Unknown Shores: Coastal Modules Part 1

Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma.  There it is before you smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with and air of whispering, "Come and find out"

-Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Once I completed my barrow mound I felt confident.  I'd managed a successful, if small terrain project and decided to take the next step and build proper terrain boards, project I'd put off for years.  I have another project in mind dependent on a large stretch of water so I decided to make matters worse and begin with a set of coastal, rather than standard boards.  I'm fortunate how things turned out as inexperience necessitated some design changes along the way.  Conrad's quote on the shifting disposition of unknown shores prefacing this article is apt because the build was rewarding but, not without complications.

Formby Beach

Research?  But of course!  Since my Dark Age games will most likely take place in the British Isles I chose a stretch of beach located there.  I looked at Formby, it's dunes, and sites in Scotland too.  Somewhere in there was a stretch of beach in Columbia.  In spite of how much I liked the image I had to let that one go.  The dunes came from Formby while the Scottish beaches provided the inspiration for the rockier parts.  I took some inspiration from local beaches as well as from beach walks on the west coast.  The main reason Formby took center stage was the good variety of terrain reported in the region.

The paper pattern for the module in hill configuration.

I chose 1/4" MDF board as the foundation for each of the 2'x'2 boards.  In the grand scheme of things modules of this size mated up will provided me with a good number of potential terrain configurations and a scalable play surface that allows for a wide variety of landforms.  Right off the bat I think I made a poor design choice.  I chose foamboard as the ground level; the proverbial zero elevation.  I had considered using a thicker 1" sheet of XPS for greater strength and more convincing depth in water features but opted for what I thought would be a more conservative budget and a lighter weight project.  In the initial early stages this didn't bite me in the ass but, it's coming.

The foamboard and XPS laid out to match the plan.

I started by plotting the whole project on paper squares.  I drew a rough coastline that met when the two parts were butted together at either end.  In one configuration there would be a central hill that could accommodate a small watch tower overlooking the coast lying to either side and in the other two rocky cliff faces diverged by a long stretch of beach.  Once it was planned I collected my boards and used the paper plan to pattern my foam board and glued it to the the MDF.  The ground level established I cut what would be become the two part central hill's core from XPS and mounted it at one joined end.  It looked very much like the plan. So far so good.

Coastline rough complete with foam dunes and plaster rock on the cliff.

The dunes along the end of the board were situated so I went to work with my plaster rock collection.  I have mistrusted hot glue guns as hobby tools but this project along with the barrows has cured me of that.  It's not a precision instrument but it does a damn fine job of quickly anchoring rough parts into place.  The final phase of of the underlayer was completed with some contouring.  All of this wet material and a criminal humidity level were on the brink of causing me a load of grief.  Things came to a head in the next phase.

A stretch of coast in profile.

Once I coated the rough forms in celluclay and sprinkled it with sand the modules began to truly look their part.  At this point I was about to start start patting myself on the back and saying how awesome I was.  Then that ass bite I mentioned earlier started gnawing.  As the project dried after the latest application I noticed the first signs that some warping was occurring.  Successive layering had taken it's toll.  I did seal the boards with a spray varnish but the the shrinkage of so much material and the wet air had left their mark.  My latest pet project was falling apart as the curl moisture introduced to the MDF was lifting the foamboard foundation from it's anchorage.  Enter much cursing.  I had to brace the underside of each of the boards with a wooden frame to reinforce them.  So much for the reduced weight.  In retrospect starting with a 1" thick piece of XPS was probably the way to go.  With a lower weight than the frame, generous depth for contouring and the strength of an MDF-XPS sandwiched hybrid it was likely how I should have proceeded.  The more you know.  Learn from my mistakes and don't be a horrid person too.  I hope that I will be able to level subsequent boards to match these ones using this the XPS foundation instead.  Here's hoping.

The devil on the deep blue seaside and it's requisite wooden frame.

With all that unpleasantness out of the way after some patchwork to hide screw and nail holes the base coat went on like a charm.  Painting miniatures has always been a relaxing meditative activity for me and painting after such a colossal botch made for some quality therapy.  Craft paint did the job admirably.  I mixed the sea blue base from a prussian blue mixed with a hunter green and black.  It ended up being a good match for VMC Deep Sea Blue.  It's also the point that part 1 of this article ends.  It turns out that I have been holding onto this article for more than month and the sands of September are running low.  With most of the month gone and my quota for the blog unfulfilled it was time to acknowledge things it wouldn't be coming to fruition any time soon.  The frustrations of this build took a significant toll on my patience and hobby as a whole.  When I do present the second part of this article it should be a pair of fully realized boards.  Until then I have an article to write on dealing with hobby failures and only a day or so to do it in to make the deadline.  See you soon.