Whilst the games boards made by the club in the past had been made from one or more layers of polystyrene based on chipboard; and have been very successful I didn't think a 100mm (4") height would work as well so I was seeking an alternative and as described in Cautious Beginnings I played with a piece of the material used to insulate a flat roof in my home. It is Recticel Instafit Polyurethane Insulation board (Kingspan/Celotex).
Luckily the island is very flat plateau and windswept so the only real elevation was the cliffs and the valleys where streams cut through the island's plateau as the period picture shows.
I discovered that at 100 mm the material:.
2) Is very resistant to vertical pressure but gives easily if you push sideways into it. This allows you to shape the material with your gloved fingers and use your gloved hand to 'sand/polish' the finish.
3) It also gives off an odour that probably shouldn't be breathed in, as well as a fine dust, non static and easily hoovered up, [Warning clogs hoover quickly and probably also lungs so use a mask].
The plan was to use chipboard as a base, and then I would glue kingspan boards on top. (You know what happens to plans!)
Went to the local store and bought the chipboard and had it cut to size, (a must) and now have 5 times 2' x 5' boards. and ordered the Kingspan, 8' x 4' so needed three in order to get 5 lots of 2' x 5' happily these were delivered for a small charge.
Cutting the Kingspan to size was easy using a 'ripsaw' but I suggest you sandwich the Kingspan between two lined up pieces of chipboard, clamped together you will avoid cutting at an angle like I did with my first one.
I had intended to use some hot wire tools I'd bought to cut Polystyrene to shape it, however they proved ineffective the material won't melt the same way. Thankfully it cuts well with a knife and sculpts quite well too, a little messy but thank god none of those balls, but still statically charged. I used a bread knife as I needed the length of blade, felt this was safer and found the Kingspan had two lines of woven glass fibre inside that a serrated knife could cut through.
A lot of the work had been done for me by Chris Hall as I used his 'Map' as my template.
With boards and Kingspan cut to size I placed the Kingspan and then laid the 'Map' over the top allowing me to measure the Kingspan, look closely you can see the island already in place.
Having cut the Kingspan to length I peeled the aluminium foil off what would be the base as I felt the PVA glue would adhere the two elements better without it.
Peeling off the top layer of aluminium foil I started carving and modelling the material. Do use a mask!
The red lines show where the fibre glass mesh is and I used it to my advantage, the lower line became the highest point of the beach and street level in the town. I used a model knife to cut a 'V' for the valley and then formed the shape by simply rubbing my gloved fingers like sandpaper over it pushing away the waste. The cliffs were cut with a bread knife the mesh adding an unexpected bonus to the look.
However I couldn't sculpt the beach to my satisfaction and ended up using corrugated card, a layer by the seawall to raise that end and then a full beach piece peeling the back off the last inch to give me a sharper slope.
As you can see the sea is patterned wall paper. I put PVA on my beach and poured sand on. I also reinforced the sea wall with mastic just in case.
Once shaped to my satisfaction I applied PVA glue and sand to all cliff edged and beaches, reapplying when dry, you may need three thin coats, beware of applying too much sand/PVA as the mix will slide down the slope. When ready I started painting with ordinary emulsion paint.
Terrain skeleton complete, time for dressing.
Whilst this was for a 20mm game, the scenery was so flat any scale game could be played on it, although we began to limit ourselves with the placements we inserted, but it had to be done. Nonetheless one set of judges deemed it was a 10mm setup for a 20mm game, they ignored our research and the facts, apparently field lines should be man height hedges not low scrub even if the map and photographs showed otherwise.
Did I care, yes, however the best accolade for all our work came from a Frenchman who saw the game at Crisis in Antwerp, who pointed at the layout and named both island and town, a Result! Merci monsieur, très apprécié !
Moving onwards I used cheap towelling from ASDA (rough ground) and thin corduroy (farmland) from a local sowing shop. Builders caulk was applied to all roads and an old child truck (to scale) run along it whilst still wet to give me the ruts in the muddy roads.
One of my dislikes with pieced terrain boards is the joins I tried to mitigate this having flaps of terrain cloth overlapping the boards. Field cloth would extend beyond the board to the road edge on the next board. if you can't see what I mean in the above I've highlighted it below.
Me OTT? Yup! In the end I followed this idea with the town and fortress, despite hours of getting it just right I removed Kingspan replacing it with a piece of MDF, with wall paper cobbles that the town's building could sit on.
As you see that cover a lot of the joint.
To make packing for transport between shows easy and we went to a few in the UK and Crisis in Belgium. Nothing was glued in place.
To avoid damaging the board by pushing in and removing trees I inserted and glued rawlplugs into the board that allowed me to insert and remove the K&M trees easily.
The two pieces of MDF on the right of the above picture were my templates for building the fort seen in the picture below. I used Railway Scenic card to cover the walls and hide the Kingspan core.
The finished town with port and overlooking fort. It was the guns on this fort that had to be taken by the allies.
Finished Project
Transportation and storage mode.
At Bovington Tank Museum the Allies commence their seaborne assault.
