Sunday, 20 December 2020

A scenery mess that turned out better than expected

A few months ago I made some cheap wooden block sci-fi terrain (see here). One item I had not got around to completing was a base board for this terrain. My original idea was to get some MDF board from the hardware store and paint it grey. While shopping with my wife at a material and craft store last week, She was looking for material for her quilting, and I was doing my normal wondering around the store for any wargame terrain opportunities. I came across some grey vinyl and decided that this would be perfect for a wargaming mat. Not only that it was 50% reduced price at $16 per metre. Bonus! I bought 2 metres which will nicely cover my 6x4 foot wargaming table.

The grey vinyl

A close up of the vinyl texture

The vinyl has a texture which I was hoping to highlight with a paint wash. I applied different test washes and a sand coloured wash worked quite well. It was not quite what I had in my mind, but I decided to go with a sand wash and apply a dark grey wash over that. Hoping this would provide some overall colour variances.

A light sand wash applied

The black wash was applied not too well

Unfortunately I was having difficulty applying washes and could not get a good consistent look. I tried another wash, but it was just not working for me and when I look at the overall look it was getting darker and darker. I attempted a light brush of sand to see if I could highlight the texture and lighten the look at the same time. Not good, I only achieved highlighting a brick design from the bricked area I was working on.

At this point I was most disappointed and decided I best somehow retrieve the situation and clean off the layers of washes and messed up highlighting. A sourer was sourced from the kitchen and the clean up began.

The clean up showing the light after effects on the left hand side.

The clean up had two effects. Firstly it got rid of the dark washes back to the original light grey of the vinyl, but it also left the washes in the grooves. Effectively, giving the desired look I was originally trying to achieve. In no time at all I had scrubbed, or is that scoured, the vinyl and had a wargaming mat.

A close up of the effect once cleaned up

The wargaming mat on the tabletop

Any new terrain needs to be tested out and the tabletop was soon filled with all my available sci-fi building scenery to create a space dock of sorts.

Terrain was added

All available terrain was added

A quick game was soon underway



24 comments:

  1. That has turned out really well Peter and has given me an idea for a future desert mat:)

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    1. It should work well as a desert mat. Note that the vinyl will not sit well over hills being quite a stiff material.

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  2. Very nice looking terrain you have built Peter- the Vynl cover really works well- good going. Regards. KEV.

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    1. Thanks KEV. This year I have slowly been building up my sci-fi urban terrain.

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  3. Peter, excellent repurposing of the ‘fabric’ and ‘accidental’ recovery to get that perfect shading effect, ideal for the Sci-Fi table. I assume the fabric will roll for storage?

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    1. Hi Norm, Yes, I am able to roll it up for storage. I am thinking about making a smaller 3x3 for mat.

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  4. Your experimentation produced great results!

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    1. Thanks, I am not sure if it was experimentation or desperation.

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  5. Happy accidents - it's surprising how often a interesting effect is discovered when trying to save a disaster. Those light fittings are surely the highlight... get it?

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    1. I will certainly know what to do next time. As for the light fitting line, it made me smile :-)

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  6. Serendipity strikes again!
    The end result looks perfect for scifi or modern urban games.

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    1. It is always a joy when something serendipitous happens, and my urban terrain is sorted for the present until my next visit to the next craft or hardware store.

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  7. Great result Peter, that table looks terrific.

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    1. Thanks, I have been gradually building up my sci-fi terrain this year.

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  8. That worked out well in the end Peter. I bought some similar material years ago, dark brown, which I used got watercourses/lakes.

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    1. The brown would work well for streams and rivers. The one issue I have found with small thin strips of vinyl is keeping it flat on the tabletop. Especially if I have rolled it up for storage. How do you deal with that?

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  9. A nice find, and a good effect.

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    1. Thanks. I am now thinking of other terrain uses for vinyl.

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  10. Looks cool! Glad that it turned out well in the end ^_^

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    1. Thanks. It was not looking very promising at one point.

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  11. Looks really good, Peter. A fine tale of terrain redemption!

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