How to….. ROAD SECTIONS.

Fig#1 Basic Road piece.

Single straight piece. Paint road area in black. I used chalkboard black purely because I have shedloads of it, but any matt/satin black should do provided it will take PVA bonding. Note- make sure you fill in all the joints between the kerb stones as these will make sure they stand out better later on. I also paint the sides of the hex in black where the road ends. This makes sure that any slight gaps in your setup are not highlighted as much.

Fig#2 – painted road base.

Then paint the kerb in a different colour if you want it to stand out more. I use an acrylic grey in these pics.

Fig#3 kerb stones picked out.

Then paint the earth area undercoat. At all times, I use a Dulux mix to order paint, Vinyl matt emulsion called Salisbury Stone, code number – 30YY23246, as recommended by Kallistra, the number one hex gaming company. This will ensure that any DiD pieces have the same basic base colour as your Kallistra pieces and will blend much better. Again, I paint the sides of the hex to make sure everything blends in properly.

Fig#4 earth area undercoated.

Use a medium brush and apply a healthy coat of PVA [unwatered] but be careful not to push adhesive into the gaps between the stones. Sprinkle on your chosen road flock. I use Javis dark grey but have recently noticed that it is prone to fading in direct sunlight.

I place my piece in a tray of flock and then sprinkle it over the whole piece, pressing down gently but firmly to ensure it’s all bonded. I then gently shake it off over the container.

Pro tip – When you think you have got all the loose flock off, think again. You almost certainly haven’t. I lightly tap the underside to help get the excess off. If it’s the first flock then there are no great issues with mixing, but remember that when you remove the next application, you will undoubtedly be adding small amounts of previous flocks to your container. I tend to lightly shake off excess on second and subsequent applications and then tap it off into another container. This container will build up with a combination of all your flocks and you may well find it of use in your modelling, but even if you don’t, you will avoid heavy contamination of each of your flock stocks.

I use a ten-drawer unit with a different flock in each. Makes it easy to just pull a drawer out and crack through your work.

Fig#5 Road surface applied.

Remember not to contaminate your flock when removing excess. I use Noch N50210 Spring Meadow flock simply because it is what Kallistra use on their hexon boards et al.

Fig#6 Grass applied.

You can then pimp your hexes as you desire. I would advise you control your tendencies to overdo it J The more tufts etc you put on, the more you can make storage tricky and restrict what you can place on your board. You might notice my error in Fig#7. I was rushing and put the green flock on before the grey had dried and fully bonded, hence there are green pieces stuck on the road. Lesson learned and I include it here so you can learn from my error.

Fig#7 Finished single road hex.