Portable/Foldable City board (WIP)

[ForestZ]

It's starting to take shape. I'm not entirely happy with how the .5" foam works out for defining levels. I think it would have been better at .75", but I have some ideas to make it all work out better.

[fire4effekt]

Wait... they make 1/2" damn northern states. All we got is 1" and 2"

[ForestZ]

I would kill for some 1" or 2", fire4effekt, but up until about a year ago even the 1/2" was a myth in southern California, so I guess I shouldn't really be complaining. I'm just glad I don't have to rely on that hideous bead styrofoam anymore.

[ForestZ]

Ok, here's the first test piece for the canal walls. I'm wondering what you all think I the scale of the stones. Do they seem too small?

[Keelhauled]

Nice looking board so far dude, I reckon them stones are just right tbh

[PG_Pake]

They're good.
Although you should cut the lines deeper, makes it SOOO much easier to paint them.

[ForestZ]

Thanks for the heads up, Pake! I went over the lines again and it already looks a lot better even without paint.

So I had some left over Hirst Arts casts in a neat herringbone pattern that weren't all that useful to me for D&D builds. I thought they would make a cool surface for the two lower sections in the deployment zones. Made a quick mold and just got my first casts. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, but I'm definitely going to need more resin!

[Prismatik]

Oh my goodness, this is looking phenomenal. Do you happen to have any schematics of the base build, of the clamshell? I *FINALLY* have a space I can play in, and having a few foldable terrain boxes I can set on basic 4x4 folding tables would be awesome.

I see you're in Vista as well... are you one of the few proud folks that play at Pairadice?

[ForestZ]

Hey Prismatik! Yes, I play at PaD on Wednesdays. If you're ever up this way, stop by and say hi!

As for the clamshell itself, it's pretty much based off of Poppabear's table. Basically I had a 4x4 piece of 1/2" plywood leftover from previous projects that I framed with a combination of leftover and bought pieces. 1x2's on the bottom and 1x4's on the sides. After subtracting the depth of the board and framing, there's 2" of depth to work with in the board itself. I would have liked more (for the canals), but for portability, 8" folded is probably about as big as I want it.

[ForestZ]

Small update here. Got the lower corner pretty much done. Most of my time has been eaten away trying a bunch of different things and seeing what I like best, but now I think I'll start making some quicker progress.

[BLUTAXT]

Yeah, this looks promissing. Did you paint this part allready in grey?

[ForestZ]

Thanks, Blutaxt. Yes, I just spray primed it before I glued it down. I figured it would be easier to get primer in all the cracks if I did it before I put it in there. There are a lot of areas that are going to be hard to reach once I assemble it which is one of the reasons I'm proceeding carefully. I know I'll want to paint, or at least prime, some areas before I put them down on the board, or before I cover them up with other things. If you have the 10 year anniversary issue of No Quarter, you can see Rob did the same thing on his Corvis Bridge board.

[ForestZ]

So I decided that one end of the canal section would be fed by some big ole' pipes that would then flow down the board under the fixed arches. To that effect, here's where that side of the board stands. Nothing is glued together here yet, it's all just dry fit.



The pipes were made from some PVC couplings leftover from redoing my lawn. When we had our counters redone last year, the guy who templated it used these strips of thick vinyl. When he was done I asked him if I could have the leftovers and have been hanging on to them since. It's nice and thick and pretty bendable. So I cut some strips out to wrap around the pipe ends and used a leather hole punch to bump some rivets into it. The ends are pinned at the bottom with some paper clip to make sure they don't pop off, and when I'm done I'll have water gushing out to hide them.



Here's a shot down the canal. (I know it's crooked, but again, nothing's glued down)

[Seventhprophet]

This is turning out much better than i expected. Very well done so far! Cant wait to see more.

[BLUTAXT]

BAM! Take your time it seems so well worth, all the effort you took on this table!

[Therat]

I like how deployment section with the bricks, it looks like you were able to blend the seams very nicely. One of the biggest things I get annoyed with when using the floor pattern molds is seeing the individual tiles.

Fantastic job so far!

[ForestZ]

So, this happened...



That was pretty tedious work and in the end I'm not thrilled with how it came out. It was my first time trying a texture like this, and while I was aiming for cobblestone, I ended up with something more like funky flagstones (which would have been fine if they weren't so funky). I'll probably leave them and hope the paint makes them look better, but I'm not sure if I want to try something similar on the other loading dock area.

[Ogrob]

Think it looks good. Me and a friend did a board up in that style last summer, so I hear you about tedious.

[BLUTAXT]

I think cobblestones are a littel more symetric or at least have some sense in their layout. That aside it looks cool, and it would also look fine if you work out the other side in a different way.

[ForestZ]

In their quest to answer the question, "Just how masochistic is Forest?", researchers have uncovered the following startling evidence:



Yes, those blocks are individually cut. Yes, I have 2 more canal faces that I now have to do just like it. Yes, I'm stupid.

[PG_Pake]

Yes, it looks good.

[stonet13]

Great looking table. I have found cobblestone to be one of the hardest to make properly and no one makes good pre-made cobblestone streets. The version you made is closer to fantasy and midevil style cobblestone using rounded river stone. The other version, which I am working on, is the European style with square and rectangle bricks layed out symmetrically. The only issue i have found with both is trying to make it look random enough and not have it looking like a brick wall laying on the ground. Regardless, yours look great.

[Shinji]

This looks sweet!

[ForestZ]

Thanks everyone.

Great looking table. I have found cobblestone to be one of the hardest to make properly and no one makes good pre-made cobblestone streets. The version you made is closer to fantasy and midevil style cobblestone using rounded river stone. The other version, which I am working on, is the European style with square and rectangle bricks layed out symmetrically. The only issue i have found with both is trying to make it look random enough and not have it looking like a brick wall laying on the ground. Regardless, yours look great.

The rounded riverstone look was what I was aiming for, but I think the problem is that I think the end look of that is of a bunch of rounded stones embedded in a concrete like surface, whereas this has the look of flat flagstones laid next to each other. It's hard to get that type of cobblestone look with the technique I used, I think. Better to have something round, like a lentil or something, and just glue a bunch down.

I agree about the premade cobbles though. I ordered a sheet from Micromark just to see what they looked like (they looked decent in the picture) but what I got was completely unusable for a floor (although it would be just OK for a wall), which is why I ended up trying this technique instead. The stones looked better how I drew them, with more rounding and more space in between the gaps, but it's just hard to carve that out. :/

[ForestZ]

I haven't had much time the last few weeks but I've managed to chip away at it here and there. Here's a small update:

[Poppabear40]

Looking pretty darn good! I love seeing how all you guys are making use of my folding board design. Some really wonderful adaptions.

[R3DM0H4WK1988]

truly inspiring work here!

[ForestZ]

Thanks guys.

I'm thinking about doing a wood planked floor for the other loading area. Something sorta like a dock or something. What do you think?




I also finished a little pump house/maintenance shed. The bricks are a pre-stamped plastic I bought to test out. The detail is shallow but I'm hoping it stands up to being painted. If so I'll use it on the second half of the board too.

[Grifter13]

How did you do the wooden planking? Board looks awesome.

[ForestZ]

Thanks, Grifter.

The planks are a single sheet of 3/32" balsa, 3" wide. I used a pen to score the planks lengthwise, then an exacto to split the planks up by cutting little V grooves. Then the pen again to poke holes for the nails (the balsa is that soft). I cut some V notches at the end where the planks meet and a few on the ends of the boards themselves to represent wear, and also cut a few planks shorter for variety. Then I took a wire brush and scrubbed it lightly with the grain. This enhanced the grain and weathered the boards. I also lightly scrubbed the ends to weather them also.

Hopefully it will look right when painted. Hope that helps!

[shaddix]

This board looks great! Hopefully I'll be able to get something like this going on the other side of my portable board. What's you're plan for the water effect?

[ForestZ]

Shaddix: the water is the last unanswered question. I have a lot of experience using Envirotex to make water from doing my modular canals:





But that was a much thicker pour. Due to the limited depth on this on, I have to work much more of the illusion of depth in without actually creating any. I got a bunch of great advice over on the Terragenesis boards, though. I'll probably just paint the canal black and work some lighter shades up on the sides to simulate depth, then cover with a very thin layer of Envirotex. The 10th anniversary NQ build did something similar. For foam/bubbles from the current I may try white caulk. There was a great build on Terragenesis that used this technique so I think I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm happy to answer any specific questions, so when I get it done, if you like the result, feel free to drop by and pick my brain.

[redmanphill]

This is looking great. It is going to be absolutely awesome when finished. I like the small building. It is very IK.

[ForestZ]

I've been lucky to find 15 minutes a day to work on this, so it's going much slower than I would like. But it *is* going! Got 95% of one side done. On to the other!



This guy still needs weathering and details, but I thought I'd throw it up too:

[Oren_Dotan]

I've been thinking of doing a foldable table for a couple of months now and when I encountered your thread here, I knew I found the way to do it, so I hope you don't mind me coping the giant suitcase idea, although I'm going with a different terrain, yours is so awesome, reminds me of a european city in the mid 17th century like in France or in England

btw I really dig the sewer water effect, what product did you use for it?

[anthonicus]

wow...very impressive, ambitious, and awesome! the stones look really good (: cant wait to see more!

[CPFinnit]

Where did you find the prestamped plastic? That's fantastic.

[ForestZ]

Thanks guys!

Oren: The water effects are Envirotex-Lite (and sometimes a generic equivalent found at Home Depot), tinted with inks (blue, green, brown). The ripples on top are done with clear 5 minute epoxy dabbed with the flat side of a craft stick repeatedly until it starts to set. It's a trick I picked up from the Hirst Arts site.

anthonicus: Thanks! It's getting a little tedious right now, being the only one working on it and having the progress be so slow, so I'm taking a short break to play with my airbrush and work on some mini's. Hopefully that will re-energize me on this project so I can power through to the finish.

CPFinnit: The particular ones I used I purchased from MicroMark.com, but I don't especially recommend these. Of the 3 different types I ordered, this was the only one really useable for this project. I know Evergreen and Plastruct both make pre-stamped plastic also that are probably of a higher quality, if you can find them.

[anthonicus]

oh man my computer didnt load all the pics last night and i missed the water and brickwork. stunning work! how did you manage to get the bricks to look so realistic and whats a craft stick?

[ForestZ]

If you mean the actual texture, the bricks used in the sewers are Hirst Arts (basically, Bruce Hirst makes some sweet little bricks, then makes some sweet rubber molds, then sells those molds for people to cast their own sweet little bricks out of plaster...check out hirstarts.com. The gray section of herringbone patterned bricks on my table is done with the same stuff.

Craft Stick = Tongue Depressor. Basically, I used 2 part crystal clear 5 minute epoxy and smeared it over the top of the Envirotex. The epoxy will naturally settle when it's just mixed, so you dab it over and over with the flat side of a tongue depressor to create a ripple, which will then settle again, and you keep doing it until it starts to set up and gets a little stringy. It will settle a bit again, but keep the ripple texture, and be glossy and hard.