Constructing the terrain - Part III

SMOOTHING UP THE TERRAIN
To smoothen up the terrain we had bought some lightweight ready mixed filler. It was only marginally more expensive than the regular brand but we figured that making the terrain sections weight as little as possible was more important than the very small price difference. Several brands are available but we do not think there is much difference in these. You can also use filler you need to mix yourself, like plaster, but using ready filler is much quicker and straightforward and less messy to boot.

Originally we had planned to apply only some filler to the edges of each elevation level to remove some of the unnatural step like effect. This way during the game it would be very easy to see which units were on higher elevation than others. Of course holes and gaps were filled as well. After the application of the first layer it was decided that we would however aim for more realistic look and began applying several more layers with larger spatula after the first layer had dried. All in all it took some three applications of the filler to get the effect were were after. Be sure to let each layer dry out first before you apply the next one.

Around this time we also noticed that we hadn't been too careful in getting the sides of the sections straight. Some were leaning outside and some inside. Removing the extra cardboard was easy by sanding the edges with rough sandpaper. Adding some extra material was done with adding some cardboard with PVA glue and duct tape. At the same time we checked how the elevation levels of the different terrain sections connected to each other and fine tuned them with filler. We also filled the few small cracks that had appeared to the filler layer when it had dried. Most probably those would've disappeared when the texture (sand) was applied but we didn't want to take the risk of having the cracks visible.

A word of caution on the usage of duct tape. The surface of duct tape is quite greasy which will cause some problems when trying to get other materials to stick to it. If you need to apply filler on top of duct tape remember to make it a thick layer as thin layers will most likely break off at one point or another and you'll have to do some touch up work. All in all using masking tape instead of duct tape might be much better idea.

APPLYING TEXTURE
Now it was time to apply the texture to the terrain. We thought of using the Woodland Scenics method we had already used some years ago while making terrain for a small Waterloo terrain, but even though the results look very pleasing this was too time consuming a process to be applied to this large a terrain. So we decided to use sand for the texture. This meant that we also had to paint terrain. This was not really a problem as the paint would also bind the sand to the surface a bit more making it less easy to chip off during playing and transportation.

After the filler had dried we traced the roads onto the terrain with a pencil. It was decided that the roads were going to be over sized compared to rest of the terrain (as quite often the miniatures themselves are) so that when miniatures were on the road as a column the effect would be much more pleasing than if we had used the realistic road width which would've been just some millimeters. We mixed some PVA glue with water to make it runnier and thus prolonging the time it took for the glue to dry. The glue was applied with a one inch brush to the places where the roads had been traced, excluding fords. Glue was also applied to the site of the town of Albuera as we could thus easily distinguish the town limits during the games. On top of this very fine sand was poured. This sand actually came from a tape stand where it had been used as weight. There were plenty of these stands lying around in Fantasiapelit as at one time it had cost the same to buy just a roll of Scotch tape or a roll with a stand.

Next we traced all the fields to the terrain. Usually most of the terrain one sees is just grassy field of continuous green. We wanted to give some variation to the large terrain by having plenty of different colored fields in it. To get our point just look at the terrain below you the next time you fly somewhere. Also the map we had seemed to indicate the presence of fields and we used it to give us the shapes of the fields as well. A couple of fields were to be left in ploughed state and onto these areas we glued some suitably textured wallpaper with PVA glue. Then we applied some watered down PVA to the edges of fields and applied regular sand to these areas. This way we could apply sand later on to the whole terrain without having to worry about the "disappearance" of the fields as the the edges of the fields would be noticeable as somewhat higher areas after the more covering layer of sand was applied to all non-road or stream areas. Granted we would've outlined the fields after initial covering of the terrain with sand but tracing on top of filler or cardboard is much easier than tracing on top of a layer of sand.

The sand we used was regular everyday variety that had been strained first to get rid of any too large bits in it. We also noticed that strainer was very useful when applying the sand to the terrain boards as well. Instead of just pouring the sand from a container we poured it through the strainer which spread in more evenly over the terrain. Note that you won't be able to cover whole terrain section at one go since the glue will start drying in the parts it was applied first and thus the sand won't stick to it. So you need to apply the sand one smaller area a time. To minimize the forming of edges etc. between these areas try to use roads and streams to limit the different areas and if this is impossible avoid using straight lines on the edges of the areas. Also worth of note is that you should try to apply the glue evenly since areas where glue is more abundant will stand out when you do the painting, especially dry brushing, as they have a thicker layer of sand in them.

We noticed that a large terrain will eat up a surprisingly large amount of sand. Luckily sand is rather cheap material. Invariably not all sand that you apply on top of the terrain will stick to the glue so sooner or later you'll have to lay some newspaper on the floor, take the sections on top of them inverted and gently tap the under sides to get the loose sand from the terrain as it would greatly hinder the painting process. This loose sand can of course be used later on for texturing.

While playing games on this terrain we noticed that the miniatures hold onto the sand much better than to other terrain surfaces we've used and do not slide even in the more steeper hills. Basically the whole terrain could be called one giant sandpaper!