Thursday, 10 March 2011

Fjord Terrain Ideas

I've been giving some thought to fjord construction and reckon on a simple approach being the way forward for the 1:600th scale version. I was lucky enough to find some off cuts of high density insulation foam on a trip to France a couple of years ago, each piece being of varying size but mostly about 40mm thick and a metre long.

I think that I could build modular L shaped formers out of thin 5mm  mdf to which a block of foam could be glued. I could then cut to shape with a bread knive or foam cutter, then sand it back to create a vertiginous rockface. If I then coated the foam with filler, I could create a textured surface using a cut down paintbrush to add rock strata.

To finish off, I could glue on sand and fine gravel with PVA to create scree slopes and rockfalls. I could then undercoat and paint the sections, using a drybrushing approach to bring out the details. I could then apply some Woodlands Scenics foliage and vegetation to the end result. 

Each two foot long modular section would fit together with the next one to create the sides of the fjord, including the bends and the head of the fjord where the factory / hydro electric plant is located. This would be modelled seperately and then slotted into the space in the terrain section.

I think this would be a cheap and effective way to create the fjord terrain whilst keeping it easily transportable, tough and impressive to look at.

3 comments:

  1. Have a look at some pics from Salute in either 2001 or 2002 - there was a great game with mosquitos bombing a big Tirpitz. I think the Fjords in that are exactly what you are after.

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  2. Thanks for the tip off.

    It was 2001 and Hunt for the Lonely Queen.

    I knew I'd seen something like this somewhere before!

    I think our fjord will be a lot higher and possibly quite a bit narrower but the format oif the terrain looks like the sort of thing were after.

    Nice :O)

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  3. Thats the one - A lovely looking game that was too. I really enjoyed going to SALUTE those two years when I lived in UK. Pity all that work stuff got in the way of me getting to more shows!

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