#lost abbaye

I love the Lost Abbaye board but it has a major drawback, the playing area is way too small for anything other than small skirmish games. It’s made of 6 square modules of 1 x 1 ft (30 x 30 cm). In this project, I decided to add three modules to make it a 3 x 3 ft (90 x 90 cm) playing area.

Here is the step-by-step guide on how I built and painted this extension over one week-end.

1. Wood frame and basic topography

After gluing the MDF frame together, I cut a few pieces of styrofoam to make the basic topography.

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One week-end, one project

Working on an extension for my Lost Abbaye board #miniaturescenery #wargamingterrain #simpleaswar #wip

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 10, 2019 at 6:17am PDT

2. Rough Paste

To smooth the transition between the block of styrofoam I covered it with rough paste. After drying it becomes rock hard and it also helps to protect the styrofoam when painting with spray can.

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I like how this is coming together

#wargamingterrain #diorama #terrainmaker #simpleaswar #wip

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 10, 2019 at 10:40am PDT

3. Sand and gravel

To finish texturing the surface, I added sand and gravel, glued with diluted PVA.

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Sand and gravel added, waiting for the glue to dry

#miniaturescenery #terrainmodeling #wip #simpleaswar #wargamingterrain #dioramaterrain

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 11, 2019 at 12:11am PDT

4. Priming

The secret for this project to fit over a week-end was to use spray can for painting. But as you know the solvent used in spray can will dissolve styrofoam. So before painting, I used a special primer from Montana Colors to protect the styrofoam.

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Special primer to protect the styrofoam

Love working with Montana Spray Can #wargamingterrain #wargamingscenery #miniwargaming #diorama #battleboard #wip #simpleaswar

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 11, 2019 at 6:10am PDT

5. Pre-shading

Now was the fun part. Like a graffer, I used several spray can paint from Montana Colors and others.

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So fast to work with paint spray can

#speedpainting #scenerypainting #wargamingterrain #wip #simpleaswar #miniaturescenery

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 11, 2019 at 8:02am PDT

For my friends in France, I recommend you to take a look at Allcity website, they have all the colors you can dream of and their customer service is really good. My friend David from Grosaquet is now an absolut fan of their products

We could form a #streethobby gang I think

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Big working day!!!! #streethobby #modelisme #terrainbuilding #scratchbuilt

A post shared by La boite à décors Grosacquet (@grosacquet) on Feb 5, 2020 at 11:18pm PST

6. Highlighting

To get finer detail, I used airbrush to highlight the rock especially.

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Ok last step for today, highlighting rocks

#miniaturescenery #wargamingterrain #scalemodeling #wip #simpleaswar

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 11, 2019 at 10:27am PDT

I ended up adding a cliff backdrop too. It gives more depth and height to the board.

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Added a cliff backdrop. Now wondering

which type of trees? Conifer

or deciduous

?

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 17, 2019 at 10:39am PDT

7. Grass and trees

Final touch was adding static grass using my electrostatic applicator.

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And done with the vegetation

So happy how fast this project went

#miniaturescenery #wargamingterrain #wargamingscenery #simpleaswar #wip #miniwargaming #diorama #naturescalemodeling #mordheim #boltaction #thewalkingdeadalloutwar

A post shared by SimpleAsWar (@simpleaswar) on Aug 18, 2019 at 7:36am PDT

I enjoyed a lot how fast and smoothly this project went. I find working on nature terrain way more relaxing than urban terrain. I should focus more on this and it already makes me want to extend this modular board deeper into Mirkwood territory.

Matt