Desert Rock Outcrop Part Two

Hello There! The first part of this subject is here. While moving the scenery, that I am making at the moment, I needed some more space so I placed some rock faced ridges together, one on top of the other. A few moments later I noticed that with the modular aspect of the scenery allowed me to add a second tier of ridge line.

I saw this and realised that they 'fitted' together!

From a top view I could not see any problems doing this and they lined up really well.

From the side, The black band on the left is a cut sheet of polystyrene with black tape around the edge to stop any breaking of the edge.

This was a nice surprise and I will try to include this in a back drop for any photography.

 

Desert Rock Outcrop, Part One

Hello There! While looking through a number of desert photographs I noticed the rocky features that played an important part in many of the clashes that took place in North Africa.

Especially in the Gazala battles these higher areas were seized by the Axis forces and caused the Commonwealth forces countless headaches and losses as they used penny packets of, sometimes, untrained and unacclimatized forces to recapture the high ground.

I wanted to avoid making some special to type terrain, as this may have been very large and caused me some real storage problems. I would also have been unable to change the size and shape of the high ground and could not change the high ground to include or exclude trenches or dug in positions.

I thought out a system of modular tiles which could allow replacement of the type of high ground or, if no high ground was needed I could use as a back ground.

This a basic plan to show what I envisage. The two central, plain squares are 600mm x 600mm flat desert tiles which can easily be replaced with times with trenches or positions in.

Each of the surrounding tiles are 600mm x 300mm and have a rock face along all or part of one side. Each of the four corners have a turn in the rock face and can match up with the tile next to it. They can also be swapped round as they are modular.

Three of the above tiles have slopes to aid access.

Here is a cross section of the tiles. The central higher tile on the left sits on a 2" thick sheet of polystyrene. The surrounding tiles have the timber edge extended to the same height as the raised central tile.

I have started to make some of these already.

One thing I have learnt, is how to cut the plaster rock face moulds. I did not want many repeated rock formations and I was limited to four Woodland Scenics moulds. After experimenting with layers of the smaller rock moulds, here. I decided to use the larger rock casts but cut them to the required height. At first I scored a line with a craft knife and continued during this until the cast snapped. Then I realised I could cut them with a general purpose saw and it was a lot faster.

I have started from one side and worked across to the other. I also try to over lap the castings to make them look more natural.

This close up shows that more clearly.

I deliberately model a curve into the face of the styrene so that the rock face does not look flat and unrealistic.

This tile includes one of those access slope I mentioned earlier.

The slope is also bordered by rock castings but cutting the larger rock casting down to the height that is required means that you now have double the shapes to build up you scenery.

 

Reconditioned Hex Terrain Rock Faces.

Hello There. I have completed a commission for a friend which is some of the last hex terrain I have to recondition for him.

The three hex terrain tiles were originally representing high ground but had no rock face. They were typical of the hex terrain available from the 1980's onwards. I covered the raised areas in styrofoam off cuts and after glueing them on with gorilla glue, or polyurethane expanding adhesive, I let it dry and carved the exterior to match up between the tiles.

The styrofoam was carved to match up between tiles. When I was happy with this I took a sharp scalpel bpade and carved the basic corrugated shape. I wanted the face to be irregular but also the separate layers of the styrofoam to be disguised so that the layers of foam board could not be seen. 

Once this was done I then ran the sharp scalpel blade paralell to the ground many times to form the geological layers in the rock faces. Every now and then this cut small piecs of the foam face free of the board but this is not a problem as the irregularity of the paralell cuts makes the frock look more realistic.

Then paint the whole face in black. As there are many recesses in the rock face I added some water to thin the paint and some washing up liquid to break the surface tension of the paint and water. This allowed the paint to better permeate into these recesses. I found that spending a long time under a strong light led me to miss many spots here and there and tell tale bright blue styrofoam would poke through here and there. I had to take a break until my 'paint gap blindness' went away.

Once I was sure this had all been covered in black I then heavily dry brushed the rock face surface in dark grey and progressively lightened the grey and made the dry brushing more subtle until you reach a very slight dry brush in just white. This process picks out the subtle gaps and spaces in the rock faces.

Here is the last remaining half tile to show what I had started with. This system of dry brushing can be used with different colours. Sandstone cliffs are various shades of brown so that could also be used.

The sample figures are 28mm Perrys ACW Confederate infantry and a mounted Union Colonel from Old Glory for scale.