Tau Display Board

So I have been working to get everything ready for the Golden Throne event this weekend the last few weeks, plus I had to do some travel for work so things have been a bit crazy.

I did pretty much get done with the models, and though there is more I'd like to do to make the army look better it is going to be as good as it gets for this event.

So with a few 'spare' days to go I decided to knock out a display board.  The couple of things I was thinking about leading up to making this were:

1) I want to be able to travel with this.  Which means it needs to be small enough to fit in carry on luggage and sturdy enough to get there in tact.

2) I wanted to figure out how to incorporate some of the LED lights I had won from Kublacon.

I decided I would use the Stryofoam insulation that I used on the ork board to that I could cut it to be just the right size, and that like the ork board I would use plaster strips to get the edges nice and tough.

So first I cut the piece just so it would fit in my carry on bag.  I decided to round the corners to make sure I was maximizing how much actual board I would get.

I had measured before hand to make sure that it was just about the same size as the TV tray that I had picked up which I had been using to carry the 2k Tau around.  I think i might actually carry the TV tray around for local events like this weekend.

So then I did some wiring for the lights.  I kept the on/off switch on the bottom so I could 'spider' out the lights as best I could.  The battery is run along the top and sits in the back of the board where I can change it when necessary.

Then I cut a small hill out that I glued to the top, and left it over night to try to get the Elmer glue to dry.

So this is what it basically looked like the next day.  The glue held it on ok, but eventually as I was plastering it did come off, but the plaster now keeps everything in place.

 A quick shot of the lights on the board.

So unfortunately I got messy and unpatient and missed some pictures of the next few steps.  I used the plaster wraps around the sides and back in a few layers.  It was a mess and didn't come out as smooth as I had hoped because I used big pieces of the cloth wrap.  Really it is better to do 8-10" and just keep layering.  In the end it doesn't really matter but the bottom of this thing is a mess and the sides aren't quite as neat as they could be I suppose.

I also used some pumice mix on the hillsides to close the gaps and give it that rocky look.  I took some scotch tape and covered up the holes where the lights were tucked and gave them a little flap so I could pull them off later. Then I had some craft paint and painted the whole thing black.  Then I did some really quick grey drybrushing, with some even lighter grey on the hill.  So now the thing looked like this.

Then I actually bothered to use the black sand on the whole base.  I'm not sure if this was necessary.  I had always planned on covering up the back 50% with snow and just doing the sand popping out on the front half of the thing.

After that dried I went crazy with the snow mixture.  I was a little annoyed that for some reason the snow came out really yellow this time around due to the cheap hobby paint I had around that hadn't been open for years.  But I picked up some new paint and drybrushed over everything.

Then I sealed it with several layers of gloss and dull coate.  I'm hoping that helps keep everything in place.

Lastly I picked up some little plastic crystal bits from the craft store to stick where the lights are.

So now it looks like this.

And lit up.

Everything just barely fits on here at 2k.  So it works out well and I think it will travel ok.  I might need to take some black paint to touch up the sides after travel but that's not so bad.

SO now off to Golden Throne.  I have traditionally not done great at 2 day events though last year I did manage 4-1-1 at this thing.  We'll see how it goes and I'll try to get up an update Monday!