8/3/2019 Making Marshes

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Making Marshes

Tools of the Trade⅛”/3mm MDF or hardboardReady-mixed llerOld sprues rom model kits or thin balsa wood stripswo-part epoxy resinFine sandStatic grassPVA wood glueDark brown paint (872 Chocolate Brown)Light brown paint (874 USA an Earth) A sanding block with ne and coarse textures

Hand saw or jigsaw Electric sander or le

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Step

Draw the shape o your marsh onto the hardboard and cutit out with a saw. Bevel the edge o the board with eitheran electric sander or le to a 45 degree slope. Tis will helpprevent the marsh rom warping once glue is applied and alsoblend the nished terrain piece into the rest o your board.

Cut your plastic sprues or balsa wood into short lengths andglue them down to your hardboard ¼”/5mm in rom the top

o the bevel. Place a ew pieces o sprue or balsa randomly inthe centre o the hardboard to create islands in the marsh.

Step

Once the glue has dried, score the exposed hardboard withyour crat knie, to give the ready-mixed ller something toadhere to. Apply the ready-mixed ller to orm small moundsaround the plastic sprue or balsa. Te ready-mixed ller doesnot need to be super smooth, but it does need to be solid allthe way around, inside and out. Leave this to dry overnight.

Step

Once the ller is dry, lightly sand it to remove any seriouslumps. Apply a layer o PVA wood glue over the entire terrainpiece. Sprinkle your sand over the marsh and leave to dry.

Step

Shake o any excess sand. Paint your entire marsh in yourdark brown colour. I you are making a lot o terrain, get testpots rom your local paint shop as they will go urther andcost less than model paints. Ater your dark brown paint hasdried, drybrush your marsh with your light brown colour.

Step

Dab PVA wood glue on the raised mounds around the edgeo the marsh and the islands, then apply static grass.

Marshes and rivers are prominent eatures o theByelorussian landscape. Te Red Army negotiated their way through vast areas o marshland to outank the Germandeenders.

8/3/2019 Making Marshes

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Finish

Now you can add any additional eects that you want to the model. You could add reeds by usingold paint brush bristles, clump oliage oreven a bogged-down tank i you like.

Mix up your two-part epoxy resin.Envirotex is an easy-to-use resin or thistype o project, and is available through mostarts and crats stores. Always read the instructions on yourresin bottles and ollow them precisely. ry adding a smallamount o ink to change the resin’s colour. We have usedgreen ink in some o our marshes and brown ink in others.

Pour your resin. All resin is sel levelling so make sure thatyour base is on a fat surace so that it stays in the marsh anddoesn’t run onto your table. Allow the resin 24 hours to curebeore moving it.

Experts

Once you have mastered making your marshes to place on the top o your gaming table, you can experiment using the same

marsh-making technique to sculpt marshes directly into your table.

Te two tables below have marshes sculpted directly into the table. Te top table had deep gullies carved into it duringconstruction and then lled with resin ater the rest o the table was completed.

Te other table was constructed in a similar way, but instead o several large gully-like marshes, there are a lot o smaller andshallower marshes on the table.

 You can also create a river board using this technique.

Te fnished marsh.