From JohnM: Train Tracks (30 Points)

This is a quick submission that I have been working on for 2-3 weeks, I just finished it yesterday. I have a fairly major figure submission almost ready but it will be delayed for 1 week as I am going away. The hardest part for me in the challenge is getting the photos done so best to not waste time.

This is a bit of an unusual submission even for terrain, I do not remember anyone else submitting something similar. I need some train tracks for several Chain of Command games that are coming up and it has been something missing from my collection for awhile. I could have gone with 3D prints, as I have several STL files which look quite nice but it does take a lot of time to print something like this.

I was going to buy some real HO track but found some very cheap plastic tracks on Amazon and I got some rail bed from a Train Terrain company. The whole thing was less then $30 and I probably have another 8-12' of track materials still left but what I needed was a something to cross a 6' terrain table.

 

 

 

It was a bit more work than I thought it might be. The track was a little too wide for the bed but I plan to improve that when it is set up with clumping foliage. I used PVA to glue the track to the bed which is some sort of foam and then sprinkled the ballast on the wet bed, it was not really the best method but with some repairs I moved on. Once dry, I airbrushed the whole thing with black, followed by a green brown followed by a light brown. I then drybrushed the whole thing with a light sand colour. I then washed the rails with black followed by a drybrush of a dark metal. I then used a brown ink from Scale Colour to paint the wood, which really worked quite well. I finished off the tracks with a rust wash.

Now on to the calculations, I think it is 20 points for a 6" cube, which is I believe 216 cubic inches. so what do I have; well the track is 2" wide, 80" long and about 0.5" high. So using this nifty calculator, I found that I had 240 cubic inches. So maybe 30 points is reasonable. Oh, and I almost forgot it is modular.

 

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Some fine terrain work here John. As you base, the base looks a touch skinny here and there, but I'm certain clump foliage will tune all of that up, and the overall impression is excellent.  Railway tracks are excellent additions to a gaming table, and I've no doubt your approaching "Chain of Command" participants will benefit tremendously from your efforts.  Will you include some rolling stock as well? That can make for eve more fun...

30 points for you, sir! And we are all intrigued with the pending "faily major" submission....

Greg B