More scratchbuilt terrain for WW2 games Part 2: making cobblestone streets the hard way..

Here's is the image where I left off in my previous post:

You can see the scratchbuilt tower, standing on a little cobblestone square, a small plaza of sorts. It looks old, worn, like it has been walked on for hundreds of years. Here's a close up of square which measures about 8x8 inches.You can see the cobblestones have nice irregularity to them and with a bit of sand (which respresent debris from the damage to the building) it looks pretty cool.

Here is how I did that.

Step 1. on your piece of foam board, tear off the top layer of paper to reveal the softer middle part:

That is not that easy and in the future I will have to look for a different board, the paper is really stuck on there! After a minute here's the result. I just did a small side for the sample:

You can tell that using your nails to get underneath the paper, creates little craters and dents. That actually helps it make it more realistic, as you will see.

Step 2: remove hair from an old brush and shape the metal part into a stone of your liking

Step 3. Using a ruler (or not), start punching the brush end into the foam in a pattern you like.

After 10 seconds you have something like this:

Now the paper that we couldn't get off, we can use to our advantage. In the square base for the tower, that's where I added the sand, but in the example below, the paper parts that didn't want to come off, you make into stucco parts of an old wall. I painted up a little piece in two different looks, for you all to see. I also made another cobble brush, with more round stones. Of course the painting can be done a lot better, this is just for example. 

Step 4: OK, here's the final step: paint it up! I painted my cobblestone square in grays and browns and highlighted a bit with lighter sand colors. Here's the result: 

It has a wonderfully old look to it, very medieval and so perfect for Bolt Action in Northern Italy where many of these streets and squares were still in existence. 

The sand really adds some depth. 

You can do different patterns, like circles AND if you paint stones individually, you can make a great red brick house with gray mortar 

Part 3 will be the final post of this building, which was started HERE in part one

There are some amazing modelers out there that do this technique infinitely better than myself, please research it a bit online. There are different boards and foams available that will make it easier. I myself just kind of solve problems at hand with the stuff I have, which is part of the journey!

SC Mike