Entering the Clear Zone - Part III

I don't know how long the boards need to dry. My first batch waited overnight - my second batch only an hour, and they seemed ready to go.

This is when I did one final clean-up. It's kind of useless, as sand is just going to go where it wants to anyway, but I blew off excess sand, then ran my fingers lightly over the surface to knock off any clumps or debris - lint, eyelashes, whatever - that got into the sand, then once again got the toothpick out and tried to clean up any bad spots.

Then, I gave the board a good spray with a matte sealer (in my case, Testors DullCote - though I'll probably switch to a cheap brand for future batches, just didn't have one handy). The matte coating permanently darkens the sand a shade.

When that's dry, run your fingers over the surface to knock off any remaining loose sand (if it hasn't stuck by now, it's not going to...).

That's about it. If you've really screwed something up, you might want to use black paint to cover any paint smears on the sides or edges.

If you get odd-looking patches (which sometimes happens if you have the paint too thick and not enough sand), spray the bad area with matte sealer, pour more sand on it, shake off the excess, and seal with another spray of matte clear. That seems to work better than dabbing paint with a brush, but afterwards you'll need to use the trusty toothpick to get sand out of the channels between hexes.

I was originally worried that the boards would look too plain, but as it happens, sand has a way of making itself look unique. Even the act of tamping the sand down puts subtle effects into the final product.

The process of creating desert terrain boards is pretty easy, and doesn't require you to be an artist. After my first few, I was able to paint and sand a board in only 6 minutes.