Realm of Battle Board - Completed!

So this is the continuation of the previous WIP post for the Realm of Battle Board I was working on. I will pick up right where the last post left off in order to have continuity!

So having dry brushed and completed the rocky terrain and broken earth, I took some Dheneb stone and Ogryn Flesh wash and painted/washed the skulls that were recessed into the board.  I then took the Behr - Aged Parchment (Ivory) sample and did a 50/50 mix of the Espresso Brown and the Aged Parchment.  I took the mixed paint and dry brushed the entire board.

Step 8

As you can see, the ivory/espresso mix worked out well to lighten the board without washing out the detail.  i.e. I got lucky that it didn't look bad!







Step 9 - Preparation
Before you begin to mix your flock you will want to take a moment and cut out about 3 or 4 sections of painter's paper to lay on your work surface.  These sections should be about 5'x5' if you can swing it.  You will then place your RoBB tiles upon them one at a time and use the paper as your work surface for the next few steps.

Step 10 - Flock

So the most involved part of this entire process was picking out and identifying the type and color of flock I wanted to use on my Realm of Battle Board. I literally had 23 different combinations and mixtures assembled before I put together what I wanted.  I chose to use a 50% blend of Woodland Scenics Dark Green Static Grass Flock and 50% of Gale Force 9's Green Static Grass.  I blended 12 canisters of the Gale Force 9 and an equal amount of Woodland Scenics and it almost filled a tupperware bin that you will see in future pictures.

It was not enough, next time I need to probably buy at least 20 canisters of the GF9 flock and mix that with equal parts Woodland Scenics.  I had just enough to almost cover 8 boards, I had to sacrifice my last tub of Games Workshop Glade Grass to cover one of the boards.

Anyway here is what I used:

Step 11 - Actual Flocking
I mixed up a container of 2 Elmer's Glue and equal parts water.  The consistency of pancake batter is an excellent goal to shoot for for this.  You don't want it too thin nor do you wish it too thick.

If you will notice, I used a 2" brush to spread.  You don't want anything smaller cause you really want to do this fairly quick.






I then painted the glue on starting with a corner and spreading my way out a section at a time.  As soon as I had painted a section, I would drop the flock on it and leave about an inch of the glue grass-free.  I would then continue painting out using the inch I had left as the starting point.  There is an excellent example of this on the Games Workshop site Here.

Once I had covered a board it looked like this:

Once I had covered the board like thus, I pressed down with my palm and patted down the flock.  Once that was completed I waited about 5 minutes and turned the board on it's side and banged all the loose grass off of it and onto the pre-cut sections of painters paper under it.



I then moved the tiles to locations to dry:

After that was completed, I took the loose paper and folded it to then funnel the reclaimed static grass mixture to pour back into my tupperware container to use on the next tile.












Example:

It was so much easier to gather the loose grass having taken the time to secure a good method to keep it in one place.  Not to mention - not having static grass go everywhere when pouring into something is kinda awesome.



Step 12 - Drying overnight
Once the boards are flocked, I set them about half an inch apart on the table and left them to dry overnight.
Once that was finished the next day (or 3 days later in reality) I turned the boards over on their side and was able to reclaim more loose grass.

Step 13 - Sealing your Board.

I had purchased 4 cans of Sealer from the Armory when I bought my primer.  Having checked online, I was pleased to discover that while Armory's primers sucked a massive donkey dick, their sealer did not.  It was well rated and very, very few issues had been reported with it.  So, having my confidence in their product renewed, I set about sealing the boards.  I went through 2.5 cans of sealer.
Rules for Sealing I discovered:
1. Open the garage door
2. Wear a mask or something over your mouth
3. Have a fan blowing out of the garage.
4. Glasses or goggles don't hurt to use either
5. Spray light coat then heavy coat then light again.
6. 1st light coat I let dry for 15 minutes
7. 1st heavy coat I let dry for 1 hour.
8. 2nd light coat I let dry for 15 minutes.
9. Done!

Step 14 - Post images of your completed Realm of Battle Board on your blog.

Thoughts and Reflections:

Now that this is complete and I have had time to reflect on how I did this project.  There are several things I would have done differently.
1. I would have used a better primer. - Army Painter, Citadel/Games Workshop, etc..
2. I would have purchased more Gale Force 9 Green Static Grass flock.  I bought 10 which gave me 12 canisters, I would have been more comfortable with 20 and would have definitely had left overs for future projects and terrain. (I ordered 10 more never fear!)
3. I would have intermingled a few different shades of grass into the mix.  I love the color I chose but a bit more variety would have been nice.
4. I might have used a lighter basecoast brown for the board.  Next board I may use only the Citadel realm of battle board Scenery kit on it and see how that turns out.

This entire project took just over 12 hours combined to prime/paint/flock/seal.  Totally doable in a weekend if you have the time or over a couple evenings while your wife watches The Real Housewives of New York marathons with her cousin on the couch.

sigh...

Anyway, I look forward to playing with this and you all may expect some terrain posts in the near future as I get that and my garage playing area together!

Thanks!