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Thread: Loos Hulluch 1917 terrain boards

  1. #1

    Default Loos Hulluch 1917 terrain boards

    Not sure if this is the right place to put this thread as the earlier board making thread is in the "How To" section - perhaps some kind person could place it there instead of here, if that is more appropriate

    A quick addition to Mat making – by Mike

    I was asked some while ago to produce an update on my mat making (see the “How To” files) – so here goes.

    The Loos Hulluch sector of the western front – 1917.
    The biggest difference is my not using MDF boards to back these. The scale and the subject are different to the last lot. So there was no need to carve right through the mats, which at the time was the main reason for backing the originals. The other big difference is that all of the carving was done using a small 12Volt electric hand drill. You might want to wear a mask for this (Oh no – not a mask again – yep, sorry!).

    Materials required:
    Firstly – I used a photo as the basis for four of the mats, then invented the design on the two mat extension. There are loads of aerial photos about, from many eras, so take your pick.
    Six high density, interlocking, foam mats. Retain the boarder pieces. Mine came from a British store called B&Q and were £10.00 for a pack of six. Each board is a little under 2 foot square, so the total area of this project is around 4 foot x 6 foot.
    One 12v battery powered hand drill with appropriate size bits.
    One pencil – your choice but I used 2B.
    Paint – I used just three colours and each was normal water based decorating paint.
    PVA glue
    Modelling Flock / grass.
    Brushes to apply paint / glue.
    Finally - Plastic sheeting to protect your work surface but also to aid in recovering unused flock.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    With the photo handy, I started by drawing the trenches on the smooth side of the mat (The obverse is very bumpy, to give grip when they are on the floor – because the intended use is as mats on your garage floor). I tried to follow the trench pattern as closely as possible, but I wouldn’t worry too much about extreme accuracy unless you are super determined to be.

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    Next step is to carve out the trenches with the drill, followed by using a scalpel blade along both sides of all roads. The latter helps with painting, gives just that little extra 3D look, but most importantly would aid with the planting of blown up tree stumps along the roadsides (using thorns from local bushes / shrubs/ trees),

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    When all of the trenches have been “dug” and roadsides “ditched”, the next stage is using the drill, again, to create shell craters. No attempt was made to vary the size of these but I did try to match the craters in the photograph (up to a point )

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    So then its painting time.

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    The whole lot is done with just three water based colours. The brand is imaterial but the particular colours of brick red, green and magnolia are important to me. I paint everything with a mixture of red and green. The pallete is the board itself and the amounts of each colour vary as I go along. Some of the shell craters are outlined with a dab of magnolia, but not all of them and occassionally I use a dab of the same in the trenches. The mix of this, red and green plus bits of unpainted black in the trenches is something I like. You don’t see the difference at long distance, but I do when up close.

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    Next comes the flock. Liberal amounts of PVA glue are applied to the areas I want to cover, then I pour the flock over that and the surrounding areas, quite deep, to allow the PVA glue to soak in without leaving any dark stains. I use a sheet of paper to very gently apply pressure to the area, but beware. If you get any of the glue on the paper, it will lift the flock off. When the glue is dry, I tip the board up onto the plastic sheeting to remove the excess, gently gather up the waste with a large dry paint brush and put it back in its container (large plastic box is useful). After that the surface is pretty hard wearing, but I do put small amounts of extra PVA glue on some areas, for a variation in colour and texture – it will darken up the green flock quite a bit. I also use small areas of a lighter colour flock but have later gone over this again with the usual green. Again it makes for small changes.

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    Then finally, the roads get painted. I still used the mix of red, green and magnolia, but this time I used small sample pots from a different brand – not a big difference, but enough to make the colours stand out against the rest of the terrain.

    So there you go – job done. And I hope this may be of some use to you too

    Mike

  2. #2

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    PS One thing I should really point out is the mess the drilling of the rubber makes. A vacuum cleaner will help avoid confrontation with other members of the family Or perhaps use a workshop out side the living area of your home if you have one. I did all of the above indoors on my game table

  3. #3

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    What great game boards you make. Your AAR's are second to none with all the effort you put in. Well done.

  4. #4

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    Those are just superb! And being flat (mostly), they don't interfere with the aeroplane stands. Do they come apart and stack nicely?

  5. #5

  6. #6

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    Very impressive Mike
    Run for your life - there are stupid people everywhere!

  7. #7

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    Top notch Mike
    Have you considered/tried using a countersink for the shell holes ?
    And will you continue outlining the trenches & shell holes the lighter colour of the spoil as it really shows up in the image and really sets off the landscape.

    "He is wise who watches"

  8. #8

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    Great looking map board. An insperation for us all.

  9. #9

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    Many thanks all
    Do they come apart and stack nicely?
    No problem with them coming apart and going back together again - they are surprisingly resilient as the rubber takes both paint and PVA glued flock really well. Only time will tell though, but the original batch have stood the test of time well. Re stacking, that's more of an issue with these. The MDF backing on the originals facilitates storage pretty handily. The new, non-backed mats are currently stacked flat, one atop the other, as I suspect they might bend a bit if on their edges and I don't know if there would be a memory problem there ie if the rubber would stay curled. I'm looking at that now, for a suitable long term solution, although right now it isn't a big problem for me.

    Have you considered/tried using a countersink for the shell holes ?
    And will you continue outlining the trenches & shell holes the lighter colour of the spoil as it really shows up in the image and really sets off the landscape.
    Re the countersunk shell holes - yes I have thought about that one and indeed have a countersink tool for the drill, but in the end I went with just the one size hole as a) it made less mess when drilling and b) didn't seem to enhance the image very much. I can't put too many holes on the surface area, without the aircraft stands becoming unstable during play. But you are right Dave, on another mat it would work very well.
    As for outlining the holes - the answer is no. Given that most of the board has redish soil colouring, the whitish surround can only be used sparingly, allowing for their being different kinds of soil in different areas, just beneath the surface. But too much spoils the look. Believe it or not, I did put the lighter shade around most of them at one stage, but dry brushed most of it out again for these reasons. The only other enhancement I am considering, and it would be very time consuming, is to inject clear varnish into each of the shell holes, or at least some of them. I have the varnish and a small pippet all ready to do the job. However, I'm well versed in avoidance techniques Which is why the Dover coastline is currently taking priority

    Anyway, thanks again for the kind comments and thanks for the rep guys - appreciated

  10. #10

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    Very Nicely done!

  11. #11

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    wow! that looks amazing!!!



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