The initial terrain has now been completed for Andy, I did a few more pieces of bocage as I got the go ahead after the sample piece. I’ve learnt quite a few things with this project that I thought I’d summarize here.
- I need to do more things in bulk to speed the work up. I cut out some a few pieces of MDF and worked on them, then later on cut out more – it would make more sense to do each stage all at once.
- I really need to remember to put a coat of paint on before the sand, so I don’t have white DAS clay showing through when I paint the base coat on – no matter what I do i always end up with tiny white speckles where the paint/brush just won’t go!
- A tiny touch of washing up liquid in the paint used on the bases is a tremendous help to coverage, it means I can paint the rough sand much quicker.
- MDF warps, it’s a real pain when doing terrain pieces as they don’t sit flush, I imagine plasticard would do the job better but as yet I’ve not found a decent supply of free plasticard. I’m not yet prepared to pay the retail prices of plasticard just for terrain bases.
- I’m really pleased with the way the bocage looks, but it’s really heavy due to the fact the entire mound is DAS modelling clay. I think any future Bocage needs to have some packing material to bulk the majority of it out, this should also help to reduce warping. I was going to use some bass wood but again its rather pricey for something to be hidden under the terrain. Offcuts of scrap wood should do it though.
Something else I was considering while doing this terrain was whether I should try and sell some on ebay to make a few quid. Problem seems to be though that they sell pretty cheaply and by the time you cut out paypal/ebay/materials costs, you’re talking a couple of quid per piece, which only makes it worthwhile if you can produce the volume and get the demand. I think I’ll just continue to offer my services on the basis of
Lord Bert 