Paddy Fields

As promised a quick guide to my quick and easy paddy fields. Ive two types, a flooded field and a dry field. Ive no idea if you can get dry paddy fields, however thought it added variety.

Anyhow, here is what I used

1 Pair of old cords trousers (slacks)
Paint
Kitchen sealant - Acrylic type. (caulk)



sand and grit
Plywood
If you like - water effect mixture. I bought mine and simply pour it.

First cut the shape you want and sand it down. I then simply scoured the board with a knife to roughen it up a little. I used the sealant and gun to force a line of sealant along the edges. I then used it to split the board with two lines. Wait 5 minutes and then sprinle the sand and grit over it. I also flattened the caulk very lightly. Leave to dry




For the dry kind, I did exactly the same, however first I glued the cut up cord kecks onto the base. I used very fine and tight lined corduroy as thats what I had. Thicker would of been better. Ill have to search my dads loft for some....alternatively as a new dad myself, Ill no doubt end up with my own....:)

Ok once dry I painted the board, dark green for wet and brown for dry. I also painted the caulk brown and leave to dry

I then added glue to the board in thin broken lines and sprinkled over the scatter flock. Once again left it to dry. I could of added the water solution first, however I wanted to see If I could create it so it looked like rice was growing in the water, so I added the water solution last. I think it looks pretty cool. For the dry paddy, I simply left it. Ive got to add some flock to the edges, however think it looks pretty smart considering how cheap it was. The only expense was the water and I had this left over

flooded paddy



dry paddy

The Terrain

Well, what good Nam terrain can go without jungle or paddy fields, so I decided to make them. I got the idea, or stole from the Too Fat lardies blog. It suggested using cd's and aquatic plant foliage. So thats exactly what I got. Quick trip to pet world and a few plastic palm trees on ebay and I was off to the garage. After a few minutes I had managed to russel up some

palm trees
plywood for base
plastic moss decor ball
scatter
static grass
tiling grout
coarse sand
pva glue
gorilla glue
glue gun
cd's
paint
grass which looked rather like bamboo
cork





and that was about it.

to start with I sanded down the cds so they were rough and then mixed up the grout, sand and watered pva to make a paste. I then took the paste and spread onto the cd's. I then added cork pieces into it, so I could insert the palm trees into them. I also spread additional stones etc onto them.
This was also were my first troubles occured. I should of glued the cork first, with gorilla glue, rather then after. The grout was not strong enough to hold all of them and adding the gorilla glue raised the cork, as the glue expanded. Next time Ill put the cork on first and glue it, then add the grout mix.

Anyway I was back on track and then once dry I painted them brown, red brown etc.



Close up



Next I cut up the moss ball so that I had indvidual plants. I then tried various glues to add, however by far the best was the glue gun. I simply arranged the foliage and trees to how I liked. I added some bamboo type grass and scatter.



and



and voila. The first bits of jungle done. Next wip is the paddy fields as seen