D&D Dungeon Tiles (Pt. 5): Building the Desert

 

Elroy and I went back and forth on how this set should look a number of times. He had no interest in trying to use any of the Castle tiles with the Desert Frame, so I didn’t bother with making a foam base for this set. 
I made the Desert Frame and three insert tiles: a Basic Desert, 

a Desert Oasis and an Ancient Temple.

(Not sure what I’m talking about? 
Check out my D&D Tile series from the beginning. I’ll wait.)

I wanted to lift the sides of the frame as though characters were traveling in the valley between two sand dunes. So, I replicated the bases of the surrounding dunes by adding strips of foam on the outside edges of the right and left sides and freehand drawing the approximate widths of the edges of the sand dunes on either side, straight onto the frame.

 On the shallower ‘windward’ side of the dune I glued a wider base only one layer of foam high.  For the ‘leeward’ side, I chose to stack narrower pieces of foam two layers high to simulate the steeper slope on that side. I cut one side of the foam strips in an uneven, wobbly line and brushed that side with acetone to smooth the edges for a more natural look 
(this step ended up being mostly unnecessary once I added the sand texture). 

I didn’t have any sand at home (the days of playing in the sand box having long since passed at my house) and I didn’t want to buy a full bag from a construction supply store, so I checked out my local Dollar Tree. 

They had bags of sand and small rocks for vase filler in a variety of colors on the candle aisle. I grabbed a bag of sand and a bag of 

small quartz scatter to use for desert texture. 

I ended up using less than half of each bag for all of the remaining tiles, leaving me with plenty of my $2 worth of sand for future projects.

 

Using my Basic Desert Tile to practice my technique, I poured out a puddle of Matte Mod Podge onto an uncut foam tray and mixed in sand. I used an old brush to scoop and spread out the sand mixture on the tile relatively evenly. Over time the silica in the sand pulls moisture out of the Mod Podge, so work in smaller batches to make sure it sticks. Then I scattered the small rocks around on the tile wherever the texture was too uniform. I added drops of Mod Podge to the tops of the rocks both to keep them from falling off and to enhance the visual of them growing up out of the landscape.

 

I did the same thing on the Desert Frame, making sure to put clumps of rock outcroppings and sand along the edges and tops of the dunes. 

I let the tile and frame dry overnight and then painted a coat of 

Black MagicCraft Foam Sealer. 

After that dried, I painted a base coat of camel craft paint and used a combination of overbrushing and dry brushing in a selection of 

khaki and cream tones to get a sun-beaten sand look. I then used a light grey to pick out some of the larger rock outcroppings. 

Instead of a black wash, like on the Castle tiles, I made up a brown wash for my Desert pieces. While it was primarily a burnt umber, I added a few shades of chocolate brown, red and camel to enhance the color of the wash. I weighted down the corners as the wash dried, to help correct any warping from the moisture in the Mod Podge and wash. 

On to the specialty tiles . . .

 
 

Next up: The Desert Temple and Oasis Tiles