Starting a swamp table

[Broxus]

I am trying to build a swamp themed table.  I have heard that using a mangrove root works well as trees.  I was curious where people are buying these from and how they have been using them on tables.  I was also curious if anyone else had some creative ideas for swamp themed terrain.

[Lysandestolpe]

Materials:

MDF board 1/8 or 1/4" thick.

Cork sheet 1/4" thick

Xacto blade (sharp)

Sand

Acrylic paint

Brush

Glue

Flock

 

Prep:

1. find a place with a band saw.

2. cut at least 10 pieces of masonite (MDF) board in different shapes and sizes.

Swamp:

3. Take cork sheets (1/4" thick) and cut a piece that matches the size of each (say five) MDF board. Then cut wif a 45 degree angle inwards into the cork all the way thrugh.

4. Glue each piece of cork with a nice even layer of glue onto the MDF boards (place a heavy book on top and let sit over night.

5. using acrylic paint or glue, paint an X on the back of all pieces of MDF board (to prevent warping over time)

6. when this has surfaced dried, cover all cork modified pieces and trow sand over all of them. make sure you get a lot of glue by the crevasses of cork and MDF. Let dry

7. Dust of the pieces and paint them in a dark brown color (using no water but raw acrylic paint). Let dry.

8. Drybrush with a medium brown or grey

9 Drybrush with a lighter brown or grey.

10. Flock the piece (mostly around the edges but into the pool works too.

11. Pour Water Effect into each pool in the middle. Make sure the table you placed them on has decent straight level and not too tilted. Let dry clear (24-48 hours). The water effect will shrink a bit after it has dried so you need to pour a little more maybe once or twice depending on size to make the water level flat.

12. Done

Trees:

13. I don't know how Mangroove root works so I cannot answer this but other 5 MDF pieces can be used to make either forest bases or  slap carve some insulation foam for  and slap them on them to make some ruins for some line of sight blockers.

I hope that helps. I used that tenchique to make my ponds for a seraphon table and it worked really well.

[Broxus]

Could you post some pictures?

[Lysandestolpe]

I'm in Europe now but be back home in a week or so. Can dig it out and take some pictures of it. No process pictures however.

[Kramer]

On 1/7/2017 at 9:34 PM, Broxus said:

I have heard that using a mangrove root works well as trees.

I have no experience with them but they have been on my wishlist for a long time. Never knew what branches everybody used though. Because of your post now I know so thank you. 

Regarding your question. I just googled 'mangrove root order' and found a couple of suppliers. Most of them sell aqaurium supllies meaning they are very resillient and even water proof. So it would be just a matter of basing them. 

For example (it's a dutch page though) https://www.onlinedierenspeciaalzaak.com/_1-aqua-della-root-mangrove-37x21,5x33,5-cm/