Laying Sod

The rumors are true; I have built a 4x6 wargaming table. It is seen below in its true glory. 

Unfortunately it is still in it's penultimate stage. I was planning to make it 4 x 8 so I'd have a surplus of 2x2 squares for different options, but unfortunately I ran out of flock and glue. The flock thing and glue I bought seems to be more suited to a 4x6 rather than 4x8. 

I digress, what I meant to post here was a sweet series of pics describing my building process. Consequently get comfy, cause this shits bigger than most "all you can eat Chinese buffet" shits.

I started off with a 4x8 sheet of that pink Foamular foam and a 4x8 sheet of White Twin Wall plastic sheet. I guess the colours aren't that important, I'm just putting theme there to make it easy to find. I then carved the hills. Before I carved them, I made a whole bunch of diagrams. I sketched out the whole 4x8 table and each part so I wouldn't actually screw myself. At this point, I realized I had way too much foam.

At this point, I just cut the plastic into 2x2 sheets and glued on my hills using PL Glue, which is some variety of crazy construction adhesive. They ended up looking kinda like this picture I put below.

I guess that was the hard part? I don't know, it wasn't actually that difficult, just a little time consuming. The next parts were more messy for sure. 

To paint it I used some good ol-fashioned Tremclad rust paint. It's oil based, and designed for outdoor wear and tear, so I thought it might be durable enough for wargaming. Probably not though. It also made the foam much harder, which was nice. 

I rolled the first coat on, which turned out to be a mistake. It went on much too thin. I got okay coverage I guess, but you could still see the white through. Also, at this point, I was very disappointed with my colour choice. I felt it looked too much like a fine spray of feces from a guy who was struggling with the flu. When it all dried up it looked significantly darker, much more earthy, much less shit coloured. That said, I'm not entirely sure of the colour of dried shit, so I could be wrong.

My second and third coats were brush applied, and looked much nicer. It came out looking like muddy plains, which is a good place to put grass. The thick coats also started to smooth out the rough patches and hide the gaps between the foam and plastic. This was expected, as there wasn't much of a gap, but it's nice to be right for once.

 The next step was by far the most screwed up. I didn't nicely distribute the flock as I wanted, leaving my flat square without much. Fortunately my plan was to flock the first 6 so I was sure I didn't run out, then try and get the other 2 done one at a time. I pretty much ran out of flock halfway through the 6th and had to shake the excess of the first few to finish the coverage. It turned out okay, I guess it's a little less grassy on the flat area then.





I was using the Woodland Scenic's Green Grass Flock. Their roughly 1litre box of flock was ok, but it was still looking a little bare, and the brown underneath looked a little reddish next to the green of the grass. I spritzed the balder areas with some glue and lightly sanded them, they became dryer patches. I also took some greyish green spray paint and gave a light coat to some of the redder areas. It came together really nicely actually.





My final step was a little excessive in my opinion. I decided a flat plain was a little too boring, so I got out some of the left over clump foliage I used for my trees. In places where there was an absence of flock or the occasional finger mark, I superglued a tiny little bush. This served to make the table a little more fall coloured and to hide my most terrible mistakes. It brought the table together beautifully; in what critics are calling "the next... I can't think of anything that would make sense here..."

After all was dry I assembled the table once more and put some terrain on it. I think it looks pretty. The only problem I have is that grass patterns don't line up the best, but whatevs.

The next step in this phantasmagorical journey is going to be the whole process over again. I want to make another 2 tiles to add to the 2 I still have to flock, so I don't buy a big thing of flock for only 2 tiles. I figure If I got through 6 tiles with the flock thing I bought I can make it through 4 with enough to do as many bases as I want.

I shall probably post some pics of us playing on this sweet table, subsequently making all you fuckers jealous.