Constructing the terrain - Part II

EXECUTION OF THE PLAN
Truth is nothing ever goes exactly according to a plan and we of course had to resort to several ad hoc methods to make everything work. Nothing major though but small things here and there.

First off, cover your working table with at least a layer or two of newspaper pages or something similar. If you do not have a separate hobby area like our club room you most probably will have to go to much greater lengths in protecting the working surfaces. We found out that tabloid sized free "newspapers" like Johnny Kniga work just fine and dandy. We actually invented a new verb "kniga" because of this. To kniga something means to cover it with newspaper.

First problem was encountered almost immediately. The cardboard we were going to be using was Games Workshop shipping boxes since there is a never ending supply of these at Fantasiapelit and as they are all from one source they are of the same material. Unfortunately the thickness of this material was 6mm instead of 4. The sample piece that we had measured during our brainstorming session had apparently been something else than a GW box. Using 6mm thick cardboard the way we had originally planned would have been impossible since it was 50% thicker and this would've rendered too many of the hills too steep for the miniatures making the terrain difficult to use in actual gaming. Because of this we decided to drop every other elevation level. The terrain shapes would still be there but perhaps they wouldn't be as pronounced as they would've been with 4mm thick cardboard. Tough.

MAKING THE ELEVATION LEVELS
First we divided the print of the map into six sections the same way we had divided the large hardboard into six smaller ones (actually while buying the hardboard we had asked the DIY store to cut the pieces for us as their cutting is more precise with the equipment they have). Starting from the first elevation level we cut each level from the map with scissors. Then we lay these on top of cardboard, traced the edges with a large felt tip pen and cut the cardboard with a retractable knife. Remember to do this one level at a time so you do not get piles and piles of cardboard cut outs and no recollection where they should go.

It is extremely necessary to number each segment of the board (i.e.. segments 1-6) and mark each segment of the printed map and each cut out level of the map and cardboard with the corresponding number. Drawing an arrow indicating north next to these numbers doesn't hurt either (7). This helps tremendously when figuring out where each cut piece of cardboard should be going (8).

After having cut out a level from the cardboard they were glued into place with PVA glue (9). With larger pieces you will have to work quickly as even PVA will dry from the surface fairly quickly when applied to porous material like cardboard and if this happens the cardboard won't adhere properly to the level below. Since PVA takes time to dry properly and thus take hold the cardboard pieces will often pop open from various edges. To prevent this we used a stapler gun to lock the cardboard pieces to previous levels until the PVA glue dried. After stapling we applied weights on top to make sure the cardboard stayed in place until dry. We used weighty D&D tomes from White Wolf and WOTC. When using this kind of material, that you do not want to get any glue stains etc. into, as weights you'd better cover (or "kniga") the surface first with newspaper.

With the first level almost the whole hardboard base would be covered with a layer of cardboard, excluding the small ravine of the river. With each progressive elevation level the pieces got smaller and smaller and when they were suitably small hotgun could be used for gluing the pieces into place. This is because glue from a hotgun dries very quickly and thus you are unable to cover anything but rather small surfaces with it before the glue has dried out in other parts of the piece. Do remember to use the pieces of the printed map to mark the placement of next level. Just lay the cut out piece on top of the previous level that is already on its place and mark it with a large felt tip pen.This way the next piece is bound to find its right place when you have cut it out! When applying pieces that have at least part of them in contact with an edge of the board it usually is enough just to mark the piece's contact points with the edge, not the whole shape of the piece.

When applying the cardboard elevation levels remember to finish the elevation level on all sections before moving on to the next elevation level. This way you can easily check that the elevation levels in different sections interconnect the way they should. You can also check how the sides of the sections fit into one another so no gaps are created between the sections when you place them next to one other. You don't have to be too exact though, this is still rough work and you can fine tune your work later on. When you have finished working on the elevation's last section the first one might already be dry enough for the construction of next level.

Did you know that when PVA glue dries out it shrinks somewhat? We did but were confident that this would be a problem. Boy were we wrong! After each layer had dried out the whole section would've warped at least somewhat, sometimes quite a bit. When there was only a couple of layers of cardboard on top of the hardboard you could unwarp them by turning them upside down, going on top of the sections on your knees and pulling on the edges until the sections became more or less unwarped and even. When plenty of levels had been applied this became an impossibility so we had to unwarp them by placing the sections so that they lay partly on the floor and partly on shelves (i.e.. other end was leaning on something that was somewhat higher than the floor) and carefully applying your whole body weight on top of them. Warning: lean and athletic Gemigabok gentlemen weighting some 65 kilos (130 lb) apply different pressure than persons with weightier bulk so you might want to be careful so as not break the sections.

Finally the warping became so bad that we were unable to completely remove the warping. As we were going to use filler to even out the rough terrain shapes made by the cardboard levels we knew that the cardboard would get somewhat wet which would also cause warping. As filler isn't that flexible we feared that unwarping after application of filler would cause the filler to chip off at least somewhat. To prevent this we paid yet another visit to the DIY store and bought some small wooden planking which were screwed into edges. To avoid getting blisters in your hands we recommend the usage of power tools and sometimes it helps to have a buddy to press the terrain tightly into the reinforcement.

Originally we thought that it would suffice if these reinforcements were applied to the shorted sides of the sections but soon it became apparent that the longer sides needed reinforcements as well. We hadn't bought enough material for this and being lazy made do with what little extra material we had. We also noticed that you can only apply the screws from the top side (ie. the head of the screw is on the side of the hardboard) as hardboard is too thin and fragile that the actual screw will brake it immediately if applied from the bottom. We fastened the reinforcements after many levels of cardboard was already in place with little problems (just some gluing breaking in the middle sections as the sections became unwarped but this was pretty easily fixed with the application of more glue and weights on top of the areas being fixed) but in the future we'll do it before any cardboard is applied or after the first level.

We'll also be reinforcing all sides of the sections completely and perhaps even adding a diagonal reinforcement in the middle. The reinforcements aren't fastened to the exact outside of the sections but a centimeter or so inward as to avoid having the reinforcements of different sections contact one other thus causing possible gaps between sections. Better safe than sorry. Finally came the time to apply the final piece of cardboard and everyone involved signed their name on the board below and then the final piece was applied with much rejoicing!