DINO SIZED TROPICAL FLORA!

To really get my teeth into the prep for the game i've been painting all the dinos i have in my current collection. I am not being to picky about what dinosaurs i will play with this time around (although i'm picking ones that lean into slightly more naturalistic sculpts over the vintage styles). I am also being less picky with what actual dinosaurs are in the game, so i've some stegosaurus ready to reak havok and i've got a few big ebay job lots on their way in the post from which i hope to build an entire brachiosaurus family for a big heard shot in the book! 

Something else i have been doing is building tropical forest bases as they look great with dinosaur games. I don't aim to be very precise with the flora i represent in this way, i'm going for a general look and maybe later i will make over enviorments to play dinosaurs in but for the core book we will return to tropical forests as they tend to look so lovely with the mulit colored hides of dinosaurs as their foreground. 

I'm using the same techniques as with the first book only i'm using power tools (i've discovered a passion for woodwork during lockdown) so i've got some ply wood and cut out bases and sanded them down with a planer.

After this i mixed a liberally sized pot of gorrilla glue and basic pva (as i want the bases to be very strong, i'm hoping to make them good enough to take around to conventions but also portable and low impact) and i used sand from a bag of builders sand which is a mix of all sizes of sand and stones. I think this one was cleaned up and left after a job at our house before we moved in, so i can't speak to the quality and consitency of other builders sand. I used a large make up brush to apply the glue and a plastic cup to pour the sand over the bases, it got pretty smokey in there with all the dust. 

The finished result is strong and has a lovely texture plus the bevelled sides scream of 90's wargames boards which is a look i adore, i have never really been one for total immersion, i personally like to be reminded i'm playing a game as i do. Consequently i left the bevelled sides mostly blank. 

The next step is to drill holes in the wood for the plant stems. I used a small drill head and twisted it a little in the holes to bevel them a little as some of the plant stems are bigger than others. I also discovered that this might be a fun way to do egg nests in the future, perhaps just coating the sawdust piles with glue and adding some mini green stuff eggs or small rice. 

Next i did a dry fit of the plants. I decided i'm going to pick them off as i use them instead of creating big piles of prepared plants, this way i can maybe add some bigger ones and smaller ones before i take them all apart. It also occoured to me i can use the plants from the original pieces, which is a fun idea! 

To finish off the pre basecoat prep i attached some small rocks, and then some larger pebbles from outside of the house. After the small rocks i added another sprinkle of sand. After a stressful week it was really sensory and fun to get my hands in the sand box and sprinkle it over. 

This is how they looked before the big pebbles. The one on the right has had the second sprinkle of small sand. You can see how it really helps to integrate those rock piles, give the impression of a fallen cliff face long ago instead of just a pile of rocks that someone dropped there. 

Now it's time for the big pebbles. Some of these where a bit dirty so i generally avoided using them as the mud would create issues further down the line, i started by splodging them in the existing piles but i found soon that it was better to put a blob of glue down and then plonk a few pebbles in by hand. 

The finished pieces are looking awesome, i will get some twigs tomorrow and spray the bases in the morning, give them a paint up, stick in the plants and add the twigs then finish them off with a few spritzes of spray for weathering. I'm quite excited!

​Next up, big stones!