Modular Terrain Part Two

Hello There. Here is the next part of the modular terrain tutorial. The first part is here

These tiles are intended for use in North West Europe, or for the American Civil War.

Before I get to the plastering, I had some old off cuts to use up, (Again being stored 'In case I need it'!). I glued them in place using the expanded foam, in a handheld can. I placed weights on top of the styrofoam which was being glued. To stop the weights, (in this case cans of paint), from sticking to the cans I placed a sheet of newspaper on the tile first.

When it had set I ran a Stanley knife along the wooden edge of the tile, cutting into the styrofom which was standing proud of the top of the wooden surround. I used this cut as a datum line, so when I reached it when levelling the surface with a Stanley surform planer, I knew I had reached the correct point to stop.

I then had a point to cut the protruding surface of the styrofoam tile and could use a wood saw to cut most of the excess styrofoam off and not make so much mess. I could also use the flat sheet for other tiles, that was cut off, for other tiles.

Once it had been sculpted to shape, with the surform, I could then fill any deep gaps with tile adhesive and leave to dry.

Next cover the surface of the scenic tile with tile adhesive and level by drawing a 600mm long steel ruler across the surface. Then brush over the surface with a wet paint brush. This levels the last of the surface and smooths out any ripples in the surface.  Then brush over a layer of PVA and add small stones and sand to taste.

When dry, this may take a day or two, remove the excess sand and scatter sawdust where required and then add thinned PVA to the sawdust. This can be stippled in place with a paintbrush and levelled.

Again, when dry, paint brown. As I require a large quantity and needed a colour similar to Vallejo English Uniform Brown I mixed some acrylic artist paint. I used raw umber and yellow ochre to get the required shade. I added some PVA glue and water to thin to the required consistency.

When dry I dry brushed the surface with a mixed version of Vallejo Iraqui Sand. I made this up using the English uniform from above and added plenty of white to get the shade I wanted.

This is a subtle step. Above the un-dry brushed scenery is on the left and the dry brushed  scenery is on the right. I admit it is difficult to see in the above photograph but this step does make a different.

The next step will include adding the flock and sealing.