Closer to opening up...

The chilly weather hasn't helped with the construction of my latest battlefield model. Having cut, glued and taped the polystyrene together the next step was to literally seal the deal with some textured paint.

This provides a rough surface and conceals the look of the polystyrene. It also provides a solid shell to protect the board 

A good thick layer will preserve it from poking fingers and the like at shows. I did this about five days ago. I've checked every day, and the texturing has been sticky and wet.

But today it was touch dry, so on to the next stage.

First off I paint in the tracks, so I am happy with where they are going.

The stream is blue, of course, as I'm a traditionalist. It'll be steaked with white, some pebbles and sand put in at the ford, then finished with brown tinted gloss varnish.

The green, like the brown and blue, are my standard Dulux colours. These are ideal for painting on top of the textured paint. The light patch is where I had to refill some of the texturing.

The board edge will probably be painted black.

I've started on the base cloth, marking out the stream and valley floor track.

Hopefully this all won't take another six days to dry, as it will need filling in where the texturing hasn't been completely covered.

I've not been completely without wargaming this week, however. We did another WW1 aerial, courtesy of Richard. No full report this time round, just to say I finally chalked up the last kill I needed for Ace status:

I do enjoy these games, but I think it is about time Richard painted his bases.