Project Foy - Surface Preparation

Once all of the elevations have been created, it is time to prepare the surfaces for rough finishing. In this stage, we are trying to take all of the rough edges off our transitions. The goal is to make everything look as natural as possible. It helps to start referring back to the pictures you have of your terrain area. When you are done with surface prep, you should be able to visualize the finished piece.


I start with the highest features and work my way down. All of the sharp edges can be smoothed with the Ryoba saw. You do need to be careful when doing this to preserve (or introduce) some randomness. Very little in nature is found with smooth, sharp edges. There are some places though that need to be "less natural". You have to leave enough playable surfaces for figures to stand flat. Try to leave some room for vehicles to go off-road too. It is a fine balance between complete realism and playability.


After smoothing out the rough edges as it were (or roughing out the smooth edges!), we apply a layer of spackling compound to the whole game board. This layer further fills in and smooths out transitions. It also provides a slightly harder shell to protect the soft polyfoam underneath. We use a product called DryDex:

I have heard other people use a two-part compound and still others use a thin Quickcrete mix. The DryDex is probably more expensive than most, but it has always been very workable for me. It also goes on pink and changes to white when it is dry so you can tell exactly when it is ok to start working again.

I have experimented with several different methods for roads. One of the methods was to try spreading a thin layer of spackle and then cut in tire tracks with a dental tool. In the end, I was no happier with this result than any of the others. The resulting roadbed is very brittle. I can easily see the "tire ruts" cracking or chipping during the first game. I am still searching for a method I like. So, I no longer treat the road beds with spackling. They remain bare poly at this point. More on the things I have tried for roads in a later post.

After the spackling coat has dried completely (I usually give it two or three days), it helps to sand the entire board with med-fine to fine steel wool. This is a very very messy operation, but if you skip it, you will find that there are sharp edges to the spackling that snap off and show white over your finished terrain. This again provides that final smooth look to your transitions.

At this point our Project Foy board looked like this:

I could not resist another playtest, this time with a few buildings set in place. Of course, the vehicles are not the right scale or type, but with a little imagination, the game is starting to come together. Now that we have a solid foundation, the finishing work can start ....