Realm of Battle - Expansions done, now with charnel pools!

  It is coming...  after all.  My Apocalypse Collectors version really did make the cut at the last minute and is winging it's way here.  A more thorough review of the box when it arrives.

  Today is another chapter in the Realm of Battle board saga.  I bought the extensions some time ago from my FLGS (Active Imagination) and they sat, languishing in the corner.  A couple weekends ago, I decided it was time to get them ready for Space Wolf corpses, so I had better get to it.

  So here it is, in pictures...

The boards, primed in white acrylic primer and the rocky areas sprayed with Black.  The primer is any cheap acrylic primer from a hobby store (Hobby Lobby or Michael's ...), no need to wasted Valejo or <god forbid> citadel primer on this.  Scuff up the boards a bit too with really light sandpaper (after you wash them in water and dish soap, like you do with all your plastic minis, right?)
 

  The two boards after having been painted with acrylic tube paints (thinned with tap water, no special care needed here).  I used umber/sienna colors to match the theme of the old boards.  This step helps in case you get a divot or ding in your flocking.  I tried to roughly feather the colors out from the black to the lightest shade, but having variation and hard lines no and then does not hurt.  If you ever look at "real" terrain from high above (i.e. an aircraft) you'll see that nature is made up of some blends and some very hard lines.  You'll also notice that even in the most unending 'boring' terrain, there is a vast amount of texture and hue difference.  Even flying over Kansas wheat fields you see marked differences in the texture and color beneath you.

   Again, a closer shot just to see where I airbrushed some paint for fun, brushed and generally played around with it.

   More foolin around, having some darker earth tones trail off like an old spring feed or something.

   Flocking.  Again, I painted on my scenery glue mixture (50% PVA Glue / 45% Water / 5% Matte Medium to kill the shine), and I mean thick.  I left pools on the boards, wet, oozy pools.  That way, when you shake the flock onto the board, it really has something to grab onto.  It is ok if it looks milky white and gross at this stage.  It will look like that again, too.
  On this board, I decided to try something new and I added model railroad ballast (fine) to a section in the middle.  I wanted something that could be mysterious terrain, and there it was.  I liked it so much I added more.  There is a trick to this stuff though.  Lay it on thick, and then you have to glue it down with wet water glue from an eye dropper or similar drip delivery device.  Wet water glue is the same as the scenery glue, with a little more matte medium and ADD about 50% isopropyl alcohol.  (Yes, that much!).  The alcohol breaks the surface tension of the small rocks in the ballast, otherwise you get little craters where ever you use the eyedropper.  If you get balls of glue that do not immediately settle into the ballast, add more alcohol.  Do not try to smooth them with your finger, just add a dash more ballast.

   I also added some ballast to this board, like a sandy approach to the rocky road.

  I know, I said I wouldn't do it.  BUT I DID!  CHARNEL POOL BABAY!  with skulls and blood and goo and all that.  How could the Emperor not love that???  Yes, I still have to knock down the shine with some matte medium :)

So there it is (forgot to shoot the final pic of the other board... lol).  A charnel pool, mysterious terrain board for our games here.  Stoked! (Mostly because I got something done... this last month was keeerazy!)

See ya soon