Quar Trench boards Finished. Also Wash and Flock (Quar boards Part 8)

 YAY!  The 'This Quar's War Trench Terrain Boards' are finally finished. 

This is the image that germinated the whole project

This post will be the exciting conclusion to the series and this project.  This is a long post.  If one wanted to make it longer, or if one is fool hardy or curious enough, one may read the previous installments: 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Seems like a lot of parts.  But go on, give it a read.  See as I flounder around like a toddler in a swimming pool trying my best at terrain making.

Of course, the toddler in that simile is wearing floaties.  I'm not a monster.

Bury the Lead

But before the big reveal... back to where we last left off.  Feeling somewhat discouraged last time, Ed M. hit the nail perfectly on the head describing that there is a stage in the building / painting process that just looks more terrible than anything that came before it.  That's where I was, and really hopeful that the next stage (this one) would make things right again.  

First thing was a black wash for all the parts.  I knew I was going to need a lot of black wash so instead of using my tiny bottle I went and got a giant one...

Just kidding.

I actually don't use Washes all that much believe it or not so had no idea how much I would need.  I decided to follow a recipe I found online to make your own.

Ingredients and the resulting bottle of Back wash.

I used a bottle of drinking water.  Poured out about half the water while singing a song about missing my homies, added a little bit of the flow aid, mixed it, filled up the remaining half with the matte medium, mixed it, and then added black ink till it was dark enough.  Turns out, this was about 1000% more wash than I needed.  Now I have Black wash forever.

The I used the black wash on all the wood and rock parts...

Before Wash

After Wash

Before Wash...

After Wash

I KNOW!  Not a super huge difference.  In truth, I think I took these pictures too soon because it tended to look better the more it dried.  The wash DID do its job of making some shadows and tying all the elements across the boards tother in the same shade.

Little more of the Washing.
These Rocks and planks washed too.
Wash in kinda a funny word, isn't it?

And Now, on to the flocking. Which I am going to go over in some excruciating detail that no one will care about but future me when I come back trying to remember what I did. 

to start, I gathered my small supply of flocks

These things tend to collect over the years...
I also bought some bog tubs on purpose

Since there are 3 boards, and I'm thinking about the future (not like long term future, not serious future like saving for retirement or my kids college) when I'll add more scatter elements: I created a foundation layer of flock consisting of roughly equal parts of "Summer Lawn blend"  and "Grass Turf blend" (both from Scenic Express in the large tubs).  Because I like the shade of green it made.  The idea is; if I use this mix as a foundation on all 3 boards and any future projects then everything will basically have the same tone.  I also prefer Flock and Turf mixes to static grass just because I think the flock and turf goes on easier and looks better with the method I use for application.  

Speaking of application (Trans-sition!  Transition is what we did there), it's an easy job of using a large paint brush and brushing on watered PVA glue and then spreading the flock over it in handfuls.  Basically, sprinkling it one thickly and then pushing it around gently.  

. 

This is done over a drop cloth of some sort.  Let dry for a day and night.  Then tip the board on it's side and using your hand or another large paint brush, brush off all the loose flock onto the drop cloth so that you can collect it and reuse it.  because I'm not made of money.  

What and exciting picture this is.
A pile of loose flock being gathered.

Alternatively, if you were doing one large piece as you were laying on the foundation flock you could slowly add in higher and higher concentrations of a different shade, in order to create variations and avoid the golf course look.  Which I didn't do this time, as I had a different plan...

foundation flock layer.

Success! All the boards match together. 

The last steps are adding in some colors and variations and details.  This is an imaginary setting as this project is for games with my Quar miniatures.  And in my imagination the Quar live in a bright and colorful world.  To create this effect, I first put some bright colors mixed with some bright green flock into some tubs..

Purple, Blue, and Yellow. 

And more or less hoovered over the boards and just sprinkled this stuff everywhere I wanted to.  Sometimes going a little heavy.  All this stuff was just sitting on top of the foundation.  Then I took a trick that every terrain Youtuber does so I thought I would give it try; using a spray bottle on the mist setting, I would spray everything with Isopropyl Alcohol (which out of all the alcohols, is the hardest to spell) and then spray everything with watered down PVA glue.  And when that spray bottle clogged (because they always fricking clog) I used some Gorilla spray glue.  

This was a big hand work out.  Luckily I've been training for this moment my whole life by doing other hand workouts late at night for about 20 mins which also involved a small mess.....  ...  That joke was purely only to keep my PG-13 rating.

And I tell you what, those Youtubers know what they're talking about because that locked everything down tight.  I gave it a hard blow and nothing moved.  But then I remembered I got these broken smokers lungs and my hard blow is probably more like a baby's fart.  So I brushed my hand across it and still nothing moved.  

Lastly and I do mean lastly: laying on the other scenic details..

Some of the other scenic details

This included Gras tufts from Army Painter (which I though looked terrible on a miniature base so stopped using them, but look good on the boards), flower tufts from Gamer grass and this stuff called flower Soft which is for scrap booking but I've been using for years... lots of items bought from Scenic Express which is for model railroads, and small clump foliage called Undergrowth....

And then glued these on wherever I thought looked good.  I put these closer the center as I think the edges will be covered by scatter pieces.  

  

Big Reveals

So this is the finished product. 3 sections each 2x4 for a 4x6 surface.  I am overly proud of it, so took way too many pictures.  Like a new parent with their first baby.  

The basic boards

What? You wanna fly a drone over it and see the landscape closer?  I thought you would NEVER ask...

Let's put some terrain on it: I have many matching and complimentary scatter pieces in my mind yet to be built, so in the meantime we'll make do with my existing stuff...

I particularly like this picture.
Kinda nails it.

At some point I had to tell remind myself that it was the middle of the night and I had work the next day, so better pack it all away.  

In my imagination: 

This is an area that long ago was much closer to the front lines, but as time passed and the war changed, the front lines moved on, and in the years afterward the Quar moved back in and resettled.  The Trench Highway was always useful so was maintained and served as a reminder that Time is cyclical.  For once again there is smoke in the air as The Long War returns....

Thanks for Reading.
Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till time.