Terrain For The Battle of Leipzig: Part 5

I was able to take my foot off the gas on this project as the due date has been bumped from last weekend to sometime in May (most likely). At this point, the six new panels are finished and the older panels have been touched up and would have been ready for last weekend. 

I lined the Elster and it's tributaries with shrubs made from Woodland Scenics Clump Foliage (medium green, light green and burnt grass).

The swamp area to the west of the Elster was also lined with clump foliage and some home made shrubs:

... and filled in with a lot of Army Painter tufts (Highland and Swamp).

The swamp and minor tributaries of the Elster are just three or for layers of Golden Gloss sealer over the grout base:

Overall, I think the result is effective. 

The extra time has allowed me to add some details that I might not have otherwise been able to do such as make a large batch of trees in autumn foliage (this is about a third of them):

As well as more roads (we will need about 60'!):

This weekend I got started on some buildings I ordered from Warbases (rural farmhouse, barn and outbuilding) which I have upgraded with sheet styrene and Lepages Plastic Wood Filler:

This week I expect to make headway painting these as well as another Sarissa Precision building and bridge that have been started for a while now. 

Terrain For The Battle of Leipzig: Part 4

 With the grout sealed and the resin river sections poured it was time to move onto adding greenery and foliage to the boards. For the sake of consistency I followed the same process as for my Alma and Wagram boards. First up was a base layer of 2mm Woodland Scenics static grass; mostly Medium and Light Green with a pinch of both Harvest Gold and Straw:

I varied the mix slightly in each load so that it wasn't too homogenous. After the base layer was set, I did quick patches of 4mm Peco Summer mix:

For variation in texture, I sprinkled some Scenic Express SuperLeaf (a mix of medium Green, Light Green and a lesser amount of Moss Green):

For some scattered shrubs I used Woodland Scenics Bushes in Dark and Light Green, as well a few homemade ones:

The end result:

The 6 river section boards and the 4 new plain boards got this treatment. The bulk of the hard work is done. I just have to paint some resin onto the swampy areas and the minor waterways. If I had been more on the ball and paid more attention I could have done the swamp areas and minor waterways at the same time as the rivers as one of the boards got it's swampy section flocked over. So the next step is to remove some of the static grass and paint down some resin followed by tufts to represent boggy ground. 

Terrain For The Battle of Leipzig: Part 3

 With the grout laid down and sealed it was time to pour the resin for the Elster. First things first, the ends had to be dammed. 

I used 2" by 4" styrene, held in place with masking tape and Lexel multi-purpose sealant. 

I added a second layer of masking tape, covering the bottom of the styrene dam after these photos were snapped.

I brushed a thin layer of resin onto the river bottom to pre-seal it before the proper pour. Any sealer would do (grout sealer, Mod Podge, ETC),it insures that the poured resin will not leak through the base.

Once the seal coat was dry I poured all the river sections over the course of two afternoons.

I used Golden High Flow acrylics Sap Green to colour the resin; I should have added more as I would have preferred the river to be a darker but it looked perfect while I was mixing. Next time I will know to make it darker than I prefer as once it is poured the shallow rivers turn out lighter. 

The dark spots on the banks are places where the resin either dripped or overflowed slightly before it levelled out. That's no bother as I can put swamp grass tufts in those locations. Out of the 16 dams, 3 leaked a little but the loss of resin did not make a significant difference to height of the river. 

My preferred resin for this kind of thing is EcoPoxy Flowcast SPR:

I love this line of products: easy to use, mixes 2:1 by volume, can do pours up to 1" thick, cleans up with isopropyl alcohol (before it is set), and has plenty of working time. The fumes are not intolerable but I keep a window open anyways.