"An Ocean in Acrylic: Part II" Topic

A few weeks back I posted some notes on an experiment I was doing that involved creating an ocean-like surface for a gaming board (see the original post here: An Ocean in Acrylic

The original experiments were done on small pieces of acrylic light covers (for flourescent lights). I wanted to see things on a larger scale so I painted up a couple of larger pieces to get a better feel for which side I liked best as far as texture saturation, color blend, and overall look.

This first image is a close up of a piece that was painted on the smooth side of the sheet. The end result is a nice, rippled effect. The texture side up catches light in a way that lends itself well to the color blends underneath the plastic.

This second shot gives a better perspective of what the overall effect looks like from a bit further back:

This next shot is a close up of a piece of the acrylic with the textured side painted and the smooth side up. Up close like this it has the look of a blueish piece of leather. Not sure if that's the look I'm going for. The "smooth" side still has some very subtle rippling to it which gives the feeling of a much more placid body of water:

Same thing as the previous image but from a bit further back. Notice that the colors are much deeper when the acrylic is painted on the textured side. That's because the higher edges of the textured side aren't catching and reflecting the light:

Here they are, side-by-side. Probably the best way to compare the effect of the two painting approaches:

Lastly, I put a boat on top of the two pieces to get a real good feel for what a boat/ship would look like on both textures. I think the one for me is the one with the textured side up (painted underneath on the smooth side of the plastic):

A couple more observations for folks who may use this technique on their own game/terrain boards:

--You could use spray paint instead of hand-painting the acrylic. I like the blending flexibility of hand-painting better, personally.

--If you do paint on the textured side, it's a paint sucker. I used almost twice as much paint on the textured side than on the smooth side.

--Check your work once in awhile by passing light through the other side of the plastic to see where you need to touch up the paint (this goes for hand-painting or spray painting)

Somebody in the original post mentioned the potential for difficulty moving figures around on the textured surface. The texture is fairly consistent overall with respect to how high the ridges are and 25 – 30mm figures standing on the plastic don't tip at all. There is virtually no issue with larger boats and ships sitting on top of the acrylic as seen in the photos. Not sure how that would work out if you were doing 15mm ships, however.

This weekend it's off to get some larger tins of paint mixed for the final, cut piece (pictured below):

What paint mixture did you use? It looks spot on for "ocean" blue.

@HistoryPhD Thanks. The colors look so much better in real life than in the photos, too.

I used a Citadel/Games Workshop "Regal Blue" (the darker blue) and a beautiful blue in an unmarked Vallejo bottle.

It's sample bottle that a friend gave me a few years back that doesn't have a name for the hue. Aside from the Vallejo branding, it's simply labeled as "Sample."

I've always meant to try to find out whether or not they still produce it. It's a really gorgeous color.

Try placing an unpainted diffuser on sheet of suitably colored fabric. It looks just as good as the paint, and it allows you to switch between rough and placid waters.
Gives a nicer feeling of depth IMO.

Easier too.

@DS6151 I actually did that as a part of my original test (see the very top of this post for a link to my "part 1" such as it were).

What I found was that by simply laying the sheet of unpainted acrylic on top of fabric, and on a piece of painted wood, the effect was not at all like what I wanted but instead, it looked like a layer of cracked ice on top of some blue stuff underneath.

The colors don't filter through the plastic the same as when the plastic itself is painted (see this

for the results I got. The photo shows the unpainted acrylic on a painted piece of wood--I didn't bother posting the pics with the fabric as I wasn't really happy with how they looked at all.

I found that this acrylic tends to shatter/splinter when one trys to cut it. How do you cut the acrylic to fit your terrain?
P.S. very nice demo and many thanks for sharing.

My first thought was to use cloth beneath, as well. Thanks for sharing what this looks like. With the color being a fabric, beneath, there is a small gap, between the color (fabric) and the plastic, which gives more reflections, which is why you get the white ice look. Brilliant idea, by the way. I, too, wonder how you were able to cut it so well, without chipping. Cheers!

@IronDuke: Thanks for the compliment!

@IronDuke and Sgt. Slag:

I laid the acrylic out on a large table and then clamped down a heavy-duty steel yardstick over the plastic.

I used a couple of clamps (with cloth inserted underneath the clamping parts so as not to break the plastic) to hold the sheet of plastic firmly in place.

Once everything was snug and secure, I used a box cutter to score the sheet multiple times until I broke through. Patience is vital doing it this way--otherwise you wind up busting up the plastic.

For clarification--the two rectangular jettys are sitting above the acrylic so I didn't cut the acrylic out to hold those shapes. The sheet does follow the contour of the lower-level "dock", however, and those cuts were pretty precise and time consuming.

In retrospect, I guess I could have just laid the entire acrylic sheet on the plywood and put the foam structures over top.

Very nice for a static game that does not have to move, and very informative. Personally, I'd never use this material because I use to sell the stuff and the percentage of damaged pieces to whole pieces fresh out of the box was always way too high. Of course, in my case, I need 12' x 24' of sea so I opted for a painted canvas – and abandoned getting a 'wet' effect. Might someday go back and cover the canvas with acrylic gloss medium.

But, again, very nice work. Love the look of the one you seem to choose, I'd make the same choice.

@Early morning writer: Thank you. I run a home-brew RPG that has a lot of city adventures, so I've thought for years about what layout work best for my particular style of running an RPG. I looked at dozens of pictures that we've shot of game setups and a common theme developed, hence the current board design.

I do have another table built for forest and river adventures theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=252128. It was also designed based on the same concept of how I setup adventures in localized zones.

I can see how trying to find 12' by 24' of perfect acrylic sheets would be a giant PITA. I had a hard enough time finding one sheet that wasn't cracked--and then I broke that one on the way to the truck with it. Thankfully the store replaced it at no charge.

Off topic, but I've seen that boat many times at Hobby Lobby, and been *this close* to picking it up several times. Seeing it on the table makes me that much closer.

More on topic, I find the textured side up to be the most visually pleasing for open water. In the photo it has the nice look of sunlight reflected on waves. Textured side down would be my pick for a canal or other such small, sheltered body of water. (Although for that, I'd probably go with a green or brown bit of water.)

Have you thought about painting the water gradually darker to indicate depth?

@phindar That's too funny! I put it in my basket, walked around the store, took it out, walked around, put it back in and got it. Looks great with 25-30mm minis in it.

I decided I'm going with the textured side up (and paint the smooth side).

Because the space is about 4' by 2', I'll have a lot of room to work with and had planned on doing some variable blending from the dock area to the "open sea" area so it has that look like it gets deeper farther from the docks.

Got my paints mixed today and am excited to get started on it tomorrow!