Gaming Table Part IV

Another step done on the table.  I have picked up many paint samples in the discount section, one of which was a nice, dark, brown.  In the last installment, I said that I planned on gluing down some kitchen rags to use as grass.  In the intervening weeks I changed my mind.  I've decided to make this first batch of tiles much more generic, to get the maximum flexibility out of them.  To that end they will be double sided, green terrain on one side and desert on the other.

Sample size of paint.

I will still be building the rivers, assuming the first tile comes out the way I want it to.  I need to pick up some spackle/polyfilla to line the bed of the river.  In the mean time I painted almost the entire table brown.

Mostly brown, mostly.

The sample size did not have quite enough to finish the last tile up.  I'll probably go back and get a one gallon can of the same color as it looks like a good base for the rest of the tiles.  The grey paint has sand in it.  We'll see how it takes a dry brush, though I have my doubts about whether it has enough texture or not.  Loki recommends gluing down real sand, and it is a better look.  In this case, since I want to be able to use both sides of these tiles, I decided against it.

The ridge line.

When I did the hills and the central ridge I left some of the grey showing.  I'll add rocks and scree to these areas and leave them as rougher looking terrain.  I'll need to fill in some of the spots where they join up, again with the spackle.  I also see a couple of spots where the pink foam is still showing through.

Some ugly joins and some pink foam.

There are two more of these hills, and another block of foam ready to be shaped into a second ridge.  This will let me build one ridge along a whole side of the table, two opposite each other, or one central hill in the center of the table.  That should be plenty of modularity to start off with.

The ridge, end on.

In the picture above you can see some of the texture on the table.  As long as I'm careful I think the drybrush will work out.  If it doesn't I can always go back to plan A and glue down the rags and paint them.  That will mean I need to buy another sheet of 2" foam to make more tiles though.

The entire table.

The other bit I'm not pleased with at the moment is the lines you can see on some of the tiles.  These came in the foam and the paint has not really covered them up.  I'll probably end up hitting them with some spackle, then re-painting those sections.  I have the lighter shades but I don't want to get too far into the project and then have to come back to clean up a bunch.  I need to get down to the hardware store.