Continuing progress on my castle/keep/fortified manor on the hill project.
I've reached the stages where I am bulking out the shape of the hill.
Thinking back to Game Workshop's publication, "The General's Compendium" from 2003, I remember a technique for making tree canopies that utilized "Great Stuff", a DIY expanding foam product normally used as insulation for filling gaps and spaces around household pipes.
Since Great Stuff is an expanding foam product, I thought it might also work just for filling out space for this project:
Here you can see where I've sprayed it into the cracks between the pink insulation foam, as well as on the exterior to bulk it out. You can also see here the use of pine bark chips to create some of the rock faces around the hillside/bluff:
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The really nice thing about Great Stuff is that it adheres to whatever it is sprayed against, and provides a really tough under-structure. In addition, it can be carved and sliced with a razor knife to create contours and curves:
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After the Great Stuff had dried for a day, I proceeded to finish the shape of the hill and bluff by using two products, DIY joint compound and DIY spackle(the heavier, thicker versions):
I was venturing into new territory here, I had never made a terrain piece up until this point had used spackle this extensively and for filling gaps and holes that were this large and deep. I was pleasantly surpised with the results. The joint compound especially fill deeper gaps very well and set up really nicely:
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Even though spackle/filler on its own doesn't make for an ideal outer surface in terms of durability, keep in mind that there will be TWO layers of PVA glue covering this, one layer when I apply craft sand, and the second layer when I apply static grass and flock. After a couple layers of PVA glue have dried over spackle, it's as tough as tank armor. Once all the joint compound/spackle has dried, it will make for a very heavy, sturdy base for the castle/keep/manor that will be built upon it.
