Building a Gaming Table [Part 5]

So, it's been a few weeks since the last table update but that certainly does not mean I was not working on it.  The week before last was just not visually productive enough to really warrant a dedicated post.
That Sunday began with the observation of some technical difficulties.  The resin shrunk much too much ended up looking like the picture below.  It lifted from the bottom in some places, shrunk away from the right side and lost much of its gloss.

The main work was applying the clearcoat to the table.  I put down three coats during the time I was there and used about a can and a third.  Each coat only took a few minutes to do but I waited about 30-45 minutes between each coat.  The matte finish was sufficiently matte and it did not alter the appearance of the table's surface in any appreciable manner.

After that was done I used some water based water effects to fix up the river.  I mixed in some green and brown paints to murk it up a bit, overall I actually prefer these colors to the original blue.  It really looks like an algae/waste filled river.

After I did that is when Kevin and I played our first game of Dust: Warfare, which has a battle report here.  These guys are my Heavy Recon Grenadiers watching over the bridge.

This last week began with some more water effects to texture what was done last week.  Next it was on to adding some static grass to the wasteland.  I used a dark green and a dark tan grass put down with some watered down Elmer's.  I mixed the two colors up and added them in different patterns to make it a little less uniform looking.

I left the big clumps until the glue is almost dry, the additional weight helps push more of the grass into the glue and helps more fibers get stuck well enough to give better coverage.

While that was drying I began work on the cup holders and my brother got to work on staining the wooden parts of the table.  Looks really nice.

Here's a closeup of the cup holders, gotta add some more support to the front and round the edges so that shins and drink holders are both better protected.

I also ended up adding some water to a few of the deeper craters.  I guess it has rained recently on the tableland.  It will help models stand better on them and help reduce tilts of the dice.

Here we are with the pretty much finished urban side of the board.

Now there's the wasteland, the excess grass has been vacuumed away and it's ready for some gaming!  We played a couple more games of Dust, but I can't wait to really play some large games over the entire thing.
There's still some work to do, but this table is pretty much done.  Most of the work time will now start going into upgrading our terrain set to be more practical and better to look at.

Building a Gaming Table [Part 4]

Here we are again with another update on the gaming table!  This week was really painting heavy with lots of drybrushing and some detailing too.  First I started with painting the desert/waster part of the table.  We used craft store paints to do this, a medium brown, then a light brown, and finally a tan.  I also painted up the corresponding dunes and one of the wreck markers in the same colors.

Here's a shot of it complete, with light highlights in the areas that I built up with the clay.  I also resprayed with the dark brown spray paint in the path where the bridge crosses the river.

Next, I drybrushed the urban parts of the board.  Used the same craft paints but a medium gray and a light gray.  Did all of the drybrushing with a cheap 2 inch natural, soft brush.  They're basically the cheapest you can get at Home Depot but are very forgiving on the amount of paint on the brush and cover very well for this application.

I then painted the roads with the medium gray, but more solidly.  I also mixed the medium and light grays to varying hues to add some variations to the road.

Once that was done it was time to detail the road.  This started with detailing the craters with some light gray highlights and some soot marks.  It also involved adding some lines to the road.  Had to start by masking them off.

Then I painted them on unevenly with some yellow paint.  When I do lines like this I don't paint it to cover it completely but only lightly so it looks worn out.

Here we see the results of this with some stop lines added as well.  The river's base colors were also done and the resin mixed and poured in.  I have some water based water effects which I will make look muddy and add to texture the surface more.  Should also make the water look more natural and dirty.

Here's a shot of what I have done so far.  I also painted the "Techno Bridge" while waiting for the river's paint to dry.

So, should have everything pretty much wrapped up by next time.  Cup holders, finish the river, seal the whole thing, and add some static grass spots.  It will need to be stained as well but my brother is going to do that while I work on terrain.  Finishing all of our terrain and building more will be the next big step for this project.  That's already begun in my other series New Table, New Terrain!

Thanks for stopping by.