Making a Display Board For My Japanese Army

Today I finished making this display board for my 7th Hohei Chutai, keep reading for the steps involved.

If you listened to our first 2014 podcast you'll know that I (WinnerDave) set myself a new years resolution to win best painted at a tournament.

I think my best opportunity to do this is at the upcoming Welsh open, with my Japanese army.

Despite some ummming and arrring I've decided to make a display board, so I'm going to document that here.

First up I took an old picture, this one has been sat in our loft (attic) for ever and I think my wife bought it in Ikea before I even met her.  None of which is important, but you might be in a similar situation.  This one is 18.5" sq, I'm loving the fact that it's square.

Next I'm using a piece of thin mdf which I can cut with a knife to fit inside the frame.

Pretty good fit

After scoring the board I lay the minis out and drew around each base, plus I mark out the stream.

I realise at this stage just how thick bases are and that i'm going to need to use a lot of Brown Earth to make it deep enough.  Lack of pre-planning on my behalf.

Adding a few more layers of Brown Earth especially at the edges

Awesome, good to get that done.  I used a knife to scrap away patches so the stands sit flat on the board.

Time to add some paint, I did a heavy drybrush of Desert Yellow (Game Color) then a light drybrush of bonewhite.  Initially I thought this would take ages and use a tonne of paint, but it didn't owing to the fact that I'm leaving the board where the stands sit.

I paintined the stream with an old GW colour I had and progressively added white, stippling and streaking it on.  Then I add Vallejo water effects, which is the thick white stuff.

With that done, I'm going to add static grass, green along the banks of the stream and blend outwards to arid grass.  I managed to misjudge how much arid grass I had left, so a quick order to Atenocities was in order, thankfully they have a very quick turn around time.

And the end result, to finish off I add some shrubs, rocks and long grass.

I'm pleased with the end result, I haven't gone over board.  Next time I don't think I'd have gaps for the stands, that was only necessary on this board because of the stream.

Hope you like it, any feedback is welcome.

Dave