So, the display board is pretty much finished. I also bought some craters from Gale Force 9’s Battlefield in a Box range to add some scenery to the board. Read on to find out how I painted the board and what’s still missing.
After the board was basecoated (see the post before), I drybrushed the whole surface with a neutral dark grey and a lighter, more warm grey acrylic paint that I picked up at a local arts and crafts store. I recommend using a large round brush and circular motions to avoid unsightly paint streaks. And make sure you wipe your brush really, really well, as large brushes can hold a lot more paint than you expect. In some areas I applied more pressure and paint than in others in order to break up the large flat area.
Once the paint was dry, I applied little spots of brown static grass, the same mix that I use for my Ultramarines and Blood Angels. Then I applied a coat of matte varnish, however, the one I used turned out to be far too satin. Can someone recommend me a good varnish that comes in an appropiate bulk? Or has someone made good experiences with thinned PVA glue as a sealing coat?
Here you can see the Gothic Craters from Gale Force 9. The terrain pieces are weighty and sturdy and modelled very nicely, with broken masonry pieces and shattered tank traps all over. The paint job is basic but servicable, I guess at some paint I’m gonna quickly paint over them to better match my board and to pick out some details.
Maybe I’ll build or buy some more terrain pieces for my board in the future. I really enjoy coming up with ideas for scenery, but then I’ll never play games and always have loads of models in my painting queue. For me it’s hard to find some spare hobby time for terrain.
So apart from the varnish question, all that is left is the backdrop. I’ve ordered a really cool custom 120×30 cm hardboard print for that purpose, which should arrive soon. Here is a quick test shot with an home printed test of the final artwork to give you an idea how the final display board will look like:
Exciting, isn’t it? Soon I’ll take pictures almost as good as Garfy’s and Tripwire’s action shots 😉
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I have tried thinned PVA glue to varnish various terrain. It works surprisingly well! I would recommend bying a smaller bottle and experiment with different ratios of water and glue and try before applying to your whole board! I can asume that som brands of PVA works better then others for this. The trickiest part is to get the right mix of glue and water. Good luck!
Daler Rowney acrylic matt varnish IS extremely matt (it's designed to go on artist canvas, but works just as well for miniatures). I highly recommend it for projects like this as you can get it in reasonably large bottles. One warning would be to avoid contact with water until dry though as it has a habit of acting a bit like oil in those circumstances.