of these guys too(I didn't have these cut Home Depot stocks them)
   Liquid Nails caulk, 4 of these

The Playing Surface
   Sand(*I used some stuff with little pebbles in it, bad idea.  I mean it looks fine but more on it later)
   Paint
     Brown latex house paint
     assorted craft paints
   Dyed Sawdust
     dark green
     light green
     medium green
     small amount of yellow
   Ground Turf
     Woodland scenics Medium Green
....and plenty of glue.

The styrofoam I bought had a foil backing.  Its easy to remove.  I went with regular beaded styrofoam instead of the pink or blue stuff for the rough looking texture.  I really wanted to avoid a super smooth surface that looked like a lawn from suburban America.

I have a certain width I needed to cut the MDF down to.  Its really irrelevant for this because its to fit inside the rails of the gaming table I made.  Anyone google stumbling upon this doesn't need to worry about this step and at this juncture I should point out you might want a larger table top so don't buy 2x4 sheets, find something bigger.

THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! I didn't do it, I knew I should have but my table top is already really tall, as in we use stools around it and I didn't want to add anymore height, but this shouldn't be skipped.  Cut some 2x4s to fit underneath your MDF sheets.  Glue and screw these down.  This frame will keep your board straight.  I assure you they will begin to taco up on the edges if you do not.  When I glued the styrofoam to the MDF it did not taco.  When I did the texture it did not taco, nor when I did the base coat.  It wasn't until I started applying the glue and flock layers that it slowly began to taco up.  I assume this is caused from the shrinking of the glue layers drying.  I have now completed the texture and flocking of the table and have to go back and work around these delicate playing surface to correct the warping.  Learn from my mistakes padawan be greater than the master(I'm not a master, but garage hobbyist doesn't have a ring to it.).

Okay back to our regular scheduled programming.  So I caulked(LIQUID NAILS) my styrofoam to the MDF.  I gunned the caulk onto the MDF and spread the caulk around with a trowel. and stacked them up and weighted them down.  I let them dry for 24 hours

 The next day I mixed blue tightbond and water together I would say I used 1/3 water to 2/3s glue.  I had a gallon jug of glue.  I used a paint tray to mix it up and a cheap chip brush to apply it to the board.  You can be as messy, clean or organized as suits you.  I put down plastic for this project.  Before you get your texture on with sand.  You could at this point sand down sections of the styrofoam to create depressions for ponds, craters, or any other interesting texture elements.  I wanted a generic board so I only added small depressions and a few scratches.

Get your sand out.  Now sounds like the perfect time to address the sandy issues I have.  The pebbles look great.  With some drybrushing, washes and highlights they look like small stones.  Here is my problem. They are elevated a good distance above the playing field.  Not much on first appearance and it would be easy enough to place a miniature to the left or right of the stone if that would be were movement ended.  Its larger terrain pieces that will now float mysteriously above the playing field at the height of the stones.  I've already thought of a solution to this but its a huge time sink and I won't get into it unless you, dear reader, don't follow my advice or were too late and are dying to know my secret method.

So I will just assume you've been standing their reading your iphone with a sack of sand in your hand as your glue dries.  So on with the project; I sprinkled it on to the boards from about 3 or 4 feet above them. Go as crazy or easy as you like. I varied the heaviness of the sand coating, but wasn't too worried about it being thin as the styrofoam has a texture also. 

So I let this dry over night.  I know long process.  It annoyed the crap out of me too.  I wanted to be onto the next step.  20 minutes of work 24 hours of waiting.  The following day I dumped off the excess sand.  Making sure to get it on the plastic and not all over the place, unless you are at the beach.  Then go nuts.  I swept up the sand and dumped it into a cup.  I have several of these random debris cups(my wife assures me this is some form of hoarding.).  I bought a pint can of incorrectly mixed house paint for like 2 bux.  It wasn't quite enough.  I thinned it slightly with water as it was a pretty heavy paint and wasn't going far on the sandy texture.  Your call.  You could always just buy a gallon of paint, I think that would cover the 4 2x4 boards pretty well.  I actually ran out and used a different kind of paint to go over some spots you could see thru.  It actually created an organic effect so added bonus.

Well I think you get the format.  After pictures commence waiting.  I let this dry until the next day.  I should point out if you look at the top picture you will see a space heater on the right side of the pic.  It was 40 degrees outside and I didn't want to wait until the end of spring to add washes and highlights.  At this stage the panels reminded me of rusted metal plates.

So the next day I mixed up some washes.  I used some chocolate brown hobby paints.  The house paint was slightly glossy and this toned that down slightly.  I also had a section of one of the boards I wanted to use as a beach.  I sanded it down to an angle and did a yellow wash on it.  Good news.  With the heat and the watery washes it didn't take long for the washes to dry and I was able to begin drybrushing the same day.  Drybrushing huge boards is way more challenging than I anticipated.  If you use long sweeping strokes.  Long sweeping strokes show up.  About halfway through I realized circular dustings worked best.  The following pictures are in the order of wash then drybrushing.

Even with my circular technique you can still see drybrushing streaks.  I would have taken care of these if I wasn't going to grow some grass in all this dirt and I took a little better care of the sand.  Its still WIP even as I post these.  Needs some more washes and drybrushes to get to a good sandy appearance.

I let this dry over night. You don't have to.  I was tired and it was late.  Now on to the grass.  I mixed half and half water and glue, I got some white glue from home depot on sale.  I applied this to the painted surface with a paint brush.  I did one board at a time. I tried to focus the glue on low spots and work around the pebbles that I left in the sand.  I also left bare patches for added interest.

I used the dyed sawdust for the base of the greenery.  I make my own with sawdust and craft paints.  you don't have to.  If you do make way more than you need.  I didn't and started to run low.... okay I ran out.  Thankfully a third of one of the boards was sand!!!!  When I made my sawdust ground cover I kept thinking this is so light.  I started with a light color and got darker and darker.  Well it was all rather dark for this project.  It worked fine, but I wish I had used lighter ground cover.  While I was able to put the sawdust on all the boards it was sparse so I rushed out and bought the woodland scenics ground turf.  They didn't have fine in the color I wanted so I got coarse.  Wow this project is fraught with mistakes.  I had to use a strainer to grind the foam thru to get it to a texture that didn't look like bushes.  Because the lighter green ground foam turf was the last layer it lightened up the board.

I did not use a brush to apply the glue for the ground foam.  I used that spray bottle I mentioned in the tools section.  I mixed glue in 2 parts glue and 1 part water.  I bought a spray bottle with measurements on the outside so I could get it right.  I spritzed the boards heavily to hold the sawdust down and build up residue for the foam to stick too.  I sprinkled the foam and viola I was finished.  I intend to add a few more layers of fine foam to add visual interest and a final layer of acrylic spray sealant.  But here they are.

And here I set up a little encounter and got down close to show the final product.  You will notice the lip in the middle of the boards.  That is caused by the warping.  But here is a few.  An ogre and a band of goblins have attacked the coastal inn, The Calm Seas.  A band of local knights traveling to the borders happened to be staying when the Ogre and his minions attacked.