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Post by jennifer on Jan 8, 2016 13:58:56 GMT
Okay, this is the first time I've ever etched cobblestone into the side of 1 inch think rigid foam insulation. I produced all of the detail on this rectangular piece of foam with the dulled pencil sitting on top of it. I plucked and/or used a knife to take a few chunks out here and there and drew cracks using the pencil again. After I plucked a bit out, I continued to shape the cobblestones within the plucked part to give it some three dimensionality. Here it is painted using a mix of grey and brown/tans. (I add the brown and tans because the grey paint I have has a blue tint to it and I don't like that.) I based the entire sides and top first with an very dark brown called "espresso bean" from home depot, which approaches black. I need to put a bit of black/brown wash in the cracks to make them pop. EDIT: I am going to remove that highlight along the top edge, it's making it look 2D and like a flat slab of concrete. Next time I won't ever highlight that.. SHould look a lot better with top edge highlights gone.
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Post by adamsouza on Jan 8, 2016 14:15:51 GMT
Well done.
My only, constructive, criticism is that you may have wanted to finish detailing that top row of rocks onto the top surface. They just stop, as if there were concrete poured over the top to fill in the gaps between the stones, which seems a little off in a fantasy setting.
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Post by jennifer on Jan 8, 2016 14:25:24 GMT
Well done. My only, constructive, criticism is that you may have wanted to finish detailing that top row of rocks onto the top surface. They just stop, as if there were concrete poured over the top to fill in the gaps between the stones, which seems a little off in a fantasy setting. Thanks for that tip. Great idea. I was going off this photo (this is what I want to build):
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Post by jennifer on Jan 8, 2016 14:41:42 GMT
Getting closer to a Frostgrave game
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Post by sgtslag on Jan 8, 2016 15:32:53 GMT
I'd suggest giving the foam a hard coat, prior to painting, to reduce the chances of dents, and scratches, during use with metal figures, in particular. Several people have commented on this forum that they paint the foam with either Mod Podge, or PVA, full strength, to give it a hard surface coating to prevent nicks, dents, and dings, during use. Other than that, it looks fantastic. I would not have noticed the smooth surface, nor would I have thought about it being stones slathered with cement -- I would have just taken it all in, without analyzing it. Normally I would analyze such things, but in this case, I would have overlooked that detail, losing it in the whole array of neat terrain items. Cheers!
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Post by jennifer on Jan 8, 2016 16:52:26 GMT
I'd suggest giving the foam a hard coat, prior to painting.. Great idea, thanks! I'll PVA it first in the future. Or I could varnish afterwards for this particular piece? OR would it be too glossy? Or should I scrap this piece and start over doing it right in the first place? Or I can just pva (say 30% glue, 70% water varnish) over what I have if that'd strengthen it a bit.
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Post by SpielMeisterKev! on Jan 8, 2016 18:10:46 GMT
Howdy, It looks good and some of the suggestions for improvement as well. My 2 cents would be to roll an actual rock, or a wad of foil around on the surface of both the etched and unetched areas to add texture. Even a little bit of variation will add dimension. Kev!
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Post by jennifer on Jan 8, 2016 18:41:32 GMT
Howdy, It looks good and some of the suggestions for improvement as well. My 2 cents would be to roll an actual rock, or a wad of foil around on the surface of both the etched and unetched areas to add texture. Even a little bit of variation will add dimension. Kev! Wonderful, this sounds great! It's nice to be getting such great feedback and tips. I'll keep learning & learning.. love it
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Post by jennifer on Jan 8, 2016 18:42:06 GMT
Winterized the ruins: When I get some molding/modeling paste I'll apply that as well.
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Post by sgtslag on Jan 8, 2016 20:21:01 GMT
jennifer , you can paint on PVA after the piece is "finished", as it will dry mostly clear. I would water it down more like 80/20, glue/water, but that is me. You could just paint on full-strength, matte Mod Podge, as well. With regards to modeling paste, you can find many tutorials on YouTube.com, for making your own. These tut's mostly cover the non-flexible pastes. There are a few which discuss paper-pulp paste, which is flexible, but it is more time-consuming to make, as it involves soaking cheap toilet paper in water, to break it down into paper pulp. Adding the paper pulp to the paste mix, makes the whole flexible. The advantage to making your own modeling paste, is cost: $3-$4 per 8 oz. jar, versus $15-$18 per 8 oz. jar, at Michael's... I have made, and used, two batches of hard paste, thus far. I went through around 12 oz. of it already, and I will likely go through another 20+ oz. of it, before I am done with the current project. I am saving myself a lot of money by making it -- both I, and my wife, are very happy about that. Cheers!
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Post by jennifer on Jan 8, 2016 22:36:31 GMT
jennifer , you can paint on PVA after the piece is "finished", as it will dry mostly clear. I would water it down more like 80/20, glue/water, but that is me. You could just paint on full-strength, matte Mod Podge, as well. With regards to modeling paste, you can find many tutorials on YouTube.com, for making your own. These tut's mostly cover the non-flexible pastes. There are a few which discuss paper-pulp paste, which is flexible, but it is more time-consuming to make, as it involves soaking cheap toilet paper in water, to break it down into paper pulp. Adding the paper pulp to the paste mix, makes the whole flexible. The advantage to making your own modeling paste, is cost: $3-$4 per 8 oz. jar, versus $15-$18 per 8 oz. jar, at Michael's... I have made, and used, two batches of hard paste, thus far. I went through around 12 oz. of it already, and I will likely go through another 20+ oz. of it, before I am done with the current project. I am saving myself a lot of money by making it -- both I, and my wife, are very happy about that. Cheers! I tried mixing baking soda, white glue and white acrylic paint and it didn't work out very well.. baking soda powder just crumbled off. What is the recipe for your modeling paste?
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Post by sgtslag on Jan 9, 2016 15:16:21 GMT
jennifer, there are a great many recipes out there... The one I found, and tried, which worked exceptionally well, is as follows (all measurements are in volume, not weight!): 1/2 oz. PVA Glue (you could use 1 oz. of either glue, mixing the two is not necessary) 1/2 oz. Mod Podge Matte (gloss will work, as well) 2 oz. White Acrylic Craft Paint (I used AppleBarrel -- cheap; any color will work) 5 oz. Talcum Powder (make sure it is Talcum, not corn starch, or anything else) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- = 8 oz. of hard-drying Modeling/Texture Paste I mixed mine in a 16 oz. Mason Jar, with a sealing lid. I poured in measured amounts of water, first, marking each line on the side of the jar with a Sharpie. This worked well enough for the first batch, as it was easy to add the ingredients accurately. For the second batch, I left the remainder in the jar, so my measurements were off -- it came out too soft, and too liquid. From now on, I will use a measuring cup (marked in 1/2 oz. measurements) to more accurately mix it up. Accurate measurements are needed to make each batch consistent in quality. I purchased a $12 mixer from Wal-Mart to dedicate to crafting. I used one beater only, to mix it very thoroughly, in the jar. I then used a 1" brush (30 for $6, from Menards), to paint it on -- throw them out when done; then I used the same brush to stipple it, for texture. My first batch was so thick, and pasty, that it held the texture, without flattening, or smoothing, at all. It did suffer a very few minor cracks, in the surface, when it dried, but they are small. If the latex paint covers them, fine, if not, they will add to the texture of the pieces, which are rock. Cheers!
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Post by jennifer on Jan 9, 2016 17:54:11 GMT
Getting closer to finishing this pyramid altar thingy: I carved the stairs from the same sheet of 1" thick rigid insulation, using my pocket knife and a ruler & pencil. I now need to sand the lines off the sides of the staircase with a sanding block. Etch on some cobble stone. And paint the same way and adhere. Later I'll deal with the snow / frost effect with paint and/or modeling/molding paste.
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Post by AnarchyDice on Jan 9, 2016 18:05:28 GMT
I should make myself some of those platforms, they seem useful inside the dungeon and out.
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Post by jennifer on Jan 9, 2016 20:42:47 GMT
Here it is painted. I think I am done with it for now.
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Post by bananapanda on Jan 9, 2016 22:51:12 GMT
The pyramid thingy looks awesome!
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Jan 10, 2016 2:23:22 GMT
Only thing with your stairs is that they don't appear playable for based minis.
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Jan 10, 2016 3:24:12 GMT
Okay, this is the first time I've ever etched cobblestone into the side of 1 inch think rigid foam insulation. I produced all of the detail on this rectangular piece of foam with the dulled pencil sitting on top of it. I plucked and/or used a knife to take a few chunks out here and there and drew cracks using the pencil again. After I plucked a bit out, I continued to shape the cobblestones within the plucked part to give it some three dimensionality. Here it is painted using a mix of grey and brown/tans. (I add the brown and tans because the grey paint I have has a blue tint to it and I don't like that.) I based the entire sides and top first with an very dark brown called "espresso bean" from home depot, which approaches black. I need to put a bit of black/brown wash in the cracks to make them pop. EDIT: I am going to remove that highlight along the top edge, it's making it look 2D and like a flat slab of concrete. Next time I won't ever highlight that.. SHould look a lot better with top edge highlights gone. I like that highlight. It gives players reference! and I think it sharpens the look of the piece. However its your world so of course its your call!
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Jan 10, 2016 3:26:33 GMT
Here it is painted. I think I am done with it for now. A quick note on stairs...realistically yours look great. Play wise you need to make them wide enuff to accommodate a minis base. unless you use some other method for helping a mini stand on them. (Blue tack comes to mind. I have even seen little stair extenders that sit on the terrain but extend out to fit the mini
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Post by jennifer on Jan 10, 2016 5:27:40 GMT
I don't see how I was supposed to construct the staircase any deeper because the border of the first level of the platform is just wide enough to accodomate a 30mm round base (which is how I designed it).
I can just make another partial (3 step) staircase piece to use temporarily by inverting it over three steps, for the the mini to sit on. OR I could just use a die as a marker of where that mini is at that particular moment in time, I guess. I like how it looks so that matters to me. Or I can sit a ramp over it temporarily.
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