Sunday 23 March 2014

Oporto Table Build Day Seven


The temptation now is to rush the process to a close, but I am keen to take a bit of time with the build to consider the options. Just as when painting a figure, you get lots of ideas coming to mind about how to enhance various aspects and its worth it to just sleep on some ideas to get the right answer.

The colour selections of the flocks to go on the surfaces is going to be a learning process and whilst taking the ballast out to the river banks I decided I might as well paste up a bit of spare styrene to create a test bed for my colour options.



The test bed for the flocks
Ok so with a test bed set up for the flock and the river bank ballast in place, I went out for a quick six mile bike ride, a daily exercise designed to keep a man of my increasing age in some sort of shape. My bike riding is also where I tend to get my best thinking time as well.

Once I got back it was straight into finishing off  the river banks and testing the flock mix I picked up yesterday and I finally settled on a mix that was as good a match to the terrain mat that I could come up with.

The secret ingredient that came to me whilst out on the bike, chinchilla dust, a very fine sand that when added to the flock gives that slightly arid look to the pasture.


I only had enough flock to finish off one of the boards, but I'm quite pleased with the final effect. You will get a better idea when you see them all up on the table. In addition I intend to liberally apply various terrain pieces which will distract the eye and give an overall look, but bear naked I think this first board looks ok.

Let me know what you think.



Here is the other main board, just waiting for the flock treatment and with its river banks done.


As soon as the final work is done I'll post some shots of the boards up on the table so you can get a better impression. More anon.

18 comments:

  1. I've been following your progress, that looks fantastic, looking forward to seeing it finished

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  2. Thanks Steve, you and me together

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  3. Teh finished piece is really impressive! Where did you get the tiles from, please?

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    1. Hi Simon, thank you, the tiles are from Homebase and described as Oxford Blue

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    2. Perfect! They could be very helpful for a project of mine...

      Thanks Simon

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    3. One more quick question, please; does the design on the tiles extend right up to the edge, or did you need to trim them? I was looking on the website and it looked like there might be a sort of border around them. Thanks, Simon

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    4. There is indeed an edge which needs trimming, hence I resorted to using a bit of PVA between the seams on my board to reduce the impact of the little gaps between tiles. It seemed to do the trick.

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  4. That's stunning Jonathan, will look great when finished!

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  5. Looks fantastic Jonathon - will keep an eagle eye on your progress.

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  6. Cheers guys should finish it off today, then it's on to the buildings

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  7. Looks great JJ cant wait to fight over that piece of ground.
    I would pay good money for terrain like that, now there's an idea...

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    1. Cheers mate, yeah I think we'll have to do a few games after all this work to get our money's worth. Once I'm retired perhaps I'll have to take commissions!!

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  8. I just had a look at this entire project, and I think you have done a fantastic job on it. I look at terrain all the time and this is really quite impressive.

    John

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    1. Hey John, thank you. I am really looking forward to getting this game going as I have a lot folks wanting to play. I will be posting a few AARs over the next few months testing out some ideas on varying the scenario before producing a scenario download with the files. Plus there is this blog as a guide to producing the terrain

      I hope it will encourage others to have a go.

      Jonathan

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  9. Thanks James, glad you like it. Stay tuned for the first game, should be in May, other commitments permitting.

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  10. Well executed terrain board! I can imagine many uses for that. The cliff faces are outstanding.

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