Take Two

Our first go with the terrain landed flat. The base - 3 mm foam PVC sheet, covered with 25 mm polystyrene strips - was way too elastic and bent after the glue had dried. So it was time to go back to the drawing board and rethink the process.

Learning from this mishap, we decided to use plain 50 mm polystyrene plates for the base.

Crushed ground and bombed foundation (with mock-up building).

I have to admit, I thought that the process of building terrain versus painting miniatures wouldn't be that different, after all, the scale is same and you need to be good craftsman in both cases. Well, so far I've prooved myself wrong. While the scale is same, the wast amount of space and possibilities of my 50 x 50 cm board has made a tremendous obstacle for me to cross over. Not that I don't like the challenge, but I've very limited time in my hands when it comes to doing hobbystuff (don't we all?) and the size of ONE board really hit me. Choosing the facing of the cathedral's corner alone was very hard decision for me to make, not to mention how tall the building was going to be. Well, the inner perfectionist in me will cry for the compromises I'll have to make.

Even though there's been couple of setbacks, it has also been refreshingly new and fascinating trip so far. Trying all the new tricks and techniques while building the terrain has been really fun - you know, smashing the foam with fist-sized stone and poke the surface with crafting knife like a mad man... Something totally different to kit-bashing and micro-accurate greenstuffin' I've used to do. It's both liberating and lustily airy.