Gaming in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars; Building Barsoom: part 3

Highlights and Details

I managed to get some drybrushed highlights on the board.  I am fairly happy with them, but I might go over them and add a lighter top highlight.  Some of the parts I am less happy with, such as the paler area, will be covered in yellow moss.

Overall shot showing the final colour, including the infamous 'pale valley' 

Close up showing the texture still looking good.

The highlight was a heavy drybrush of Wilko's Ruby Ring emulsion paint, then adding progressive amounts of white.

I just need to add patches of yellow moss and spray some sort of protective coat.  I am not sure what to use, normally I would choose a matt varnish, but I have heard that hairspray is a reasonable alternative and might be a cheaper option.  If you've any experience of this, please leave a comment.

Here are links to all the Barsoom posts.

Part 1, making the board

Part 2, painting the board

Part 3, more painting

Part 4,

Gaming in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars; Building Barsoom part 2

Adding Colour

So what does Barsoom look like?  Well the ground has to be red for the red planet.  The texture from the filler gives a great dried earth/mud look, and I will be using it in other projects in the future I'm sure.  

Relief 

I will also make several rocky outcrops to scatter across the board.  Some designed to fit in corners or along the edge, others to be free standing.  This gives me some high ground or just some difficult terrain, depending on how high it is.

Vegetation
Martian trees have ivory trunks and branches, with purple foliage, and grass is red.  No one is going to mistake this for Earth, or Jasoom I should say.  According to Edgar Rice Burroughs the planet is largely covered by a yellow moss, so I will be adding something to represent this in large patches.

Built Structures
I aim to make a ruin or two as well; the Green Martians dwell in the ruins of the Red Martian cities built on the sea beds as the water level dropped.  I'm not sure yet what these will look like, possibly broken pieces of polystyrene packing?  I'd like it to look suitably alien and non human in proportion, but I'd also like it to be cheap and easy to make.

Anyway, enough waffle, here's the progress so far.

The First Coat

The board with an undercoat of dark brown.  Very patchy.

Close up of the surface texture.

I am using match pots of emulsion paint for cheapness.  The brown is Wilko's Java Bean applied in patches then spread out with a moist brush.

The result is patchier than I hoped, but it should be covered in the next stage.

Second Coat

Now with dark red.  Shame I ran out of red paint.

A close up with the dark red, missing out the lighter blotches.

The red coat is a mix of two parts Wilko Ruby Ring to one part Java Bean.  This is applied neat, and stippled into the texture rather than brushed on to minimize brush lines.  The close up is paler than it actually looks, but we have sunshine outside today which seems to be making the photo look washed out.

Next up, drybrushing and moss.

Here are links to all the Barsoom posts.

Part 1, making the board

Part 2, (you're here already)

Part 3, more painting

Part 4,

Gaming in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars; Building Barsoom part 1

Barsoom
This is my new project for the new year.  I blame my good friend and gaming buddy 'Merlin' who watched the film (I know!) and decided that we could rescue something from it gaming wise.

The aim is to play a few small scale actions using a version of GWs Strategy Battle Game system. The minis will be Black Hat from their Martian Empires 18mm range, plus anything else we see that seems to fit.

Building Barsoom
I have begun by working on some terrain, including a board.  Using 2cm = 1 inch in the original rules I came up with a standard board of 96cm square to equate to the normal 4ft square gaming area. Rounding up to 1m square I have a board of 4mm MDF fastened to a timber frame to prevent warping. The whole lot is textured and awaiting paint.

The surface of Mars, either awaiting paint, or covered in snow.

Close up of the texture.

I followed some of the Terrain Tutor's guides for texture using filler (spackle), see his stuff at Texturing Gaming Boards.

So far I like the result. It just needs some colour.

Here are links to all the Barsoom posts.

Part 1, making the board (you're here already)

Part 2, painting the board

Part 3, more painting

Part 4,