"Question About Hills Made Of Dark 'Crumbly' CORK Tiles" Topic

I had a couple of packs of dark tiles (thick with large granules) and wanted to know how to keep the granules on the edges from breaking off after painting.

These are the tiles I mean:

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This is all I could find on that, and I wanted to know if anyone else has done that, and if the reinforcement was sufficient and successful:

"On the edges, be sure to work the paint into all the low spots, so the strength of the paint will keep the cork granules from coming loose."
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If the paint was not enough, what did you use? PVA glue? Something else?

Thanks.

CC

CC,

I have some that I haven't used yet. But I planned on coating the resultant hills with a PVA glue/sand mixture ( and maybe mix in some spackle aslo). That should do the trick, I hope.

Jim

More hills here:

picture
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CC

Jim,

I was trying to avoid using PVA on the surface, to avoid major warping issues, and just limit it to the edges (which are the sections more prone to crumbling).

What do you think of that plan?

Thanks.

Dan

Neither PVA nor paint will stop edge damage – you need a base to glue the cork onto so that the edge is a tougher material. I just used 2mm MDF and weighted it down while it stuck – no warping problem – but the hills were no more than 150mm across.

Hmmm . . .

The edges can be pretty jagged:

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And when you tear them apart to get the sizes you want, the granules do seem to weaken more along the edge.

I was trying to avoid using MDF for this set. However, I've used it before with good results on other projects.

I think I used 1/4 inch MDF here, though the hills were made of expanded polystyrene (pink and blue):

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CC

Dan,

Since I have yet to actually try to use the cork, I am only hypothesizing. Sorry I can't help you more.

Jim

Jim,

I have to go on the road on Sunday, but I'll try to follow your recommendations and let you know how it looks (hopefully take some pictures too).

Thanks so much!

Dan

How big are you making them? I've mounted some on CDs, like this:

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and they hold up pretty well.

VERY NICE!!!

CC

I'm out of town on training. But last night I stopped at a local Walmart and bought a pack of the dark cork (four 12" by 12" squares), a hobby knife and cement so I can try to duplicate some stepped hills.

Wish me luck.

CC

Make a mold and cast each piece?
John

Sorry. I didn't mean "duplicate" in the sense of copying an existing product.

I really meant that I would go by photos of actual hills and try to duplicate the crevices and such, as I make my stepped hills.

CC

Ok. I went to Walmart and bought a pack of 4 tiles (around $10 USD here) and went to work.

I made two large hills and about 7 boulder "spires" (for lack of a better word), very much like the ones here, but not as high of course:

picture

After I glued the pieces with plastic cement and allowed them to dry under heavy phone books, I went to work on roughing the edges with a hobby knife and a little contouring.

Then I applied 2 heavy coats of straight PVA to seal the surfaces and add strength.

The sheets are each 3/8" thick. And the two large stepped hills are about 6 sheet thicknesses high, while the smaller pieces are 3-4 sheet thicknesses high.

I am very, very pleased with the results so far. I suspect I may need to place them on 1/4 mdf pieces but, for now, it looks like there's no or minimal shrinkage.

I'll try to take and post photos this weekend.

CC

I've had these for about 15 or more years and just throw them loose in a box in between games.

picture

Goldwyrm,

Nice! Have you coated them with anything, such as straight PVA?

CC

Nope, no coating at all. All I did was crumble them up and glue them in stacks with either white glue or wood glue. I'm leaning toward the light yellow colored wood glue, but it was so long ago, back when I was playing 40K regularly and 2nd edition was new…

I just found a box of unused cork in my basement a few days ago, so I'll be making some more.

Interesting!

I thought I had to coat them, hence my latest project:

TMP link

CC