BATTLETECH 3D Terrain: Water

In this BATTLETECH 3D Terrain tutorial, I’ll cover my technique of representing water in my favorite game.

Compared to my previous builds, this terrain should be pretty easy and straightforward to produce (but it turned out to be a most problematic process), provided that you own a laminating machine. If not, you can get one quite cheaply. Hint: don’t get one. At least not for this project.

Disclaimer: This tutorial has been a very long time in the making. I could have edited out all my failures, since it’ reflects a great deal of disaster’s quite chaotic, with an unhealthy amount of frustration. Consider it as an unfiltered documentation of my terrain building projects. In the end, it turned out quite pleasing, easy to build, durable and cheap. And, I hope you find it at least somewhat entertaining and maybe even educational. I, at least was suffering (not really) pretty much throughout this whole project.

Concept

The idea is quite simple: you’ll need different shapes and sizes of hexagonal water surfaces.

Combining several random pieces allows you to form a variety of different rivers and larger bodies of water. So, I’ll need to create a whole bunch of pieces.

In theory, this seems pretty straightforward. The reality of this build, was pretty much the opposite. But, please read for yourself:

1st try

Shapes and cutting

I started by printing a hexagon template. Then, using scissors, I cut along the outlines. I was left with different shapes of hex fields. Do not forget to also cut out some smaller and longer shapes for rivers and connector pieces. I kept these 1 hex wide and 1 level deep.

Painting

Now, for the fun part: painting!

I want depth levels from -1 to -3 that need to be clearly represented by different blue tones (the deeper, the darker, obviously). Adding paint to the backside of the paper might give you more variety!

Color-wise, I’ll try to avoid bright blue tones. I’d rather stick to something blue-green-brownish as a base. For now. You’ll see later, that I changed my mind regarding my color palette.

Water effects

Now comes the clever part (no, wait: the stupid part): putting these pieces into plastic lamination sheets and sealing them. Don’t cut the hex fields in advance since that will create small air pockets around the edges. Plus, it’s less time-consuming like this.

Note: This actually worked fine for this 1st approach, since I didn’t flock the edges. If you plan to flock the edges, as I did later on, forget about lamination.

A gloss finish will add texture, gloss, and seal the finished pieces.

Experiments

But first, let’s do some experimenting!

All subjects dried clear and glossy except my Mod Podge, since it even says matt on the can. To me, that’s not an issue, I can always “gloss it up” later. The most important factors here, are texture and transparency.

My favorites were tacky glue and gloss varnish.

Also, please note, that I used PVA glue on 1 sample and it bonded perfectly with the lamination sheet. You’ll see in a moment, why that matters.

[insert disk scratching sounds here]

Now, that was my first approach to BATTLETECH 3D water terrain.

Which, I didn’t pursue in the end. To me, the tiles looked too rigid and I didn’t like the colors.

But not quite all was in vain.

2nd try

Not all is lost. I learned valuable lessons, tested lamination and gloss finishes, which I will apply in my final approach to BATTLETECH 3D water terrain.

Sketching

Let’s start over.

I used the same hex paper template as before, cut out 1 hex to mark the 1 cm connection point for rivers and started tracing different shapes on the A4 sheet.

Painting

Then, I used cheap acrylic paint from ACTION to paint all my tiles. Brighter colors this time!!!

First, I used a beige to color all the edges, making sure to cover the land parts. I made sure to blend it into the water surfaces.

Then I added a light / turquoise blue to paint the water

Finally I applied a dark / petrol blue to the center / middle of the water surfaces.

I left everything to dry and then cut out the desired shapes and glued them on A4 printer paper for easier scanning. Yes, we’re going digital!

Digital post-production

My idea here, was to scan and edit the tiles on my PC. This would allow me to print multiple tiles if needed in the future. Which would come in handy very shortly, as you’ll see. Also, I wanted to put the template file up here for you to download!

So, I went ahead, fired up GIMP, made some slight color adjustments, and separated the tiles from the background. I added some depth markers (D1, D2, D3) and saved the finished BATTLETECH water tiles as a PDF.

Water effects

Once printed, I ran the sheets through my laminator and cut out the tiles.

Flocking

Important: Don’t follow these next steps. Basing (with PVA) doesn’t bond with lamination sheets. My previous test proved the opposite. But I think, it’s the fact, that I sand, that layer extremely brittle, once dry. You might read on, but the actual, working solution will be below.

Now it’s time to get that PVA glue out, and only very lightly diluted with water. You want to avoid beading of the glue, since you’ll apply it directly to plastic. (What a smart idea!) Experiment with the right consistency. Start fairly undiluted. You can always add more water if needed.

Then, following my previous BATTLETECH 3D Board build, I sprinkled fine sand, followed by 2 green colored fine turfs. And, in my opinion, they looked quite good now.

Let it thoroughly dry, before removing any excess material. You might then need to seal it with watered down PVA glue, depending on the strength of your flocking game.

Forget what I just wrote.

Disaster struck!

Before I came to the sealing process, I realized the dried PVA/flocking came right off the plastic in large flakes!

See my previous comment on PVA applied to plastic. So, now, the exact same PVA glue decided to not stick anymore to the exact same plastic?

Using super glue, I attached the flakes to the plastic, hiding the seams with more flock. Didn’t stick to plastic either.

Lessons learned. Or not. I don’t care anymore at this point.

Should I have roughened up the surfaces to flock before applying PVA glue? Or not? Maybe another glue? Or is the support just too flimsy or too slick? Maybe a bit of everything?

I should have used cardboard for my tiles in the first place.

In fact, let’s do this now!

3rd and final try

So, at this point, my frustration level was at its peak. I tried gluing my broken tiles to card stock, only to realize, this wouldn’t of course solve the flaking issue.

Gluing and cutting

So, I glued the printed paper tiles onto a thin piece of card stock using spray adhesive and started the whole production from scratch. Good, that I scanned the tiles earlier!

Next, I went ahead and cut out the new cardboard tiles using scissors and a knife.

Flocking

I repeated the exact same flocking process as mentioned earlier. With the expected warping of my tiles as a result. But, let’s see where this goes. But, first leave them to fully dry.

And behold! No more flaking! Even the warping seemed to have somewhat normalized over a night’s drying time.

Sealing and matt varnish

Next, I removed the excess flock with a large soft brush, and sealed everything with matt varnish from the rattle can.

Water effects

As a final step, I coated the water parts with 3 consecutive layers of brush-on gloss varnish, to give the water its watery look. So, in the end, my previous experiments with different water textures weren’t in vain.

Straightening the tiles

To my surprise, not needed.

Final result

To add some more interest, you may add some tufts or other decorative features. But, I decided that, my BATTLETECH 3D water terrain is good enough at this point. It’s important to know when a project is good enough. There’s no need to overdo it. Anyway, I spent way too much time on it.

And, now, please enjoy the final result. I’m pleased with it.

Epilogue

As you might have noticed, my terrain projects often become quite messy and extensive. I lose myself in the process and I tend to experiment a lot prior to committing to a certain technique that yields me results which are both durable, esthetic, easy to reproduce, and budget friendly. Then again to me, terrain building is an iterative design process. Admittedly sometimes frustrating, but always rewarding in the end.

The next BATTLETECH 3D Terrain I’ll tackle, after water, is rough terrain.