Some candid snaps

Time to put out some troops and see how the board looks and feels.

British Lights defend the Chapel

British Divisions formed up behind the ridge line

Facing the French Lines

The steepest part of the board can still handle a stand of troops

Spanish Settlement

Just to see what it looks like with 28mm figures (Dutch Belgium Infantry - Painted by Peter Cross)

Step Six: Forest and Rivers

So now we are ready to work on the forest plan.  For this I am looking at using cushion foam from old chair covers.  I cut the same that I want and then using a pair of tweezers to pluck pock marks in the top of the foam.  Make sure that the base that will lay on the table is the flat smooth side of the foam, let the top be the rough and untrimmed side as it will help keep it looking more natural.

I then 50%/50% some brown acrylic craft paint ($7.50 from Spotlight) with water in a jar.  Cramming the foam into the jar and then shake.  Take out the foam and hand wring the paint back into the jar then set the foam aside to dry.

Now that its dried a light brownish colour its ready for flocking.  I use some of the contact adhesive spray to coat the top of the foam.  Placing the glue coated foam on a clean sheet of news paper so I can recover the flock not glued, I shake green flock over the foam.  Given a few minutes I shake the excess flock off the foam and then respray adhesive again sealing the flock on the foam.

While not fantastic its something.  I am not a fan of the tacky nature the trees have and that they fail to turn hard or stay soft enough to hold their form.  For now it will suffice, but I am working on other ways to do it better.

Lastly I give the river a nice bright blue paint, now I planned on using an clear resin and not using blue for the river but with a whole lot of earthy tones I opted to try and give it a bit of *Pop*.

Step Five: Preparing and Painting

With all three boards covered and pinned I was ready to prep them for airbrushing.

More shopping, Bunnings for some Timber Mate putty (one container is more than you will ever need) and Hobbyrama to grab paints, thinner and an airbrush.

Just a bit poorer but happy that I have 90% of what I need to spend on this project spent now I was happy to get into the last big phase.

I grabbed a NEO/IWATA Airbrush-G for $99.95 which has a double action trigger.  Do your research first before buying the wrong thing.

I grabbed Tamiya paints and thinner as I was comfortable with using them.

A mate lent me his compressor so that saved me $150 which I am grateful for.

First off I applied the putty to the river on board 3 with my finger, no need for anything harsher.

Now I was ready to paint.  I started with the Flat Earth XF-52 as I felt that this colour was the closest to the next shade up from my cloth colour.  I applied a light coating to 75% of the board, keeping the hills and forest areas clear.  (sorry I didn'g grab a photo of that stage)

After I was done there I applied a coat of Red Brown XF-64 to the rises of the hills and across the top in a rough pattern to help them stand out from the base level.

Flat Green XF-5 was then added to the areas that would have forest on or near.  I still had not settled on a foresting method yet but I did know where I was planning to have them.

The last step was to use Hull Red XF-9 on the areas that would be dry and high points of the board, the Greater and Lesser Arapiles.  On this step I think I got a bit carried away but its dry land so I saw it as being more rough and rockier in its terrain.

It looks much better at eye level.

Step Cost = $129.70 ($99.95 NEO/IWATA Airbrush-G, $15.80 ($3.95ea) 4xAcrylic Paint, $13.95 Thinner) 

Total Cost = $386.85

Time Taken ~2 Hours (13 Hours Total)