Presumably you have read the previous and stating entry into my experience with Armies on Parade 2023, so I will not recap. However, if you are just joining us, then please get up to speed HERE.
With all of my other pressing issues out of the way, and the groundwork and concepts sorted, I was ready to start actually working on the board for my entry. I had cut down the plywood I was using, and roughly traced the shape of the symbol of Tzeentch to start building the foundations. After a huge amount of research into what materials would be best to create the mountains and structures of the board, I ultimately settled with using expanding foam. I felt this would be light enough to keep the overall weight down, whilst allowing me to keep adding volume to the structure, as well as easily cutting away anything that didn't look right. It also required zero skill or talent to use, and as I'm severely lacking any skills in this DIY department, was the right choice for me.
This process is a fairly long, albeit, easy one. I started small, just filling out the shape I had traced earlier as neatly as possible. I would then leave this to expand and harden, before I added another layer on top. I then needed to cut away the foam where it had expanded in undesirable ways, retaining the shape of the symbol of Tzeentch. I would then rinse and repeat, adding another layer of foam, letting it expand and harden, before cutting to neaten and re-sculpt. Luckily we are in the height of summer here in England, so the foam really didn't take too long to harden, making this long process feel a little less long and tedious.
The foam isn't easy to move around once you've sprayed it, so the hardest part was containing it within the shape, knowing that it would also expand once it had dried. I'm absolutely not an ambassador for being neat or taking my time, so there are most likely a million ways I could have made this process easier and neater, but I shan't dwell on the what if's and neither should you.
I figured maybe two cans of expanding foam would be enough, but swiftly realised my naivety would punish my finances a little more than expected. One can pretty much managed to do one complete layer. I also didn't really think about how tall I would need the structures to be, and as it turned out, I needed them to be quite a bit taller than my stock of expanding foam would allow. This is where I'm sure there were better, more cost effective options to pursue in making the structure for the board, but I was now in too deep. After using four cans, I felt it was just a little too short, given the fact I wanted to create some interiors, and the tallest point needed to somewhat dwarf the tallest miniature; Kairos and his big bastard wings. I had also missed a step of waiting to dry and cutting, and sprayed the fourth can over the top of the previous. This left me with a pretty horrific unrecognisable mess on the board, and so I spent a while cutting to regain the shape of the symbol of Tzeentch.
With this all done, the basis for the structure was now complete. The next step was to start carving out any interiors or 'caves' to make the board more interesting. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to include little almost 'easter eggs' throughout, and having these little pockets of miniature activity would be the way to go about that. I knew I also needed something to cover the expanding foam so I could mold it into a natural looking rock formation, as opposed to some pretty out of date whipped cream. This resulted in my next purchase; modeling compound...
"Another cliffhanger!?" I hear you exclaim. Well yes, it is. And it probably won't be the last. So get over it, and keep your eyes open for Part III.
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