Weekend Update: Experiments Continue, Failure is Success!

Flock and static grass blend on brown undercoat. Click to Enlarge.

“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” ~C. S. Lewis

The experimental piece with brown under coat. Click to Enlarge.
The experimental piece with brown under coat. Click to Enlarge.

Here I have to give a shout out to Mel, The Terrain Tutor. I learn a great deal from many folks online, but recently I’ve been watching a lot of his videos and I realized I should have watched them all before I started this.

Before I go further, I’ll say I also owe a debt to Mike from Terranscapes. Also GirlPainting. And Scotty from theDMsCraft. I’ve learned from Storm the Castle (epicfantasy) as well.

The techniques I’m learning now will provide a foundation to build upon to make better and better terrain, which I will be happily sharing here and on our YouTube channel. So, thanks Mel!

Apple Barrel Colors, Brown Oxide acrylic craft paint, from Plaid. Click to Enlarge.
Apple Barrel Colors, Brown Oxide acrylic craft paint, from Plaid. Click to Enlarge.

 




 

Flock and static grass blend on brown undercoat. Click to Enlarge.
Flock and static grass blend on brown undercoat. Click to Enlarge.

As you can see, this looks pretty bad. The undercoat is too visible, the grass and flock isn’t thick enough, there’s no clump foliage or anything breaking it up, the shape of the rocks isn’t natural (my experiment in carving, then heat treating vertical foam “rock” walls), and the grass and flock itself all has a ‘painted-on’, unnatural look to it. It doesn’t look like it’s really growing there, it looks like bad carpeting.

Flock and static grass blend on brown undercoat. Click to Enlarge.
Flock and static grass blend on brown undercoat. Click to Enlarge.

The fact that foot traffic would have killed the grasses in the high-traffic sections of the terrain is notable, but this wasn’t a flaw that was lost on me. This is a total mock up piece for the purposes of experimentation. I’ve used up a bit of material in the process, but the lessons learned are well worth it. Even more worth it if you pick up your flock, static grass, etc from a Hobby Train shop where they sell it in larger quantities for more reasonable prices. (The gamer stores, including your FLGS, typically carry the GaleForce9, Games Workshop, Army Painter etc caliber of material and it’s terribly over-priced.)

Flock and static grass blend on brown undercoat. Click to Enlarge.
Flock and static grass blend on brown undercoat. Click to Enlarge.