Basing a Playmobil Coliseum Part II

       Having glued the blue board in place using a combination of wood glue (my trusty friend Titebond) and hot glue I got down to the business of hardening the surface. As much of a fan as I am of blue board as a building material I do have to admit that large expanses of it get dinged up pretty badly if it isn't protected somehow. My first thought was to put a thin layer of Durham's Water Putty over the entire surface, but, with nearly twelve square feet of surface, that would have added immensely to the weight. I opted for covering the surface with a layer of wood glue and cardstock; this has worked very well on my larger pre-dreadnought models and adds very little to the overall weight.

 

after I had glued down the cardstock I added a layer of irregularly shaped construction paper pieces to hide the joint lines of the cardstock, I ran out of plain construction paper and had to raid my granddaughter's supply, thus the pink areas, the corners are going to be where the players are rolling dice so I reinforced those areas with a triangle of matte board

 

double-checking to make sure everything is fitting together properly

then I glued everything in place and added the card-holders in the corners;

the small blocks act as guides to hold the arena in place

 

a coat of pale gray overall followed by a layer of "mistint" brown on the arena floor, painting the circle by hand was a pain! once all the paint has dried I will cut the holes for the trapdoors through the blue board and add a layer of sand over the arena floor

     The worst part of the project so far has been waiting for glue/paint to dry during a very humid Michigan summer. Technically this project isn't much of a challenge; as a matter of scale it is large but doesn't come close to the Castillo model, and the techniques are my usual. All that remains is the placement and construction of the trapdoor pits, attaching a plywood bottom to the whole thing and some sand on the arena floor.