I Ruined It!....a little re-think

      Well, that is a bit of a lie; it implies that there was a "think" going into this project. There is nothing like hands-on to bring things into focus. So I took a deep breath and did the most unlikely thing, I stopped in mid-stride and decided to build one 2x2 foot panel rather than going whole hog  and ending up in the wrong place. Having learned the hard way with the Castillo project I decided to use a wafer-board base and attach a frame around the underside before I started adding buildings (there were a few scary moments while I was nailing the completed Castillo model to the frames)

 

with the frame drying I began to try out different looks, 

 my first thought was to run the roads at a 45 degree angle

but this made mapping out the plan difficult so I switched 

to running the roads at right angles to the sides

 

if you look closely you can see my pencil lines

 

having laid out the roadway I then added sidewalks

just thin strips of blue board incised on a regular patter to look like sidewalk blocks

 

the marks were made by pressing the edge of a metal ruler into the soft blue board

 

for a road surface I glued down some old construction paper, 

never mind the hideous color this will all be painted over

 

the texture of construction paper provides a surprisingly effect surface for concrete or asphalt

depending on you choice of colors you could do asphalt without needing to paint

 

then I got to work on City Hall,

to make it more imposing I raised the building up on a base

 

standard Titebond wood glue does the trick

 

then I added the other building using the stock of "ruined walls" I had made the other day

 

the fight is to make it look like a bombed-out city

 but still leave the tank models room to maneuver

 

after I was happy with the building layout I glued everything down 

and added some rubble from the heap of tiny bricks I had made yesterday

 

again the trick was to balance the bombed-out look 

with the need to have a playable game surface

 

next was the kitty-litter phase, the fine grain of kitty litter makes great small debris

the fact that it exists to adsorb liquids make it soak up the glue mixture and dry extra fast 

the glue mixture is my standard 50/50 mix of Titebond and water

 

I splashed it on all of the areas that were showing the wood grain 

then sprinkled the kitty litter on the wet mix

 

as that was soaking in I dug out the sand pail 

and then wet-down the areas that I had missed with the kitty litter,

 these were given a dusting of coarse playground sand

 

in the morning the whole thing will get a coat of dark-gray housepaint

then several rounds of drybrush highlighting