Project Red Rover P4: Getting Your Glue On
D&D, Egyptian, Hirst Arts, Home Brew, Terrain No Comments »
You would think gluing your terrain to the appropriate base would be a cake walk, right? After all, this is a life skill you learned in kindergarten. Well, Padawans – think again. Glue in haste and your terrain will almost certainly warp and all that hard work thus far is for naught. Glue with pre-calculated planning and techniques and your 3D game board will flourish…let’s explore further.
First off, you can base your newly cast bricks on a variety of materials including:
Certainly you want to go with what you’re most comfortable with but Ben’s biggest concern is always the bend probability. There’s great heartbreak in a finished piece having an upward slope like a troll bridge. For that reason, Ben recommends Elmer’s Foam Board (specifically the 20” x 30” x 3/16”) but get it in black if you can. You can readily purchase a sheet at Michaels, Staples or Wal-mart for about $7.
A hot knife or (really sharp) Xacto blade allows you to manually cut your bases to the proper dimensions but that does take some skill for some of us. So, Ben got the assistance of his father-in-law and one of his a big manly woodshop machines. His mighty electric saw cutting method was a huge timesaver (a mere 2 hours for a ton of perfectly cut pieces). And before you say you don’t have a saw, you can always take your stuff over to Home Depot and they’ll charge ya mere pennies to make the appropriate cuts.
Ben keeps some sandpaper handy post-cast so that his terrain glues on as level as possible (especially important when doing custom mold casts). This extra TLC makes a huge difference and is an overlooked step.
Two types of glue get the most love in a Hirst Arts terrain world: Titebond II Premium Wood Glue ($6.49) and Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue ($7.83). Ben actually prefers Wood Glue for your bricks as the plaster seems to adhere better to the foam core. Tacky Glue seems to have better sticking power for basing plastic minis (like MageKnight or Dreamblade).
When applying the glue, Ben likes the medium wood glue bottle nozzle. He also keeps a jar of sturdy toothpicks on hand to apply glue to smaller areas. He keeps a “glue rag” (fancy name for a folded up paper towel) to wipe away the excess.
To ensure your pieces are glued on straight/even, you can get your MacGyver helm on and make your own straight edge. Ben’s dad made him two versions: one for day-to-day and another for higher walls. Large Megabloks also do a fine job but sometimes a few rectangles from the Lego Duplo Brick Set are nice to have within arm’s reach too. The bummer with Legos is they can slide around on ya where as a larger straight edge with rubber stoppers on the bottom keeps everything stationary.
Once glued, some of the smaller pieces will typically turn out better if you immediately drop them into a hobby vice or clamp. That extra pressure just seems to end in a better final product (and helps those ugly seams).
When gluing floors, Ben tries to counteract the dreaded warp monster with a brick press. It sounds silly but it really has made a difference. Tiles are first glued to the foam core using all the techniques above and after about 5 minutes, Ben places them on two wood boards with a large garden brick on top. He leaves this in place for about 24 hours. Just don’t go from glue to brick too soon as the tiles might accidentally shift on you.
So you see there’s much more to this glue step than there appears. While these suggestions seem trite, they really do make a difference. Give ‘em a try and keep those chaotic warp devils away from all your hard blood, sweat and tears.
Questions to Ponder: Do you agree with Ben’s suggestions? What else have you done to ensure this glue step doesn’t ultimately ruin your terrain?
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