Vietnam Terrain Boards Begun

Began building the terrain boards for 15MM Vietnam last night. Here are some in progress shots. Going to build them 2 at a time and bought enough materials yesterday to make 4. That ought to be a fair place to start.

For these two boards: one have a road, some rice paddies (I am thinking about a small crop field and a couple of smallish stone walls too) and a small village with the rest of the area taken up by light jungle. The other board will be all light jungle with some clearings, etc.

The above shot shows the two board's basic construction. A 2X2 plywood bottom built up with 1X1's and filled with Styrofoam. Easy enough, no instructions needed. I don't worry about the perfect fit of the foam as a layer of plaster will hide all of that stuff.

I'll use some small strips of basswood to frame some paddies, and I'll use some sandpaper to create a slightly sunken roadway. Then I'll apply the plaster.

While the plaster is still damp, I sprinkled some small railroad ballast into the roadway to help me texture it. Not worried about the rest of the plaster surface as it will be underneath a layer of flock grass. I think that you can see how the plaster shapes up over the basswood strips to form the small berms that line the paddies. Here is a closer view:

The last steps on the paddies will be to pour in a very thin layer of water compound and plant some rice in it.

OK, more at another time. I have beer to drink and dragons to slay this afternoon.