Continued Middle-Earth machinations...

More gradual work this weekend on the Causeway...

It's now glued to the base, and the main upright glued to the stair. I've started cutting out gullies into the base to further give the impressive of height in the stair columns. This has also allowed me to fashion the stony bridge section from bottom of the stairway across gully there.

I have decided I am going to make it corner-centric, and am going to back the structure in MDF and along its left side, so I can effect a rocky corner area, into which a gallery with pillars will be cut, for the goblins to shoot down from at the Fellowship as they flee down the stairs...as per movie...

I've also started cladding the lower areas in off-cut broken bits of poly I had left over... just to start to build up the structure and give it some texture...

I left it with the smaller side panels of MDF gluing , to give the base more strength...

I am still pondering how best to model flames and smoke in the gullies...

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So while that was drying I moved back on the the Khazad Dum board... I attacked the surface of the pink foam stuff with a box cutter knife, and quickly effected a rocky surface. In that respect this material is very easy to work with.

I then also started to clad the sides of the board with more MDF, again for structural strength of the board.... and left that drying too... one side at a time as the PVA glue dries... though had to re-clamp down the end top surface to get a better fit after further trimming down the end piece of foam.

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Back to modelling, and I decided that my Hobbit ale cart drivers would probably want a little comfort for their journey, so I fashioned a broad cushion out of greenstuff for the seat. This actually allowed me to push the hobbits into it, to allow their seating posture and angle to look better, more upright... I've also based the cart on a 60mm MDF round base, 3mm thick, and sand textured it.

And showing the hobbits in place. I plan to paint the cart and hobbits separately, and glue the hobbits into place at the end. This will allow me to try and freehand some words on the cart plaque behind their seat. That's the bit I am not looking forward to as my freehand skills are not the best...

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Oh, and if you hadn't guessed, I've also moved on to the next model painting requirement for the Fellowship campaign; the Uruk-Hai Scouts... a boxed set of 24 plastic figures up first for starters... I've also got a handful of metal ones and Lurtz in the stripping jar from 2nd hand purchases... and am thinking of getting Vrasku and Mahur done at the same time, while I am working on the Uruks...

Making steady progress with these guys... they are fairly easy to do - dark armour, shades of brown and gray throughout and the majority wear full face helmets so no having to spend ages getting the faces right!

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Back to terrain and the Watcher board, and my tales of woe... I am frustrated to heck that the bit I had expected to be the easy bit to finish it off, pour the water... has caused the most grief!

The Golden brand acrylic resin had dried but not clear, it was still opaque white over most of the water area. I am guessing this has either been because the layer applied was too thick or there was too much humidity as it dried, or both. To try and fix this I decided to try heating it with a heat gun... Whilst at first I thought this was going to work, suddenly the resin ballooned up off the surface, then shrank back down as heat was removed, drying in an awful wrinkly mess...

I let it dry, then tried peeling off the top surface, cutting slits in it and peeling bits back... then one piece came away thickly, lifting the whole resin thickness, exposing the base foam layer underneath... "Bollox!" I thought, and pulled... and the whole lot came off... back to square one!

So I have resurfaced this foam base in paint and glue to seal it, added pebbles and gravel and twigs to effect fallen logs, branches in the water etc...

Having watched again some of the Terranscape videos on Youtube, I have ordered some Envirotex Lite and some colouring pigment translucent dyes, and some Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium. The first product is poured in layers to effect water depth. The last product will effect a wavy surface ripple.

I am going to keep the Mod Podge for the river sections and redo those with a more realistic surface texture - I hope!

With luck I may have the Watcher Board finished for next weekend... fingers crossed!

PS - Bugger, just checked the stash - I don't have Vrasku afterall! Another one to source...