Desert Table: Cheap Terrain How-To

It totally matches the patio!

Last time I introduced my new sand terrain table. Today I'll show you how I did it, and discuss how I plan to expand on this.

The board; the plan.

A neighbor was throwing away decent 4ft by 8ft MDF panels. That's a game table! I put them on my car's roof and drove them slowly home, dropping one a few times as I went the two blocks to my house, and dinging a corner or two. Still free though.

My plan for this table surface was to build it in 3ft by 4ft segments for easier storage. Unlike my fold-able 4-panel table, this one was not designed for transport, but rather for convenient use hosting games at my house (It does fit in my trunk though...) It would have no supporting frame work as to store as flat as possible among the card tables in my garage.

Tools:                                                            
• Jigsaw
• Clamps
• Chip Brush
• Sander
• Paint Roller
• Paint Roller Tray
• Sand Sifter Toy
• Yard Stick
• Furring Strip (1x2in x 4ft)
• Do I need to list the pencil?

Supplies:                                                        
• Hardboard 8ft x 4ft
• Playground Sand (Small Bucket full)
• School Glue (I used about 5 bottles!)
• Medium Brown House Paint - 1 Qt
• Light Brown House Paint - 1 Qt
• Khaki Craft Paint - 2x 1 Oz bottles
• Light Green Flock
• Small Bowl (For making Glue Mixture) 

Cutting Jig using a furring strip (I even managed to find a straight one!) to cut a long straight line without a table saw.

I used my longest blade on the jigsaw so it would not go higher than the sheet I cut and bounce while cutting. (And yes, this edge will need some sanding.)

Most games require that your table should be 25% covered by terrain features. This was quite convenient, since an 8ft by 4ft board minus the two 3ft by 4ft pieces leaves a 2ft by 4ft scrap: 1/3 of the finished board size! I drew out some amorphous blobs by pencil, then used a combination of jigsaw to cut out the rough shapes and coping saw for the finer corners.

Rough shapes cut by jigsaw.

The jigsaw was good at mostly cutting out the terrain template shapes, but had trouble getting some of the tighter corners. At some point the pieces got too small or difficult to clamp, and the vibration of the saw was hard to overcome. I had to finish off these parts by hand with a coping saw.

 

 

Corners finished by hand with a coping saw. Now properly amourphous!

Both saws left some pretty rough edges. I sanded these down with my small power sander. In addition to sanding the edges, I did the top and bottom surfaces near the edges to slightly taper the pieces to make them easier to pick up on table, and to blend them onto the overall board better when finished.

I sanded the upper and lower surfaces, as well as the outer edge.

Once sanded, they were ready to be...sanded....? The next step was applying the sandy texture. For this I used real sand from my daughter's sandbox. Play sand (available at hardware stores) comes pre-washed so there's not a lot of dirt or debris in it, making it easier to glue and paint. I also like the variety of fine sizes that comes in it so you don't get too even of a surface, or too rough.

Tools for the fun part: toddler's sandbox, sand sifter, school glue, and chip brush.
 

For this I painted on school glue (really cheap during back to school season) with only a little water mixed in. Basically I got the brush wet with water, put glue onto the hardboard, and spread it with the wet brush.

Sifting for even coverage, or using the project as an excuse to play in the sandbox? Jury's still out.

When the sand dried the first time, I went back with more diluted school glue and painted on top to help hold it down and to give the surface a little cushion for the occasional dropped model.

Tools for the glue glaze. The little bowl is an empty shaving soap bowl, and very handy for mixing.

After the top coat of glue dried, I went on the the base coat for the boards and terrain features. I did all these together in one batch so that they could match.

 The base coat was an "Oops" paint at Home Depot that looked a lot like VMC German Camo Light Brown, and was only $9 for the gallon.

Of all the paints I used this one was the most important to go on thick. I used house paint so that the paint can help hold the sand to the board and provide a little more cushion to the surface. All in all I used somewhere around 2/3 of the gallon of paint. I may have been able to be a little more frugal and get  away with just a quart. Maybe next time.

Base coat applied. I went heavy on purpose.

Whenthe base coat was good and dry (not long here in CA) I went to add the mid tone highlight drybrush. I experimented with using a foam roller brush for this, and the results were good: It laid down an even light coat quickly. This does not need much paint, and I only used 2 small bottles of cheap craft store acrylic. The quality of this layer didn't matter much as the base coat is what really sealed in the sand.

Even the bottom of the [Apple] Barrel paint works for drybrushing terrain!

 

 The last highlight drybrush was done with another oops paint from Home Depot. This one was a light beige quite similar to the old Citadel Bleached Bone. For the two top coats, I let myself get a little patchy so I wouldn't have too solid a color for the whole table.

All paint applied!

At this point, the board itself is finished, and I went on to add detail to the hills and area terrain templates. I added some ground foam flock left over from the last table. I started using the same methods as last time, but thought it was a bit too much turf for a desert board, so I tried another approach using smaller dots of glue scattered around the template.

Testing two competing approaches to flock.

I also added some old Citadel tuft grass to the template for more variety. I did not like these tufts on my miniatures since the glue used to produce them stayed opaque and was visible on darker bases. On my light desert floor, however, the white undersides blend in nicely and let me get mileage out of otherwise wasted supplies.

In context, I like the sparse flock better than the heavy coverage.

I did notice that after applying flock once, the glue started to seep through and become visible, so I added a second dusting to avoid the shiny surface.

A second dusting.

The hill making process was not included here, but I'll write about it separately in a future post. It deserves its own attention.

Future additions will be:

• Better detailing on exposed rock faces
• Light desert scrub foliage for area terrain templates
• Scatter terrain for area templates: Larger scrub and rocks
• More palm trees! (this would also lead toward a secondary use as Scarif for SW Legion)
• Third 3ft x 4ft panel of sandy beach and ocean
• Scarif Landing Pad
• Additional 15mm desert buildings
• 28mm Shantytown for Mogadishu use
• Felt backing to panels to protect my wife's tables :)