Custom made professional high quality but affordable wargame scenery buildings and terrain for Warhammer Warhammer 40k Mordheim DBA Ancients ECW and ACW wargaming using Reaper Warhammer Confrontation and Foundry 25mm figures. Base kits ruins kits scenic materials seafoam trees cork green scene scatters long grass field grass and much more.custom made professional high quality but affordable wargame scenery buildings and terrain for Warhammer Warhammer 40k Mordheim DBA Ancients ECW and ACW wargaming using Reaper Warhammer Confrontation and Foundry 25mm figures. Base kits ruins kits scenic materials seafoam trees cork green scene scatters flock static grass lichen columns ivy dead fall leaves long grass field grass and much more.Gallery of castles keeps towers watchtowers ruins tombs trees inns taverns crypts moss lichen leaves ivy dungeon creepers seafoam seamoss temples rohan house houses rivers watermills forts roman and ancient farms blacksmith Antenociti's Workshop contactshints and tips how to glues trees kits buildings basing base custom made professional high quality but affordable wargame scenery buildings and terrain for Warhammer Warhammer 40k Mordheim DBA Ancients ECW and ACW wargaming using Reaper Warhammer Confrontation and Foundry 25mm figures. Base kits ruins kits scenic materials seafoam trees cork green scene scatters flock static grass lichen columns ivy dead fall leaves long grass field grass and much more.Links to other good sites

 

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Modeling realistic sand.

Modeling realistic sand can be difficult due to problems re-creating the way that real sand flows into dunes, corners and cracks which simply cannot be imitated easily using traditional glue techniques.

To get around this problem, and to resolve difficulties in painting sand, we developed a different method of doing sand which we call "top-down gluing".

Top-down gluing.

Simply put this technique involves putting the glue on after we have laid the sand, rather than before we put the sand on - the following images and text will explain how we do this.

1: Finish building your model, in this case we are using the ruins of an old "contemplation pool" done in an egyptian style, paint it and also weather it if desired.

2: Carefully apply PVA to all areas of the baseboard that show around the model itself. Ensure a good coverage of glue so that it seals all exposed areas of the board (Very important) as this will stop the board from warping later on in the process.

3: Place the model onto a board or paper and pour fine sand all over the model and leave to dry.

4: When dry lift up the model and tip off the excess sand - this should leave you with the model looking as shown below. The purpose of this stage is two-fold - firstly the glue cover forms an impermeable barrier that will prevent our base-board from warping later in the process and secondly it ensures that we have coverage of sand along the edges of the board.

5: We are now going to apply the sand "proper". Place the model down on some old newspaper and then take some fine filtered sand. Grab a handful of sand and allow it to flow out of your hand down on to the model. By moving the flow of sand around you can create dunes and heaps of sand wherever you want.

6: Once happy with the layout of the sand now sprinkle in some coarse talus or small gravel

7: You can now add just a little bit more sand to slightly burry the gravel you have just added.

8: now VERY carefully lift up the model trying not to disturb any of the sand on the model itself. THis should leave you with all the excess sand left on the paper which you can now pour back into its original container.

9: Carefully place your model back down on the newspaper.

10: This stage is probably the most important so please read carefully! You will need to make yourself some thinned-PVA or use Woodland Scenic's "Scenic Cement" or Acrylic matte-medium.
You then need to find a good "atomiser" (spray bottle). Now it is vitally important that your atomiser produces a MIST and not a jet or spray of liquid. If it produces a jet or a spray with large droplets of water then it will not work.

Using the atomiser mist over the sand so that the mist falls gently on to the sand surface. Keep doing this until the sand is moist, ensure an all-over coverage. The reason we use a mist is to avoid "bobbles" - these are small balls of sand that form around water droplets and which will spoil the look of the sand.

11. Once this is done leave the model to dry. What will happen is that the misted PVA will gently soak into the sand and dry forming a rigid crust of sand. Once that rigid crust has formed you can then spray (or even pour) over with thinned-pva again, this time really soaking the sand - the hard crust of sand will prevent large droplet forming "bobbles" or otherwise disturbing the surface of the sand. Once done set the model aside to dry - you can repeat this process 3 or 4 times to ensure your sand is now glued throughout its depth; give special attention to deep areas of sand and to the edges of the board.

12: Once all dry you can now paint the sand by dry-brushing it and then seal it all in place using some Testors Dullcote matte varnish.
Alternatively you can avoid painting altogether by using coloured sand - you can use this either throughout the process or just apply the coloured sand as a final layer after you have filled up the bulk of the area as shown above. Pre-coloured sand can be quite expensive so we tend to use cheap builders sand to form the majority of the sand and then just add a very thin layer of coloured sand at the end as shown below:

13: Advantages of this method are that you can form incredibly realistic looking dunes, windblown sand and also fill in cracks and cavities with very little effort. Achieving this sort of detail by painting can be done but is very difficult in comparison to this technique - take a look at the Dirz plaza in the image below to see what we mean:

Using the very finest of sand allows you to use this method at all scales down to 6mm and because the sand flows naturally the resultant look is as natural as you can get - it is, after all, natural.
The use of pre-coloured sand allows very fine detailing to be achieved, in-filing of cracks and such like, to be achieved with very little effort compared to traditional techniques of painting sand.

On the downside pre-coloured sand can be expensive and the process is time consuming in that each successive application of thinned-pva takes a long time to dry (although you can speed it up using a hairdryer once the top layer/crust has gone hard)

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http://workshop.barrule.com . Cityscapes and backdrops with permission of & Copyright© www.svenart.3dk.org