Portable Desert

Now that the tiles have received their first coat of paint, it’s time to make them as realistic as possible.
To do this, I start by working on the surface with different layers of paint representing the earth and mud that you might find under the sand. I also took the opportunity to do some dry brushing with yellow ochre to get an idea of the overall shade of sand I wanted for this project.

It was during this stage that I realized I had made a mistake when applying the undercoat to my tiles: I should have sifted the sand to remove the larger grains. Because every time I dry brushed, my brush pulled out some of the larger grains, taking some of the paint with them and leaving the polystyrene exposed. I had to reapply several undercoats to fill in these spots.

Then came the most interesting part of the project: texturing!
It took me a long time to decide on the approach and colors to use to achieve a realistic and natural look on such large surfaces.
So I decided to use several layers of colored sand. I chose to start with Zen garden sand, which I sifted. This sand is very fine and very light in color, close to white, which was ideal for tinting it with different pigments.
I then applied the different layers of colored sand, starting with a medium shade, such as yellow ochre sand. I then applied darker sand in the hollows and redder sand at the foot of the cliffs. Finally, I lightened the whole thing with a lighter yellow sand, adding touches of pure Zen sand to the most pronounced reliefs.
A few pebbles dyed the same color as the cliffs were placed in “strategic” locations on the terrain, i.e., near the cliffs and in the hollows of the terrain.

The tiles are done, all that’s left is the box… and that’s clearly not the easiest part of the project!