Game board design/ fabrication WIP's

So, taking the most successful design from the previous post, the next step is making the full sized board. The board is 3'x 3' and will be used for game testing and display. It is pretty rough at this point but it is getting there  I am not completely happy with some of my transitions, but my budget was very limited for this project- I used mostly found objects and old paint to get this to where it is now. 

The first step is quickly constructing the quay-side terrain out of old pieces of 1' thick polystyrene  Its pretty poor construction material, but it gets the job done and keeps the board light. Its glued to a piece of door skin to keep it rigid.

The second step was getting a bunch of garden rocks to fill in several places to boost the texture and help break up the surface.

More surface texture... sand. An old diorama trick. It fills in the gaps between rocks and the surface. It looks good painted, too.

After sealing the entire thing a fast coat of spray paint lays in the first pass of color. his is very quick as tightening up happens later with a brush.

Second pass of paint. Glazes and then dry brushing. Glazes bring all of the colors together, and makes the garish colors a bit more subdued. Dry brushing helps to pop out some of the surface details like the rocks and the sand.

3rd pass with color. Total working time so far is about 6 hours. Just picking out specific rocks to break up the value range and help feature key areas. This is fast, as final table flocking will overlap any inconsistencies and mistakes. At this point the colors all harmonize and the board is looking close to complete. the next steps will be final highlighting, inking, flocking and finishing off the bridge, which will get slices of door skin to show off wood grain. Finally I will pour resin in the muddy areas to represent water pooling up in the riverbed.

Quick detail shot. I am really looking forward to the finishing touches to complete this piece. If I get extra time I will glue black felt around the edges to clean them up. I am shooting for the whole thing to come in around 8-10 hours, depending on cleaning up the sides. 

I'll get the final pictures up as soon as its done this weekend.