Now on to construction.

Materials needed for a 4 by 8 table with sixteen terrain sections includes:

2 sheets of 1/4 inch masonite cut into 2 foot squares.
4 or more sheets of 1/2 inch blue/pink insulation foam board.
3 large squeeze bottles of yellow carpenters glue
1 quart of flat black paint
1 quart of flat brown paint
1 quart or less of light brown paint
1 can of medium brown flat spray paint
1 can of dark brown flat spray paint
1 large bottle of white glue
an assortment of flock, ground foam, colored sawdust, static grass, your favorite
an assortment of HO scale ballast and larger pebbles, or Woodland Scenics Scree
8 ounces of fine sand
8 ounces or more of water based gloss varnish
Woodland Scenics or other scenery cement
Krylon matte finish
hobby paints and stains

Tools needed:

1 pack of single edged razors for cutting the foam
metal square with one side 24 inches
2” paint brush
selection of 1/4 to 1 inch flat brushes
Hot Knife or Hot Wire (make sure you practice with these first!)
variety of shakers – salt for the sand and one with larger holes for the flock or ground foam, and ballast (we use parmesan cheese shakers for ballast and ground foam).

The first step is to cut three sheets of foam into two-foot squares. Take off the plastic cover on both sides of the foam before cutting. Make sure the sections are square and cut all the way through the foam, not necessarily in one cut. The foam can be lightly cut and snapped but the break is not as clean as a cut. When cutting the foam make sure that you cut straight and vertical along the squares edge in numerous cuts rather than one deep cut. Make sure you use only the sharpest blades otherwise the foam will tear. You should now have 24 pieces of 2-foot squares of foam board. Glue one piece to each piece of masonite using the yellow glue. On ten pieces of masonite glue a second piece of foam board to the first.

Put a line of glue around the edge of each about an inch in from the edge then squiggle lines of glue inside this to form a good bond. Stack all these together with masonite face up on the top and weight this down (at least ten pounds in each corner and the center for even pressure), leave in a cool place for at least over night, sixteen hours or more would be better to allow the glue to dry. Make sure that when you stack these that the foam and masonite all line up together so there is no slippage.

The next day, or later the first day, finish the four single boards by marking the center of two opposite sides on two foam boards and adjoining sides on another two. Use a pencil and draw in the edges of the stream banks. Then using a sharp razor cut the stream banks all the way through. Using either the Hot Knife or Hot Wire trim and round the banks to make them look natural. The center of the stream is flat and will be painted as though it has depth. I made sure that the ford section had gradually sloping banks while the bridge section had steep banks. Where the bridge was to cross I cut a little island.

However, if you already have a bridge to use you will need to make sure that the banks of the stream will line up with the edge of the bridge for a proper fit. If you don’t have a bridge you can just leave the banks steep and build one later out of balsa or buy one that will fit. Now glue the piece of the streams to the single thickness foam and masonite boards. Put under pressure and let dry.

Before painting the boards their base/first coat cut out and glue the hill sections to two of the double thickness boards and put under pressure, this will leave eight flat sections. You may have to pin the top/smallest pieces of foam board to keep them from shifting while they dry. If you wish to make your hill sections more natural looking before you glue it all down use the Hot Knife or Hot Wire and trim the edges so that there is not the abrupt break, as in stair steps. You could also cut small and large gullies on the edges. The edges can be trimmed so that there is a smooth transition between levels. If you do this, take care, as the thin edges are extremely fragile.

When the glue is dry on all pieces it is time for the base coat. I chose flat black but a flat charcoal would do just as well. NOTE THE BASE COAT SHOULD BE WATER BASED PAINT NOT ENAMEL, as enamel will melt the foam. As you finish a section sprinkle sand onto the wet paint with a saltshaker. You could just shake it out of your hand but it will not distribute evenly and may turn out lumpy. For those of us that are really lazy you could just paint with a medium brown base coat (not a reddish brown). Let dry according to can instruction, yes you have to read the instructions. Someone please tell my wife I actually said this. Next paint on one coat of brown, shake some more sand, let dry and see if another coat is necessary. It even looks OK if the brown coat lets some of the black come through.

Next, using an old sponge of irregular shape, dab a dry sponge, as in dry brush, onto the section in an irregular pattern, but not a pattern, very random with the light brown paint. Then mix in a little darker brown and do it again. When this has dried take the boards outside and randomly spray the boards with the two brown sprays. The effect is to make it look like a camouflage paint job while not looking like one, no regular shapes, get rid of brush strokes etc.

Once the paint has completely dried it is time for the ballast and pebbles for the streams and hills, all the flat boards get nothing at this point. The ford stream board will get a layer of white glue at the ford then sprinkle with ballast. I used a natural colored ballast of tan/light brown because later it will get a coat of gloss varnish to represent water, and this will look a lot better if the ballast is a light brown. I then took one of the curved stream sections and where I had cut the bank down some to make it look like a sand bar on the inside of the curve a I made a sand bar out of ballast, an area along the bank maybe a 1/2 inch wide by 3 to 4 inches long, not all the way across the stream bed, using white glue as a base.

Next, I worked on the mountain sections and irregularly placed small pools of glue along the edges of the breaks and onto the next level down. First, I used a variety of pebble sizes and when satisfied with that I sprinkled on ballast to cover the remaining glue. When this was done I mixed water (1/3) with white glue (2/3) together in a small spray bottle and sprayed the heck out of all the ballast and pebbles. For the section that will hold the bridge I used lots of medium size Woodland Scenics scree (I think that’s what it’s called) and pebbles. Glue down good and tight.

Let these dry at least overnight. Then I used some Games Workshop Chestnut stain (which I now regret using because it is a very reddish brown) mixed with black ink to dull the reddish effect and went over all the ballast and pebbles on the mountain. I used straight black ink in the bridge stream section, nothing on the sand bar or ford. Of course you could either leave the pebbles natural or paint them.

After the glue dried I painted the stream sections. First, using a flat 1/2 inch brush, paint a wet stripe of dark blue down the middle of the stream, not over the ford or sand bar. Then using a color called Wedgwood blue or a light blue, paint a wet broad stripe on either side of the dark blue all the way to the bank. Kepp this wet and you could even blend the light blue and dark blue with watered down light blue dark blue alternating brushes. Next using Wedgwood Green or a light green mixed with white, paint a wet light application of the green from the bank to about a half-inch out, very lightly so you can almost still see the light blue underneath. Keeping all this wet paint a stripe of medium brown along the bank edge, mix with lots of water not a dark solid stripe.

Keep dipping your brush in a small amount of water that will mostly turn light blue, making sure that the paint adheres to the board don’t use too much water. Next using a tiny amount of white mixed with water - in a bank to bank motion - blend it all together so that there is still a dark stripe in the middle but it is well blend with light blue and the rest so that nothing looks like a stripe. You can also do this with the stream section that has pebbles don’t worry about painting the small ballast and small pebbles just don’t paint the large pebbles. When this section has more or less dried, paint the small pebbles and ballast with black or charcoal gray then stain the larger pebbles with black ink. Let this dry overnight. If necessary spray ballast and pebbles with white glue/water mix or glue them down if any become dislodged.

Next is to flock the sections with a little greenery/but mostly brownery. The most important parts to flock are the areas immediately next to the streams. To accomplish this we used Woodland Scenics Scenery Cement Matte and sprayed it on the edge of the bank and away from the stream up to 4 inches. On the bank we used green sawdust mixed with a little brown, away from the bank we used Woodland Scenics ground foam Brown Blended. When that dried for the remainder of the board/boards we used brown (2/3) sawdust mixed with green (1/3). Not a heavy application and not every mm was covered.

When this was done and cleaned off we sprayed it all with the scenery cement. To clean the excess off before the final spray we just held the boards over a box and tapped on the masonite to shift off the excess flock material. This was done in separate steps so that each flocking material would not mix with the others. However, this flock or whatever material you use should not be mixed with your good stuff because it will clump together.

Before the next and final step we took all the boards outside and gave them a good two light coats spraying with Krylon’s matte fixative, to help hold everything in place.

The final step is to paint the stream, ballast and all the pebbles with the gloss varnish, following the instructions; usually a thin coat is best painted several times rather than a thick coat that might take a week or two or more to dry. I used a thin coat then a thick coat on the Alamo display and it took the thick coat three weeks to completely dry because it dries top down. There is a product or two on the market that you can make acrylic water with but I have not used it. So far I have painted on 15 or more coats, the first 4 were clear then I mixed in 2 drops of black ink, more clear coats then

I began painting layers with very thin washes of blue, green and brown ink all interspersed with one or more clear coats. The water is no starting to have some real depth to it but is still not finished. I will keep coating it until it looks right. The ford is beginning to look right but needs more coats, as does the bridge area with the larger pebbles and rapids. I also added some broom straw and other material along a couple of portions of the banks to make it look like reeds or cat tails were growing, nothing went higher than the bank so I could store it all easy without destroying the vegetation.

I can’t believe it took me two years from start to finish on this project, but my wife was at least understanding to let me work on this instead of some household chores that I will still have to finish. Ben and I worked on this over an eight period, mostly waiting for stuff to dry overnight. We did 14 sections and plan on several more: a large hill on one section; lake front property for the stream delta/steamboat landing; an oasis for the FFL; maybe a couple of boards with sand dunes; a Arab village, which might be too simple; and an African fortified village, with a wall of twigs set into the foam board.

A final couple of cautions

The Woodland Scenics spray can easily be over done and leave white marks on the painted boards. Also, the Krylon spray can somehow get through the water-based paint (even three coats) and melt and blister the foam underneath so don’t let the painted surface get/appear wet when you spray.

One of my next projects after I start painting my FFL will be to construct Fort Zindernouf from Beau Geste. I like the expanded foam one that Old Glory used to have but it was too big, mine will only be a foot square at most. I might make it out of foamcore or luan board instead of foam. Whatever I finally decide to build you can be sure it will end up here.

Terrain Making Tabletop Squares for Wargames

Introduction
Materials and Construction