Hobby Update: FoN Herd Board

Of course, the last thing to hobby up for the upcoming tournament was the one thing I could not proxy or really make do with things I already have. Up now is the display board for the Herd!

Some harsh lighting, but the finished product first!

The base board is the same as the others board, a bulk buy from Michael's about a year ago, and I went with the slightly deeper board so I could do a little more basing inside. With the slightly deeper edge, I was able to get three layers of my typical cork board built up where ever I desired. I tried to keep this mainly on the edges, as I didn't want to block fluff a lot of space, but added some on the interior as well, to make it more visually interesting.

The first paint hits the board. You can see the sporadic priming as well.

I hit the board with swaths of basing paste, using up an older tub. I knew I was going to hit this with a snow effect later, so coverage wasn't the thickest or best by design. Even with the lesser coverage, the paste constructs a bit, and their is a bit of a bow on the back. I can't quite spin the board, but might need to add stoppers or something down the road for safety.

I left some spaces clean and clear though for the future glossy ice effect.In mid January we had a warm spell, and I was able to Prime the edges and all the cork rocks in a dark grey. Then the painting began.

Base coats on, and finishing up dry brushing.

Rock chunks were dark gray then a light grey drybrush. Then edge of the board was painted with another dark(ish) grey, and the dark blue ice and pale blue ground got their base coats. I didn't really Prime the ground, but the paint was a cheap crafting paint so that took four coats, if memory serves. That took several days.

The ground got a dry brush of off-white / ivory, which I let be messy, getting onto some of the rocks and dark blue ice. Then I added other blue streaks onto the ice, and it was time for effects!

The ice effect was a glazing medium squeezed out and then spread around. As it dried, it shrinks a bit, and I needed to do another pass to get full coverage on the spots I wanted glossy.

Part-way through snow layer number one.

Then it was time for the snow! I mixed up ivory, white, glue, and baking soda in several batches, and applied it. I tried a few tools to spread it, but kept leaving gouges since i was trying to get it across a large area. After a day or so, I mixed up a few more batches, with less ivory color, and spread it out again, slopping it onto the worst gorges in the hopes of disguising things, and I think it all works out well enough.

Last up were basing tufts, picked up over the last couple of weeks, as I wanted a variety of them. I cycles through four packs of tufts, adding them here and there until I was satisfied. I then touched up the board's edge with another coat of the original darker gray and we're calling this good!

More snow, and more tufts.

Ultimately, I think I want to get a little 3d printed plaques or plates or engravings with my name, army, and the blog's info, and add it onto the boards in a corner or something... but that is too much to do right now. I'll print something out on paper now, and like all my hobbying, I can add the plaques and such down the road if I feel like it.

...and with that, we have about a week to go before the event. I don't think my schedule will allow any last prep games, but we'll try touching up a unit or two with the extra time, seeing if I need to prep any tables for the event, and we'll do a proper pre-event post and showcase like we've done before.