Water feature/Urban elevation

Hello all

It's summer, so I have some time for hobby-related activities once again. Also, my girlfriend has expressed interest in scenery building and I figured if I give us a theme and a deadline (this competition), we might actually create something in a reasonable amount of time and not drag it out or forget about it.

So what we'll be building is a simple rectangular piece (one each) that can act as a hill type terrain in urban settings or, if flipped, a water feature.

Time permitting, we'll be adding separate ramp and stair pieces for some variety and easier access.

We are planning on eventually making an entire board's worth of 1x1 foot modules, but these will be 1x0.5 foot for flexibility.

Inspiration for the hill type starts at the very smallest elevations...

...and goes all the way to the likes of San Francisco.

With enough of these modules, one could create a more interesting urban gaming board, as well as realistic since, at least to my knowledge, most cities simply aren't built on a flat ground level. The modules can be stacked alongside and one on top of the other, creating further layers.

As for the water feature, just think something along the lines of sewage treatment or industrial canals...

Basically, below is the whole shebang in one picture, more or less.

Will let you know of further developments.

...and by reading the missile silo/hill thread, I realised we could just make the top removable.

Then again, I dislike removable things on terrain, they get broken, wobbly, lost or damage the paintjob. And the cutting has already begun. And the grapes are sour anyway.

Some work has been done, but stopped due to various obligations. We're going to do some more this weekend.

First we familiarised ourselves with basic tools and materials: Olfa knives, metal rulers, cutting mats, PVA glue and styrofoam.

A rectangle was cut to fit the pre-planned modular system of 0.5 foot. An inch wide surface was planned on all sides of our water feature, so we cut those as well.

The very basic technique of sytrofoam bonding via PVA and toothpicks.

A slot was cut for the ladder.

Since we want to keep this fully within module size, I've decided to go for this kind of implementation.

We took a break for a nice walk around the neighbourhood and stumbled upon a treasure in a cardboard box! A bunch of nice 1cm thick sytrofoam plates. These will be useful for the stairs we are planning as an addition.

Observations: Styrofoam is hard to cut nicely with these knives. Or just without making a huge mess.

I told her not to worry about the texture and brought out the secret weapon - toilet paper and card stock.

Toilet paper was used for the front walls, while the pool floor is now covered with card stock.

We proceeded to TP the heck out of all the 'concrete' surfaces. At this point we disagree on the non-water-feature-surface treatment and go our separate ways.

I opt to use some heavy paperboard (2mm thick, 1cm wide) for the surrounds and the thinner cardstock to fill out the inside with tiles. Since I'm running low on cardstock, I tear it up into several bits to space out more evenly and declare the rest 'damaged'. The edges of tile sections I trace with glue and hit wit 3 varying sand granulations, while the middle is a less coarse mixture.

She opts to go for a paved surface, fully on heavy paperboard. While she's deciding on a design, I give a brief lecture on proper cutting and safety, not that I expect the latter to be given much consideration.

At this point, I want to give a shout out to all girls who whine and moan when this is the prescribed material by our faculty for a given assignment: You're all pansies. Learn to cut it.

This is the most recent photo I have, her design in progress and mine after the tile-edge texturing.

Hopefully we get some detail work done this weekend and maybe even some licks of paint.

Thanks for reading,
Oskar

Nice progress and I am glad to see you back in the competitions.

A bit late with the updates, but we've had real life get in the way... Pictures are still the low quality phone shots, but should do the trick.

We added some filth on our pool sides as well as two pipes for filling/draining the pool.

She spent a few days chopping up her piece of cardstock to get all the tile lines nice, straight and deep, as well as some cracking. Then we glued it to the side opposite of water feature and after a spraycan undercoat, started weathering it with some green tempera paint to simulate moss growing in the cracks.

Meanwhile, I've done some more work to the flat bit of my piece, adding some texture and fiddling with several shades of paint to get a weathered look. I've opted for a nice sickly/hospital greenish hue, as well as painting half the sidewalls in the same colour.

Hopefully, we will managed to get the details painted, add some random trash items and graffiti as well as the pour the water itself...

Fingers crossed.