Crusades Project Progress

I have been pleased with the rejuvenation of the long-dormant Crusades project, and having finished the re-basing of enough figures for a small game, I couldn't help putting those figures out on the table with an assortment of buildings and terrain. What this made me realize is that I wasn't terribly satisfied with the terrain just yet, specifically with the tan felt table cloth I was using.

In the past I tried making a sand and paint foam board terrain board, but that just became something that I wasn't terribly thrilled with and took up valuable storage space. A felt table cover has a certain appeal, but it looked too monotone, so I decided to play around with a new piece of felt and foam board panel and some spray paints. The result, shown here in a badly lit picture, is much more along the lines of what I was hoping for.

To make this 4 foot by 5.5 foot panel, I cut a piece of insulation "blue board" to size, then glued the tan felt to the board with a slathering of white craft glue. After the glue had set, I took the board out to the back yard on a breeze-less day and misted the surface in patches with 3 or 4 different shades of light green, yellow and brown.  This "faux camouflage" effect is just enough to break up the monotony, although the picture doesn't really do it justice. On the tabletop, it looks terrific. It even blends nicely into the generic background painting I made a couple years ago.

The one other addition here is a half dozen more palm tree bases, made with small oblong pieces of balsa wood, Woodland Scenics model railroad talus, foliage clusters, and some sandbox sand.

Things feel like they are starting to come together with regards to this project. Now I just need to keep adding a few new units (or re-based units to be more accurate) from time to time.