D&D General DIY xps foam terrain. Videos? Pics? Advice?

[not-so-newguy]

Side note:
(a) This is my first time creating usuable foam terrain and acrylic paint. I learn best by doing (maybe we all do). Comments and constructive criticism are much appreciated.
(b) Our group is on hiatus. Everyone in the group is new to Mystara, except me. Most of my knowledge stems from going down various rabbit-holes on the Pandius site. So it's sort of "the one-eyed man in the land of the blind" situation. This game board is intended as a conversation piece and a bit of a teaching tool for the Spheres of Power.


Here's the game board with Mod Podge mixed with Black Matte Acrylic as a base coat
Side 1: Stone Tiles (one inch)

Side 2: Wooden Boards (Gridless. 1 inch =5 feet)

Colors of the Spheres of Power
1 Crimson (Craftsmart) Energy -->Fire-->Red
2 Brown (Craftsmart) Matter -->Earth-->Brown
3 Ocean Breeze (Craftsmart) Time-->Water-->Blue
4 Splendid Gold (DecoArt) Thought-->Air -->Gold
0 Black (Crafsmart) Entropy--> oblivion-->Black

Plain Stone Tiles (and 2 brown ones)
Fog Grey (Craftsmart) mixed with a little Black.

Wooden Boards
Golden Brown (Craftsmart)

These paints are cheap. If you think another color would work better, please let me know. I would appreciate it.

The colors are slightly darker irl than the pics

The test pieces still require Dry Brushing, Black Wash, and Sealant.

 

[el-remmen]

Great start. The texturing on the wooden board is great, as is the pattern on the wooden side of the big board.

I find the craftsmart paints are more than fine and even use them for minis sometimes.

As for the above, my suggestion would be to start with a darker color as the base over the mod podge doing a heavy dry brush, and then do the golden brown or whatever as a dry brush over that. It will provide a lot more texture and look less like slathered on paint.

I would do more aluminum foil ball texturing on the stone ones.

 

[not-so-newguy]

Much appreciated!

 

[not-so-newguy]

As for the above, my suggestion would be to start with a darker color as the base over the mod podge doing a heavy dry brush, and then do the golden brown or whatever as a dry brush over that. It will provide a lot more texture and look less like slathered on paint.

Thanks for pointing that out. It made a big difference. Also putting on the base brown with a very wet brush helped.

 

[pogre]

If you paint a lot of stone work, and therefore, lots of gray tones, you might try using house paint. I have a quart of white and a quart of black that I got from the hardware store.

When I did a bunch of desert terrain I had the paint store mix up a sand/yellow-tan color house paint for my terrain boards. Pretty economical and wears well. My desert terrain boards were used and abused ina hobby store for years.

 

[not-so-newguy]

If you paint a lot of stone work, and therefore, lots of gray tones, you might try using house paint. I have a quart of white and a quart of black that I got from the hardware store.

When I did a bunch of desert terrain I had the paint store mix up a sand/yellow-tan color house paint for my terrain boards. Pretty economical and wears well. My desert terrain boards were used and abused ina hobby store for years.

Too late
I went with grey, rather than trying to maintain a mixture.
Not sure what to do about the circled one. I put 2 coats on all of them as evenly as I could.

 

[el-remmen]

Too late
I went with grey, rather than trying to maintain a mixture.
Not sure what to do about the circled one. I put 2 coats on all of them as evenly as I could.
View attachment 149804

Is this pink XPS foam? Could the thin plastic layer still be on that red circled one?

 

[not-so-newguy]

Is this pink XPS foam? Could the thin plastic layer still be on that red circled one?

I bought this from Amazon before I knew better. They appear to be just a sheet of xps insulation that's been cut up and packaged.
(This is not the piece in question, but another one from the same package)

 

[not-so-newguy]

I bought this from Amazon before I knew better. They appear to be just a sheet of xps insulation that's been cut up and packaged.
(This is not the piece in question, but another one from the same package)

View attachment 149805

Eta I should note that the 4 pieces are still drying

 

[el-remmen]

The most recent piece I bought at Home Depot (which was 4' x 8' and yes I did bring my hobby knife with me to cut it up into pieces that fit in my car in the parking lot) had a thin film on it that I need to peel off. It cut easily, so I didn't realized it until after I had started shaping it, but thankfully before I applied mod podge or paint.