Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two

Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Painting & Flocking
with Casey Davies

In the last article to I planned out and constructed the table; this time I'll complete the project by demonstrating how it was painted and flocked.

Read Building The Nomonhan Table: Part One here...
Painting
After applying the layers of sand; I the table to dry overnight. Next, I gave the table a coat of paint colour matched to Battlefield Brown (FWP324).

Below: The table complete with a coat of the Battlefield Brown matched paint.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
After starting to drybrush the table with a highlight mixture of the base colour (Battlefield Brown (FWP324)) andSicily Yellow (FWP362) I decided that the colour didn’t look arid enough so I re-painted the table with my highlight mix. Replacing the original base colour and then started drybrushing on the highlight colour of straight the Sicily Yellow (FWP362).
Below: The re-painted table with a basecoat of the mixture of Battlefield Brown (FWP324) and Sicily Yellow (FWP362) and highlighted with Sicily Yellow (FWP362).
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Using a finer brush I applied a highlight of Dry Dust (FWP364) on the streams and areas that are not going to be flocked to make them look dustier, followed by a light airbrush of a Worn Canvas (FWP306) colour to soften the appearance and contrast of drybrushing.
Below: Applying a finer highlight of Dry Dust (FWP364).
Below: Applying a light airbrush of Worn Canvas (FWP306).
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Below: The table with its complete paint job.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Below: A close-up of the painted stream bed.
Below: A close-up of the painted section of eroded sand.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Tufting
I wanted to make the table look like it was half-way between the rainy and dry seasons, so I glued some grass tufts in and around the stream bed and the areas that are lower to the water table and would retain moisture the longest.

Below: The grass tufts applied to the stream bed.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Below: The grass tufts applied to the rest of the table.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Flocking
Right from the beginning of this project I was concerned that the low height of the terrain would make the table flat from a distance. The undulations are plenty big enough to block lines of sight between tanks and guns etc., but I wanted to accentuate the height differences.

The other consideration is that a lot of the book photography is takes from a fairly low angle, so varying the flock colour helps give the illusion of distance. So, following the same logic from the tufts I came up with a flock mix, blending a medium green colour in the low areas into dry, windswept areas at the high points.

One of the reasons I ended up painting some tracks onto the table was to split it up into sections to make it easier to flock.

Right: Blending the flock for the table.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Below: A completed section of the table that has been flocked and outlined by the tracks. Below: A flocked section of the table near the stream bed highlighting the different colours of static grass.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
Below: The flocking of the table nearing its completion.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two
With the flock applied, the table is now complete. Be sure to check out Rising Sun for more images of the completed table.

Happy building.

~ Casey.
Below: The completed Nomonhan table.
Building The Nomonhan Table: Part Two