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The sandtable is my very favourite of all tabletops. Thanks to the skill of Andrew Toms, in my group here, my rather rickety one has recently been replaced with a magnificent 12 foot by 5 foot example. Firstly sandtables are my choice because nothing in wargames land can match the ability to mould a tabletop into exactly the shape you want, like a sandtable. Terrain features are no problem, folds in the ground easy to achieve etc. You must however make sure the table is very stable. There is a lot of weight on it and the floor underneath needs to be able to bear that. Also the table itself must be solid and safe. If that thing collapses, it is heavy enough to kill or seriously injure anyone who was under it...which is why most are built such that you cant get under them, or break limbs that got caught. Fortunately most people seem to catch onto this very quickly and I have never had one collapse on me and have only ever heard of one doing so in the past 35 years I've been using them. The term 'sand table' is a misnomer. If you use sand, the results will be poor and difficult to maintain the form of the scenery. Therefore you need to achieve a mix of fine garden dirt and sand, so that when you dampen it before use, the water will be absorbed, yet the earth will hold the moisture. Retention of the moisture for several days is what enables you make some very special scenery. I have used various grades of soil over the years. If there is too much clay in it, then you can end up with an undesirably lumpy dirt once the moisture has dried out. Although mine is intended to represent terrain all over the world, I stick to a neutral local earth coloured soil as the basis and use other means to adjust the shade later. The trick to changing colours is mostly achieved with died sawdust.....but not entirely. Most railway shops sell bags of dyed sawdust and this is how most people start out with their first supply. However in my opinion the colours are usually not true to life, so I therefore prefer to get fine white sawdust and dye my own. Most brown or red woods, do not give a good sawdust that will take dye, so it is important that you try to get some that is nice and pale, or at worst dull straw coloured.That is not to say however, that the brown and red wood sawdust can't be used as it is...being a colour of its own. I like to 'observe' terrain as I drive about the countryside...and have been known to watch a movie more than once in order to look behind and around the action to view the type of countryside, the colours of the earth, types and colour of undergrowth etc. Therefore I tend to aim for a whole range of shades from very pale green, through bright and dark greens. I also dye some in reddish shades and more in blues and greyish blue. It can be a lot of fun. I use ordinary food dyes...straight off the supermarket shelf. Usually about 60c a bottle here and sufficient to dye a couple of icecream containers of sawdust. The shade can be adjusted by mixing yellow with green, blues, reds, etc. depending on how many shades are available to you. Also I buy bottles of cheap poster paint (acrylic) in toy shops. These usually come in fairly large containers and are inexpensive. Some paint powders are also very helpful. My old way of mixing was to put the dye into warm water until it 'looked about right' , then gradually add sawdust until it was absorbing the colour fully and getting thick. I would then stir it around with a large wood spoon or stick, finally tipping the soggy mixture out on some newspaper to dry in the sun. Occasionally if desperate for a wargame and my wife safely out of the way, I would put some in cake tins and slowly warm it in the oven. More recently however, I have found that thick concentrated colours, even dry powder, mixed in with a minimum amount of moisture is better. I then work and knead the mix until the colour has spread right through the sawdust. I do about a bucket full of each shade at a time, although for some special shades I might do a lot less. Of course you need rubber gloves for this. I forget sometimes and end up with very thoroughly dyed hands for a few days until the last vestiges can be scrubbed off. OK, so we have our sawdust. Next gather some small stones...aquarium rocks and gravel is good, but you can get it from nature just as easy. Lumps of bark from trees is good too. I use commercial hobby trade trees, but also make a lot of my own by digging around in craft stores looking for likely candidates, that with a bit of a snip here and there, will produce bushes and trees in large numbers and at far less cost than the commercial ones. When doing up a table top, it is important to have a map...but then most wargames are based on that anyway...and have a long stick as a marker. The dampened earth is smoothed out roughly. You will quickly learn how much moisture to use and it will depend on the soil you have on the tabletop so I cant guide your there other than to say 'experiment'. I hold the map in my hand and using the long stick, I roughly trace in roads and rivers, creeks etc. Mark where towns will be and hills. At this point the soil is still fairly evenly distributed. It is important to understand the contours of the land too and hopefully your map will give you plenty of clues to that, including such things as sunken roads, cliffs, etc. etc. Having roughly sketched out where things will be, I scoop the earth from the low lying areas and heap it into the higher levels. If you want to avoid having too much earth, but still need a high hill, some screwed up newspapers can be put down and the earth heaped over it. Remember the dry newspaper will absorb moisture so it can be dampened first if you want to be sure of the shape you are going to end up with...or if you are feeling adventurous...put it in dry and as it absorbs moisture it will take on a natural shape of its own. Another method I've use many times is to place chunks of wood or white foam under the dirt to make hills higher. If an entire area needs to slope, but I dont want that much solid dirt, I'll slip old spare sheets of flat wood I keep about the place, under it with something to prop that at an angle. Put the dirt over the top and you have a long slope, without it being solid dirt. If building up really craggy mountains, make sure the earth is quite damp, then form them around some thing such as balled newspaper or white foam. If you look at my page and find the scenery for a Pacific Island battle, you can see that up away from the beach, the terrain is very steep and there are lots of spectacular looking hills. For cliffs, I use some of the thick bark I have collected, sections of rock, or painted segments of white foam packing. You'll soon catch on to what works best for you and the particular scene you are creating. Set these into the dirt and mold it around them to look natural. Once you have the basic terrain setup, stand back and look it over. Make sure that you have allowed for natural looking features. There are no straight lines in nature. Any straight lines will reflect man made things which is why these stand out when we look across real countryside. Therefore hills will roll and dip, climb and soar, but never be straight and hardly ever round dumplings!!! This is a sand table so enjoy being about to mold it like real terrain. Again on my page you will see an illustrated article on the construction of a sand table scenery (but on a fairly small table). Press roads into the damp earth with a variety of objects you can find, that give the right look. I often put down the roads, then run a two pronged fork along them to depict wagon wheel tracks etc. At this point, if the place you are depicting requires a special colour to earth, this can be achieved in a rather easy way. I buy some cheap cans of spray paint at a local market store. Some yellows, brownish reds, blacks, dark blues, white, grey and red, are the most commonly available. Work out from your map which direction the sun light is shining from. On the bright side of hills spray them with a touch of the colour required. Perhaps to get a yellowish look in central europe. On the opposite side of the hill give it a quick spray with a dark colour. A few minutes later when that is dry, whack on some of the same shade as the bright side of the hill. This will give a shading effect so that one side definately looks brighter. Cliff faces can be sprayed in greys and blacks, a touch of 'brunswick green' perhaps. Similarly roads can be given a spray of dark brown or grey depending on the surface you wish to depict. Remember that roads used by vehicles become compacted and always look darker than the surrounding countryside. Similarly the edges of the road collect water run off, so the plants are usually darker and more lush. Now put on your buildings and trees. Add fences and walls and all the usual things you would do on any other table top. Once that is done and fields are fenced off etc. you can start with your dyed sawdust. Some fields will be yellowish, some dark green with lush crops etc. It will only take you a certain amount of practice to catch on to making it look just right. I use blue sawdust in the rivers and steams, then to give it a water look, sprinkle on some of the 'glitter' so favoured of children in artwork. Silver glitter always makes it look good and leaves no doubt in anyones mind that this is supposed to be water. Similarly you can trace deep marks into sections of road and do the same thing, to show boggy patches. In these cases, and also for river banks, the cheapest coffee powder you can buy is the best and usually cheaper than any alternative. Sprinkle some of this on in the areas you want the dirt to look like it is wet. The same applies to bogs, swamps etc. It also makes your tabletop smell great!!! Dont forget that the growth along the edges of streams and rivers usually gets more moisture so it will be darker and get lighter as you move away from the water sources. The tricks and nuances of all this are something sandtable users quickly pick up if they have any imagination at all and it becomes a labour of love to get that table to come to life. The demonstration one on my page is, actually not all that good. I think it is explained that it had to be altered several times for that night so I did not go to as much trouble as I could have. Check out some of the other battle scenes and you will get a much better idea of my usual tabletops. You will even see snow scenes. Some of the photographs I hope to post soon are of real 'Lawrence of Arabia" stuff. Oh and the Boxer harbour and battle shown is all built onto a sandtable. BTW,,,for shell holes, just make an impression in the earth with your fingers and lightly spray it with black!!! Looks really great. All this effort sounds a lot of work....but it actually takes longer to explain than the doing of it. I've known hex table folk to spend more time setting up than I have and got much less satisfying results. At the end of each battle you just remove all your bits and peices, then rake the soil out flat and start again. There is no need to remove the dyed sawdust...that will become absorbed...but if you have been a bit heavy in the use of the 'glitter' that may cause you a problem and might need to be carefully scraped off before redoing the tabletop. I hope this has filled you in on preparing a sandtable. If you have any more questions or need clarification, please ask. |
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