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Monday, June 23, 2014

Sailing the Seven Seas...

Lots of work over the weekend - first job was to Liquitex the sea surface, that I had painted up last weekend...

I wasn't sure how much Liquitex (Gloss Gel Medium) I would need to cover the board (120cm x 180cm) so ordered up a couple of medium sized pots. Turns out I only needed half one medium pot (about 250mls all up). I painted it on and spread it out into a thin layer with a medium sized household paintbrush, then used a large make-up blusher brush to stipple a pattern into it .... working my way across across the board as I did so. It was touch dry by end of the day but I left it overnight to fully dry before putting anything on it...

Its certainly better than the Mod Podge I mentioned earlier in another post... I used that on my river sections, but I think I may go over that with the Liquitex...



Once dry, I let my Pirate crew take their sloop, the 'Becky Boo' for a sail...



And then I can put the port board back down on top, and the Becky Boo can moor up against the jetty...


I am rather pleased with the effect... and I have plenty Liquitex left to to do my other board that the Jungle/Desert Isle sits on... plus other water effects that may come up...


On related 'pirate matters' I also finished my Brig over the weekend, at least in terms of building it; adding the anchors to the catheads and swivel guns to rear deck sides. Theres endless little extra details I could add, but I feel it is done sufficiently now - it is after all a gaming piece, not a scale model and the more stuff you put into it, the less space you have for model placement... I was going to add a Capstan, but I'd lose a chunk of deck space... so decided to leave it out. Just got to finish painting it up now... oh and add the name plate at the back, that's the final bit of making to do...

I also got a bunch of other terrain making and painting work done over the weekend, more work on Khazad Dum Bridge board, the Causeway and finished the Dwarrowdelf Towers, and almost finished painting the Uruk Scouts - should get those done over the course of this week... and finally got round to playing out the Watcher scenario too, but I'll blog these extra activities through the week... stay tuned!

26 comments:

  1. Awesome looking water.
    cheers

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  2. Your water surface is amazing, Scott. Very very well done, sir.


    -- Jeff

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  3. A true work of art, Scott! Museum quality work. Best, Dean

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  4. I really, really want to have a game on this! I wonder if Stacey would notice if I disappeared for 24 hours to drive down, play several games and drive back?
    Awesome work Scott!

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    1. LOL, who knows, maybe if you sneak away quiet like? ;-)

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  5. That certainly looks the part. looking forward to seeing the island board with the same treatment.

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    1. I'm actually thinking of also doing my 3rd games table too, but with a darker blue, to build LakeTown on...

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  6. That's fantastic, Scott. Great work.

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  7. That sea surface looks excellent. I'm wondering whether Liquitex would work for rivers as well...

    Cheers
    Stefan

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    1. Thank you Stefan. Yes I would think it would work well for all water features if you want some surface texture and not a dead calm pond.

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  8. Crikey, that's good, I feel like a dip and I can't even swim?

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  9. Great looking pictures, beautiful water!

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  10. The one problem with the miniature gaming blogosphere... so much cool stuff out there, so many distractions. :-)

    Great work Scott, everything looks fantastic!

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  11. Looks wonderful Scott. Excellent results! But how much trouble are you in with the make up brush?

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    1. Thanks. LOL, luckily I asked first! ;-) One of the perks of a wife in retail pharmacy - she can get old ones, or rep samples... I have actually found these blusher brushes are perfect for painting terrain, especially dry brushing - the big soft brush head is excellent!

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  12. Yep thats the one, comes in larger sizes too, but one of those would cover the board I have done. You can apply it thicker if you wish, but then it wouldn't spread as far... I wanted to keep mine fairly flat so ships and other terrain could be placed easily on top.

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  13. That does look superb. Great tips and job , thanks.

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  14. This looks really good. It has a movie set appearance that makes me want to zoom into the town. :)

    Having worked at an art store for a decade and used many materials I have to ask how the Liquitex holds up? Does is crack or wear down over time? I've been using Envirotexlite all these years and I'm always looking for new materials to try out.

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    1. I have only used the Liquitex twice now, Watcher board and this sea board. Both were thin layers - spread the material out with a broad paint brush then stippled it... its probably only 1-2mm thick at most. It has dried rather hard and looking at youtube vids from TerranGenesis - its seemed the best material to use, more resistant to surface damage, than say ModPodge. It does feel very tough to the touch once dry. I don't think cracking will be a problem at this thickness of application. I like the Envirotex Lite too - good for creating depth with multiple layered pours... I then added the Liquitex over the top of that for surface texture... I would have liked to do this with the Sea board too but cost would have prohibitive... as the Envirotex is not exactly cheap!

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