STEP 4: CUTTING OUT WATER AREAS AND CONTOURING:
First cuts. Here the river and streams and lake have all been cut out.
Beneath the bluefoam is a pegboard that I intended to use when setting up
the terrain board on a table that was too small to support it. It was
necessary to untape some pieces to make the cuts.
Roughing in slopes and shorelines done with a hot foam cutter (I have the
'Woodland Scenics tuning fork' kind rather than the cheapass Games
Workshop one) notice the roads, where I was initially considering leaving
them all at the same height to make life simpler, thus there are 'piers'
going across the swamps and streams. Also, the towns that bordered water
have been cut out completely. They'll be filled in later. The hot foam
cutter will slice right through the scotch tape without stopping, so don't
worry about that, but DO worry about supporting the part you're working
on, so if it slices through the top of a join, the piece doesn't 'hinge
down' on the tape on the underside, and cause a chunk of foam you DON'T
want to cut to brush against the cutter.
Drywall sanding mesh can be used to rid you of that oh-so-classy hot foam
cutter gouged look. Use gentle fingertip pressure and polish across the
grain of the gouges to get rid of the highest ridges, then run along them
diagonally in a criss-cross pattern to smooth the surface, finishing with
circular polishing motions to get the best contours. Here's a closeup of
the difference between the ubiquitous hot-foam-cutter sculpting (left) and
the same after being sanded using drywall sanding mesh (right). Notice the
transition and how smooth things are. The transition to the flat upper
surface is also pretty smooth and even, but since the flat upper surface
is shinier there seems like there's a sudden 'edge' there. Scotch tape can
be used to mask off areas so you don't drywall sand them...It'll just
glide over the slickness of the cellophane tape without cutting. This is
how I did the piers.
Finally, all edges have been sanded and rounded in gentle slopes using
drywall mesh. Compare this to how it looked just after the hot foam
cutter. Notice that some of the 'piers' for the roadways have been
removed. I eventually got rid of all of them.
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