Making Bocage

A while back I made some Bocage for use with 28mm figures. Well I've been making some more pieces over the last week or so,  but this time I took some in progress photos. The original pieces can be found here and here.

So the first stage. The bases are pre-cut MDF from warbases. I've used 40x60mm and 40x40mm. These will corners and T-junctions plus a couple of end pieces, and two pieces which will be links to the normal hedgerows I made a while back (their the ones on the right hand side which look like Star Destroyers). I have then cut lengths of cork tile to build up the height, giving the appearance of ziggurats. This is a very time consuming process, though aided on this occasion by the fact that I had a lot of off cuts from previous construction projects. As I put before when I originally decided to build my own bocage, I used what materials I had to hand. They were stuck together using woodglue and left to dry for 24hrs.

Second stage. Polyfilla has been used to give a a slope to the sides of each piece. I have also used filler on the ends to even them up, which will be sanded to give it a smooth edge.

Stage three. I did not do this on previous pieces but for these I've covered them in paper kitchen towel. The first time I did this I dipped the towel into a PVA/water mix but it was messy. The inspiration came from this article on dampfpanzerwagon. A big thank you to Tony as well for answering my questions re the use of paper towel/pva glue in terrain projects. Re-reading Tony's article I realised he had covered the area with PVA then applied the dry paper towel. This method was much easier. Once the paper was on the model I then used more PVA thinned with water to blend the paper. I used a small paint brush (emulsion) and found I could shape the paper with it, and use it to 'stipple' the paper when wet to blend pieces together. Each piece has probably three to four layers of paper on it to give it shape.
   

Stage four. I have put sand on each piece and small stones on some. The advantage of using the paper towel, was that I did not have to cover each one completely in sand as I had done before. I have then sprayed them with Grey Car Primer, as a base rather than black.

And finally Stage five. The finished pieces. I have used Anitas, Americanas and Folk Art acrylic craft paints, working up from Burnt Umber to Sand. Then used the hot glue gun to apply the clump foliage and finally the grass.

This process is time consuming, since I tend leave about 24hrs drying time between stages (learnt from past mistakes not to rush). But I'm pleased with the result. All that needs to be done is seal with GW's Purity Spray.

I like the effect of the paper towel soaked in PVA and will definitely be using that technique on future terrain projects. It was a long time since I did any papier mache. Still have a few more bocage related pieces to make, some shorter straights, gates/entrances and crossroad type pieces.