"So I screwed up a bit.. maybe a lot" Topic

So I am attempting to build a simple (or so I thought) winter board for SBH or any other game I may wander into. The trouble is, it's my first time, and I knew I'd have newbie issues. The issue hit when my snow and grasses weren't sticking at all. The snow is predominant and there are some small shrubs and more coarse grasses under the snow for texture. I sprayed on some scenery glue, which I mistakenly thought was for these types of things, then put on the snow and bushes, then hit again to "seal" it (quoting the bottle). But it isn't sticking hardly at all and I have put a significant amount of snow and glue and stuff onto the board. Is there a way to get it to stick with some sort of spray adhesive? I'd rather not start over on it if I can help it. Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Spray it over with copious amounts of diluted white glue (pva) using a household cleaning type spray bottle. Then when dry spray again more lightly in patches and apply more snow to recover the texture.
Bit messy but will solve your problem and give a good hard surface for gaming.

I don't know what 'scenery glue' is, but it sounds like a regular spray adhesive. These are great for sticking flat thing to flat things (ie photo mounting) but I would have thought pretty useless for things like grass as most of the grass won't touch the glue. Spray with diluted PVA as Rob suggests. It will leave a slightly semi gloss sheen. You could fix this with a matt spray varnish, or copious amounts of hair spray (which is a good fixer anyway for static grass).
Next time, stick everything down with PVA. It soaks into the grass and gives a good bond. Slap it on the board, it dries clear so there is no such thing as too much. Then overspray with hairspray when fully dry to fix.
We've all done it I think. My first board I just added grass to the wet paint. Same problem, when I picked up the board, the vast majority of the grass fell off. We live and learn.

yeah..what they said!!!

Your other option is to use matte medium in pretty much exactly the same way but avoids the semi shiny look. Its available in art supply stores (Hobby Lobby, Michael's etc). I use Liquitex my self. You want to make sure you penetrate the surface or all you will have is a crust that is still not actually glued to the board.

What type of "board" are you using as your base. If it is wood you use a different adhesive as opposed to if it is polystyrene or such.

Thanks guys! I'll attempt to correct this later this evening!

Diluted matte medium is my flock fixative of choice. To enhance the penetration of the glue through the flock (or ballast, or whatnot) you can use the model RR ballasting trick of spraying with rubbing alcohol before dribbling on the matte medium. The alcohol acts as a wetting agent, with the result that the glue is wicked into all the little nooks and crannies.

Doug

What are you using for snow? Your post had me check youtube for winter board videos, and many use baking soda mixed with PVA and white acrylic. Looks very good.
If you haven't done it already, youtube is a great resource for terrain making. Just search wargames terrain and you'll get hits from fantasy to historical.

Ok folks. I think I did alright for my first time. I used Rob and elsyrsyn's advice, first using a bit of alcohol and then lots of diluted pva. Made a sturdy permanent (I hope) ground of snow. I added some terrain elements, the pond (hoping to one day do the Skirmish of Pond Peipus), and some miniatures for the photos in the link: link

Thanks again for your advice! I feel like it's playable. I'm also open to criticism so I can get better! I know the lake boundary is a bit obnoxious (it's just snow drift), so any help on making better lake edges for the future are welcome.

Cheers,
Corey