Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Road Work Ahead

Work continues at a breath-taking pace on my soldier table (call for a better name still in effect).  Recently I completed my roads and fences.

The road surface is a thin board of MDF cut on the band-saw with the wavy shoulder profile.  Separate shoulders (traced from the lower layer) were glued and clamped into place.  The edges were rounded off on the belt-sander

After painting and texturing the shoulders I spread a uniform coat of Liquid Nails on the roadbed.



Onto the still wet adhesive I liberally sprinkled fine sawdust.



Next step was to press wheel tracks into the surface...



followed by plenty of hoof-prints.



After the adhesive cured I brushed all the loose sawdust from the surface and applied a light wash of very thinned-out black acrylic paint.



When that had dried thoroughly I lightly dry brushed the road to highlight the detail.


Definitely not the road less travelled.

Next it was time to put up fences.  I patterned them after the five rail post-and-rail turnpike fences found at Antietam National Battlefield.

The posts were milled from pine and drilled to accommodate four rails.




Using scrap oak I made the rails, each about seven inches in length.  The ends were tapered with 
a razor blade.  As I was working with oak this was a breeze.  There was no splintering and the rails are very durable.




The taper must be thin enough to fit two ends into each hole on the post...



thus:





Now with road established and fences erected our artillery battery can gallop into action!




Never a dull (nor idle) moment around here.


Soldier on!

Mannie

7 comments:

Hugh Walter said...

Looking good...the err...display table?

Brianne, You may call me Mistressyness said...

beautiful and fun! I'm so inspired, I can't wait for the day I get to have a playroom. Oh, what about calling it the "tableux" I mean French IS always classy!

Rodger said...

Wow!! looking really nice Mannie.

Ben B. said...

They look great, how about MannieLand. I have followed your blog for a while, almost all of your posts have me laughing at some point, especially the "red Chines" oriented ones. I ALMOST made it to Antietam in October, during the snow(need I say more). Keep up the good work, and "Soldier On!" Ben

Cap'n Bob said...

Field of Honor? The Big Board (from Dr. Strangelove)? Battleground?

The Ferrymen said...

Hi Mannie.
You sure do some beautiful work. And so fast! (and I'm so jealous...)

"Warboard", "battleboard", and "wargame table" have all been used.
You could just call it a diorama -- that sometimes changes and moves and even fights battles!

Best regards,
John

Scott B. Lesch said...

"play Table?"