Terrain Challenge: Manda’s (Amachan) Happy Radiation Pond

To texture the terrain I’m using two different terrain pastes.

• AK Interactive Dark & Dry Crackle Effects (AK8032)
• Vallejo Earth Texture Dark Earth (26.218)

At first I applied both in a mix with the Crackle Effects at the edge of the pond and the Dark Earth around that. In order to soften the Dark earth I brushed on some water which did not go well with the Crackle Effects. The Crackle Effects was already pretty thin and did not work well on the cork bits.

I the decided when that was dry and not looking good to cover everything in the Dark Earth and cover areas that I want in Crackle Effects after the Dark Earth was dry.

When this dried I finally got the result that I wanted. I then applied a coat of Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade (99189953018) over the Dark Earth and the Crackle Effects to deepen the grooves. When this dried I applied a drybrush of Vallejo Model Air White Grey (71.119) to achieve this final result.

Looking at the picture when writing this entry I think I’m making a chocolate wonderland for some reason.

I glued the mini into place with PVA glue. The mini is mounted on 2 1mm brass rods which I covered in PVA glue and just slid it in the bubbly mountain. I glued the barrels and a couple more twigs in place using super glue.

Now to fill in the pond I used AK Interactive Puddles (AK8028). I first mixed a bit of Vallejo Model Color Fluorescent Green (70.737) with some water to dilute it. I then added I think 4-5 times the amount of the AK Puddles in the mixing pot. Might be more actually. I mixed them all together to create the water effects for this pond.

I was thinking of trying to make some bubbles in there, but had no clue how I was going to do that. But by the way I mixed them together it created lots of bubbles in the water effects which kept while dry.

In total I applied three coats of the puddle mix and applied them in layers. The stuff is self levelling and should really be given plenty of time to harden between layers.

My Happy Radiation Pond is finished!!! And I’m quite happy with my first terrain project apart from doing bases on mini’s.

Since this was my first terrain project I found it a good idea to look back and see what in hindsight I would do differently.

• Get a hot-wire cutter and/or a hot knife to sculpt the polystyrene instead of just breaking a piece of something I had laying around and just going with that.
• Not use card as a base when using water on it. There is quite a bit of warpage in the base due to the water I used with the clay and some other materials. The heatwave probably assisted in warping it as well.
• Some texture paints don’t go well over a textured surface like cork, so adding a base layer over it is a good idea to get it the way I want it.

And the most important one:

• Planning. Instead of just having a rough idea of what I want to do and just winging it from there, having a plan on how I’m going to do this would be handy. Writing it down would help as well, because of bad memory.