Project: Desert Island Board

[Stuart]

Kicking off a thread to record details of the desert island board that Luke and myself are building.

I meant to record progress with this board as I went along, but kinda got swept up with the construction and couldn't be bothered to dig the camera out. I'll take some photos and try and make some notes from here on.

The intention of this project was to have a go at making something relatively simple, but upon which we could learn, experiment and apply techniques that may come in useful for subsequent projects.

[Stuart]

Inspiration for the board was sought on Google images, and this is the sort of thing we're aiming for:

   

We don't want the vegetation to be quite that dense in the centre of the island though, instead we'll have a selection of trees and bushes surrounding a more open area, perhaps with a stockade style wooden structure in there somewhere. There will also be a wooden jetty protruding from somewhere along the coastline.

[Stuart]

The board itself is built upon a single 4x4 sheet of 9mm thick MDF. This seems to be a good compromise between size, weight and rigidity i.e. it fits in my car, isn't too heavy and doesn't flex to any great degree. It can also be stored standing on edge in the garage without taking up too much space.

Upon the board we glued (with a lot of PVA) two sheets of 50mm pink foam, side by side to form a square. It's best to weigh down the foam once glued, and leave overnight to stick properly. We set about carving the foam before the glue was set, and ended up having to re-stick it.

Upon the foam we drew the outline of the island coastline in pencil, and began carving away at the foam with a breadknife to form the slope of sandy beach into the sea. A hot wire cutter might also work here, but may be tricky to use in the areas where the foam meets the board.

Once the rough shape of the island had been carved we applied ready mixed filler to the gaps between foam sheets, and to the base of the foam where it met the board i.e. where the sand would meet the water. Once the fillter is dry then both it and the pink foam itself can be sanded. Medium grade sandpaper seemed to do the trick, and leave a smooth finish to the foam. We sanded the beach into a smooth curve rising from the water to a plateau at the top of the island. It's advisable to try and get the finish of the filler as smooth as possible during application, as this will make sanding to a consistent finish much easier.

Next: apply more filler to areas requiring it, and finish the sanding.

[Stuart]

The board is now (finally) just requiring a final sand, so I've started thinking ahead to how to do the surrounding sea.

My initial idea is to texture some shallow waves using ready mixed filler, so I've applied a quick test layer to a piece of board.

   

This will need a light sanding, then the plan is to paint the surface with various shades of blue (and white at the crest of the waves where the water is breaking) followed by a glaze of PVA mixed with more paint, then finally some coats of gloss varnish.

The intention is to use homebrew techniques where possible, rather than buy commercial "water" products.

That's the current plan anyway.

[Stuart]

Finished prepping the island, and applied some sand with a sieve. At the moment the finish is just what I was after, but the real test will be when I shake the excess sand off tomorrow

Photos are a bit rubbish I'm afraid...

   

   

   

[Stuart]

Got quite a bit done today. We'd basecoated the sand with Bleached Bone (now Ushabti Bone), but using 12ml pots was taking just too long (and too many pots!). Decided to try and pick up a larger pot of acrylic paint, and settled on this from Hobbycraft:

   

Really pleased with the result:

   

On the advice of Si A we also picked up some aquarium plants to use for foilage in the central "green" area. These packs were around £9 each, and really look the part:

   

We began to flock the green area but a massive miscalculation left us short, so a trip down to Total Wargamer will be required this week to pick up some more.

Did manage to make some progress on the stockade though, just a couple more walls and internal platforms left to do. So this is where we are the moment:

   

   

[Stuart]

Finished the outer wall and gate of the stockade today, just need to construct some internal platforms as firing positions.

Hoping to pick up some more flock from Total Wargamer in the morning, so we can finish the floor of the "green zone".

Also ordered some thin, round MDF bases on which to mount the foilage.

   

   

   

[Stuart]

Finished construction of the stockade, complete with internal platforms. I've also stuck it on a base to give it some durability.

   

   

[Stuart]

Stockade primed.

   

[Stuart]

Gave the stockade a basecoat of cheapo brown acrylic, followed by drybrushes of Bestial Brown and Codex Grey:

   

   

Then with Luke's help we topped the spikes with "Screaming Skull":

   

On top of the we slapped Devlin Mud to age the cut wood:

   

   

Finally the outer edge and internal area were given a heavy drybrush of more cheapo sand coloured acrylic, with a sparse application of flock and arid grass:

   

   

Aside from thinking up a name for the fort and applying it the signage above the doorway, that's about it for the stockade. Next up is the water effect around the island itself.