Looking at photos can be a dangerous thing if you have the terrain bug

[Cacique Caribe]

Specially photos of Africa and other exotic places.

Guys

This picture is absolutely inspiring (in terrain terms)!

QUESTIONS

Now, how can I get that effect on the gaming table? How can I build a river bed that looks depressed into the ground? In other words, do you have any suggestions that do not involve laying the river bed on top of your gaming surface?

Thanks!

Dan
Loads of WIPs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9593487@N07/albums/with/72157710630529376

[Patrice]

If you use large polystyrene tiles, 2 cm or 3 cm or 4 cm thick on your gaming table, you can carve it into them.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Cacique Caribe]

Patrice, good point.  I may need to double stack my 1” sheets.

Thanks

PS.  I posted the same question on LAF:

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=142610.0

Dan
Loads of WIPs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9593487@N07/albums/with/72157710630529376

[Andrew Beasley]

The advantage of using thinner sheets is that you can cut them in two rather than carve into the thicker foam – drawbacks are that you can get hard spots from the glue and parallel horizontal lines.

I’ve found grit / plaster coating the edge can help disguise the lines and really helps if you use leopard spotting painting.

[Patrice]

Or the other option: thin tiles, or a painted board or whatever, at the bottom, and all around would be the thicker tiles of the rest of the gaming table.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[irishserb]

I would do that with modular tiles with edge profiles that match up, but with different detail in between the edges.  Dimension would vary with the scale that I intended to use it for.  For say 15mm figs, a one inch thick base tile with inch thick rims glued along two edges.

You could cut the bed into the base (Dremel with router base or free had with surform tool), and have say 1.5 inches of rise on the edge sections.  It would work something like my shorter 28mm canyon walls, except the walls wouldn’t be separate pieces, and there could be a lot more unique detailing.

Canyon/Cliff sections

In the past, I would have used styrofoam spray adhesive to avoid the glue hardspots in the seams, but they quit making it, and I haven’t looked for a replacement recently.  3M Super 77 can be used if you spray lightly, and from a little distance, it will slightly attack the foam, but I succeeded in using it on my last batch of cliff sections.

[Andrew Beasley]

Try toothpicks, PVA and hot glue. Putting the toothpicks in at an angle stops any slipping as I use the hot glue in small areas to hold while the PVA sets (weeks for the middles sometimes)

I have low temperature ‘hot’ glue that works well but it does not give long for alignment (esp on large areas) and the hotter stuff could be better.

[irishserb]

I had forgotten about ituntil reading your toothpick suggestion, but many years ago, I used drywall screws to hld the laers together until the glue dried.  They could be removed afterward to allow shaping with out running into them later.

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