The Colors of the Wind
He was pleased at how the battlefield was taking shape. Every stone was in its place, the grooves in the earth were ready to be filled with flowing water. "Wait! I'm getting ahead of myself, the waters have no color!" The general realized that his battlefield was lifeless and lacked the color it deserved. "Time to get painting!"
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| Where we left off last time |
Once all of the table was covered in sand, it was time to get painting! While the sand and stones provided the grit and texture that I was hoping for, I wanted to be able to tie everything together in one unified color scheme. Similarly, I wanted my water to have an obviously bluish tone to it (however unnatural it might look) and so I needed to make sure that I painted that effect into the river bed because the water effects will just dry transparent.
One other reason why I covered the entirety of the foam board with joint compound was to protect it from the next step: spray primer! Spray paint has the unfortunate side-effect of dissolving foam, and since I wanted to use the same color of primer on my table as I do with my Circle models, that is why I covered the board in joint compound. I primed the board by putting a regular coat of primer over everything, making sure that I got into some of the harder to reach areas.
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| The dark paint was more like a wash than paint... |
Once the board was primed, I need to get some paint for it, and I went down to the local hardware store to pick up a couple sample pints of what I needed. I purchased four colors: a medium gray, a medium green, a dark blue, and a light blue. Something interesting happened, however. Apparently there was not an appropriate base for the dark blue color, as so the paint tech kinda just "winged-it" with a different kind of base. The resulting color was not really that close, but I didn't really care anyway, so I took it. What was also interesting about this color is that it was much more translucent than the usual paint you get from hardware stores. I watered it down and applied it to the river bed, and I was actually pretty impressed with how it looked. I love happy accidents!
Earlier that week I saw some awesome pre-painted terrain at my LGS and knew it would be PERFECT for my board! I picked up the Battlefield in a Box Large Pine Wood and the Small Pine Wood (for variety) and I was not disappointed! They were super easy to "assemble", as all I had to do was apply the flocking using glue and the flock mix they provided in the box. The trees were all set to go right out of the box! I also picked up a Small Cabin from Pegasus and naturally, I had to put them on the board and snap some pictures.
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| Naturally! |
Then it came time to paint everything else! First, I decided to paint everything except the road with the medium green. It was an unassuming but great color and it gave the ground the color it really needed. This would not be the final ground color, however, as I planned to also use some Woodland Scenics grass flocking that I had purchased on parts of it, but the green undergrowth was necessary to give everything a good green tone. I also painted the road using some of my Games Workshop paints and washes (Bestial Brown followed by Devlan Mud wash). I drybrushed most of the board with the gray, to pick up the larger stones and sand texture, so it didn't look like I had green rocks. I also painted the cliff facings gray and all of the other stones followed. After that, I washed the cliff faces and most of the rocks with the Games Workshop Badab Black wash - it allowed the natural texture of the rocks to pop out a little bit more. Finally, I really watered down some of the dark blue that I used for the waterway, and used that to wash the beaches. I wanted the beaches to resemble the rest of the waterway, but still wanted to differentiate them from the rest of the board.
Once I had everything painted, I flocked the board with the mixture that I had purchased. I decided that I didn't want an even coat, as I thought it might look a little too unnatural. I decided, instead, to put it on in a more splotchy pattern. I was pretty pleased how it came out!
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| Ah, yes, it's starting to look good now! |
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| The waters of life floweth! MUAHAHA! |
"Everything is coming together!" He began to see his design coming into full view as the colorful winds receded. Trees were springing forth and the blades of grass began to sprout from the seeds blown in from the four corners of the Earth. His magical battlefield was almost complete! "What's that, I hear?" He uttered to himself. He could hear what sounded like babbling in the distance. When he turned his head he saw that the waters of life were flowing ever closer towards him. "Yes! The end is nigh!"
Coming soon, our exciting conclusion - Part 4: The Waters of Life