My Evolution of CHERRMs
One of my
main objectives as a part of developing an effective and realistic board was to
solve the issue of shaping roads in many different ways.
I started
with square boards of 100 cm and then 130 cm and painted a winding road and a couple
of crossroads: you can do it in a very realistic way but it remains always the
same and gets boring after a while. Consequently I got involved in planning a
series of modules which could fit together as well as possible. Here come CHERRMs:
Cheap, Handmade, Easy to do, Realistic Road Modules.
Looking at
hundreds pics on the web I developed the main concern of having the edge of
modules as thin as possible in order to avoid steps which reveal something unnatural
as in reality most roads are at the same level of the surrounding surface. That
was the first worry; the second was to make sure the different modules got together
very smoothly when assembled in order to give the idea on a continuous path
with no interruption.
For these
two reasons it seemed to me an obvious choice using a very thin pressed cardboard,
i.e. with 1 mm of thickness or even less. It was very easy to cut and I had
plenty of, for free. The snag was that after coloring it the cardboard became
bowed, even if slightly (see pic 1-5).
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| Pic 1 |
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| Pic 2 |
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| Pic 3 |
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| Pic 4 |
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| Pic 5 |
I changed different kind of paint: distemper,
enamel, spray paint, acrylic but the outcome was not always satisfactory so I
used a thin plastic sheet like the one used for the booklets or paper presentations.
The sheet remained rigid but I had to use a coat of primer first in order to
get the paint sticking to it (see Pic 6-10)
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| Pic 6 |
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| Pic 7 |
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| Pic 8 |
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| Pic 9 |
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| Pic 10 |
I realized
as many as I needed (Pic 11).
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| Pic 11 |
The outcome was ok-ish with the main hitch being some
kind of rift at the points of connection and this was probably due to the very
thin thickness. Therefore I tried with
the solution I saw used very often on the web and which I originally thought it
was too intrusive vs the surrounding surface: a 3 mm PVC (polyvinyl chloride)
plastic. This actually has a lot of advantages, such as easy to modify and
carve, the paint sticks well, it does not bend, the connections are not very
visible (Pic 12-16).
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| Pic 12 |
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| Pic 13 |
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| Pic 14 |
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| Pic 15 |
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| Pic 16 |
I also tested
a 1 mm PVC and it has the same advantages apart from some kind of attitude to
bend a little bit at the end. The comparison is shown in Pic 17: the 1 mm PVC is
on the left.
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| Pic 17 |
In order to
have the same width at the connection points I always used a 7 cm span amending it between the two ends so to
create some natural irregularity. Anything from fallen trees to little bushes,
stones and grass were added on the sides.
