RTV Purchased

I bought this past weekend the first RTV I have ever had.

For those of you who don't already know, RTV stands for Room Temperature Vulcanizing. It's a silicone rubber material used to make molds for casting resin, plaster, etc. It generally can NOT be used for lead - the temperature is too high, melting the mold. I believe there are some types that can handle the high heat, though.

What I got was a Smooth-On product, called OOMO 30, IIRC. It mixes in equal parts by volume (easy!). I have read good things about it on the internet, at TMP and other places. Found it at a local art supply store.

So, obviously, the plan is to sculpt up some items, make molds, and get to casting. Some of these things will be scenics related, so I thought I would mention it here. Specifically, I want to create some doors and windows to be attached to buildings, in both 15mm and 25mm scales. It is a pain to try and scratch build them each time, so I am going to try and create some good masters to cast from. Might make some railings, chimneys and such, too. Start simple before trying something ambitious.

Anyway, wish me luck. I have a nasty feeling I am gonna need it. When I get a space cleared to work on it, I'll get to work. Hopefully, pictures and such will be involved as well.

The Hills of Mars...

I am doing a little bit of terrain work these last few days. I have finally come up with a method that I like for using pink 1/2" thick foam insulation board.

I have a hot-wire foam cutter, a cheapie I got at Hobby Lobby a couple of years back for $10, I think. That's what I am using to shape the pieces, cut smooth bevels for the hillsides, rough faces for cliff sides, that sort of thing.

I'm using spray adhesive. Sounds a little crazy, I admit, but it seems to hold like cement and doesn't eat the foam. This way I can stack multiple layers for more impressive rock outcrops and hills.

So I cut the foam to the shape I want using the hotwire. Then I glue the layers together. So far so good.

The next step is painting. I found some black latex wall paint I had leftover from a DIY project, so I used that. Painted it on the foam, let it dry. Now when I spray paint the colors on the foam, the foam doesn't dissolve away!

Finally, once the black is dry, I hit the foam with three colors of spray in at least two layers of each color. You don't have to wait for each layer to dry - I like the mixed look, it seems mroe natural.

I'll post pictures once I get some decent lighting. I tried to take a few shots tonight, but... too dark.

Jungle and Martian Pools

I've been re-working an old piece of VSF (Victorian Science Fiction) terrain I made over a year ago. I was never really happy with it, but it looks much better now.

Essentially, it's a piece of thin plywood, on which I smeared a fair amount of wood putty, forming some slighty uneven terrain and a depression in the center, for the pool. Sprayed the whole thing in various reddish-browns, then hand painted the center in the blues you see.

Sorry about the blurry shot. Some days I just can't take a decent picture.

What I had to re-work most was the sand/flocking around the pool. Originally, the ground looked more like a hard baked but way too smooth mud plain, not the desert-like surface I envision on a dying Mars' surface. I also added about three additional thin layers of the water to the pond for greater depth. Finally, I had glued in the small cluster of holly berries as some sort of alien reed plant in fruit. I have some more work to do on it, like reed bundles at the edges and some sort of game trail leading to the edge of the pool (maybe scraping away the sand and going back to that mud pack look), but I am much happier with it so far.

The second piece here is one I mentioned a few weeks ago. Its going to use a pot-topper for the grass around the pool. I have a few shots showing how I built up the pool, then primed and painted the interior of the pool and the rest of the base.

So, you can see the progression through the process. I poured water (first layer) into it late yesterday evening, so I have to wait until tonight to add more. It will also get three or four layers of the water. I have even thought of painting in a little green on one of the middle layers, after it dries, to get a little of a scummy water effect. What do you think? I'll poll it, I suppose, since I like to keep polls up anyway. Let me know, and make comments on what you think I should do.

Rivers Project, Part 3

So, I have finally gotten around to pouring some of the realistic water effect stuff into some of the river sections.

The stuff is pretty easy to work with, you just use it in thin layers. As you can see, I used some modelling clay to block the ends of the pieces so the liquid would not simply run all over the place. Then I set it aside to dry for a day.

After 24 hours, I poured a second layer. Again, let it sit for 24 hours.

It was actually more like 3 days before I got back around to these sections. I scored the ends along the modelling clay with a craft knife. Always use a fresh sharp blade - I probably keep the guys at X-Acto in business. Sorry about the blurry picture.

Now all you have to do is flock the banks, which I am going to try to get to this afternoon. Which means you may finally get to see some finished pieces in the next week or so. Note that I highly recommend you finish all of your pours and let it dry all the way before even thinking about flocking. The reason is simple: little bits of flock always get trapped in the hardening water. It isn't the end of the world, but it looks better without.

I have some custom pieces I need to work on to finish the project, and of course all that flocking and sanding and such. I hope to have a decent shot or two of some finished pieces by the end of the week. Until then, check out some of my other projects that I am updating.

Christmas Goodies

I received some goodies from my lovely wife of fifteen years for Christmas that are definitely hobby terrain related. Thought I'd share.

The first was a little kids' toy band saw. Well, I don't think its a ctually a band saw, but a table mounted jigsaw. Either way, its small, plastic, lightweight and not suitable for any kind of serious woodworking. It is good, I am hoping, for cutting thin sheets of balsa, basswood, and birch plywood, as I use a lot of that. It may even do some thin MDF, I hope. It won't cut anything much more than 1/4" thick, though. She found it at Michael's Craft Store. Actually, I noticed it an pointed it out to here and she went back later and got it.

I also got more reindeer moss/lichen in natural greens and browns. Always useful.

Finally, she got me this netting. It is fairly large weave, and I think originally designed for beach decor sort of stuff. Not for real fishing work, I am sure. But here's what sprang to my mind: camouflage netting for overheads. That, or anti-pterosaur netting.

In the VSF game I play around with, aerial ships have existed on Mars for millennia, and could drop bombs. So it makes sense to have developed aerial camouflage, yes?

And on Venus, pterosauroids are a terror of the air. Again, a settlement might easily develop some sort of netting to keep the pteros away from the livestock/children. Sensible idea?

Pot Toppers

There has been a lot of discussion about using 'pot toppers' for terrain projects.

I first clued into them through a Yahoo terrain makers group.

Then, Tas mentioned them on his excellent VSF blog, Yours in a White Wine Sauce! [ http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com ]

So, I felt it only right that I should mention them here. I have yet to obtain any of them, although there is a Michael's craft store not a mile from my home. It is definitely in the project queue to try out, though, as it looks like it can be used to fantastic effect. To wit, check out this page: http://ardleybridge.fotopic.net/c1501517.html

If any of you have used pot toppers, please let us know your experience with them. How easy were they to work with, were you pleased with the results, what adhesive did you use - any comments would be great!

Its December. Let's talk snow.

Okay, so I practically never see the stuff down here in Houston. I grew up in Dallas, and we usually got ice, not snow, pretty much every year.

I have visited the white cold stuff on a few occassions, and even spent some time figuring out how to go down a mountain covered with the crap while balanced precariously on two thin strips of wood. Why anyone would do this for fun, I don't know, but to each their own, I suppose.

The real point of this post, though, is to ask for comments on how to model snow on the gaming table.

Naturally, a large heavy white cloth could do for an entire table. But for features, how do you put snow on them? Let's assume the project is a cluster of large rocks, covered with snow, and a snowy base around them. The rocks are easy - carved and painted foam, attached to a base of either MDF or plywood, depending on what you use for snow. Trying for something kinda like this:



But what do you use? Soap flakes? Powdered sugar (ants in no time)? I bought some snow effect stuff that is designed to be used on those seasonal displays, but I haven't tried it out yet and have no idea how long it will last, etc.

So, guys and dolls, what do you recommend?