Following up on my previous article on the display board I have been building, I have had a few lessons learned since getting ready to start cutting holes. Firstly, using foam board as the insert sounded like a good idea until I began to flock it. The glue and paint causes the foam board to warp and no longer sat flat inside the frame. So instead I went out and bought a sheet of hardboard. I will update the materials list in the first post.
Hardboard worked out well. I got circular saw bits large enough for the bases I was going to be putting in there. Drew outlines of where the models would sit and cut out the holes. The picture here is of the foam board, but as mentioned I did switch to using hardboard.
You can also see that here I started to add little things to make the display stand out. Old ruin building corners were put on top of a hill and ledge where ultimately the Soul Grinders would be overlooking the force. I was trying to get an ancient and corrupt ruined city feel. Old rusted out lampposts, rubble and what remains of various walls.
Since I also wanted to make sure, should things shuffle around, that the models stay in place, I cut a piece of thin aluminum sheet metal to she same size as would be needed to fit within the frame. This gave it a little extra weight, but was not too bad for me really. Now the models magnetized bases would snap onto the sheet when inserted in their slot.
With the holes cut and the ledge placed I began by first painting the terrain. Once all of that was completed I moved onto adding the sand and the burnt grass flock to the board. Once dried, I like to seal my basing with a thin wash. This not only helps build shadow but it becomes an extra layer to keep the sand from falling off.
The final product is a good looking board. I left the wood natural rather than paint or stain it. The white and burnt carving look is a sharp contrast to the dark scene within. I think a cherry stain would look nice, but I haven’t quite decided on it.
Nicely done, the display board looks great! Thank you for the links, this looks like a very helpful tutorial. I’ll need to build a display board or two in the coming months and will refer back to your advice. Thanks!