Display Board for my Chaos Dwarf Army

I think that my Chaos Dwarf army is sizeable now and they deserve a display board. I had some ideas flowing in my mind; but I was also aware that I would be needing space on the display board with the big monsters in my army. Before, when I was doing the dawi display board, I had done the mistake of filling the display board way too much, to a point that there was not enough space to put the army on. I think this time I nailed it, although it might look a little plain and simple. But, hey, it is there to display the army, right? My original plan when building the display board was to provide a step by step tutorial on how I did things; but I forgot to take photos due to my enthusiasm. So, I will only be presenting the final result here.

I started with a 80x60cm wood for the base of the board. My first step was to cut the foam to the size of the board which is the base of all the display board. Since I was using foam, I used PVA glue to make the foam stick to the board, as the super glues eats through the foam in time.

The ziggurat was built with Fenris Games scenery and Pegasus Hobbies bricks. First, I decided when the building will sit on the board roughly, then I started to build it brick by brick. I had to use PVA again not to harm the foam accidentally. Once the bricks started to form a building, I placed the stairs and then the pyramid, once the foundation was complete.

The lava pool is one of the craters from Games Workshop's Moonscape scenery kit. The tree is from Woodland Scenics with its trunk is modeled with a Citadel Wood bit. Once everthing was in their places, I started carving the foam. First I carved lava rivers, then trimmed the edges of the foam to give it a "rocky" look. By this time, the outline was formed.

Before moving on to painting, there were a couple of more steps. To prevent the edges of the foam from chipping, I applied PVA glue again, to each and every side of the foam. Especially the cracks in the rock formation. Once the glue was dry, I went on to apply Vallejo's Black Lava on the foam to create some texture. I think it would have been better to use Red Oxide here, due to my color selection; but Black Lava was all I had at the moment, so... :)

The painting was pretty straightforward, with the only delicate job was the lava pool. First, I sprayed the entire board black, except for the inside of the lava pool. Crimson-like earth color was done with Vallejo's Red Leather. After the major parts done, I moved on to paint the ziggurat. Codex Grey base, followed by Fortress Grey and White highlights did the job for me there. The tree was rather simple. Highlighted it with Grey again, after spraying Brown for an "ashen" look.

As for the crater, I started with spraying the pool with Vallejo Gold Yellow. The spots where the lava meets the rocks were done by gradually spraying Vallejo Bright Orange and Vallejo Red. Only the highest spots where the lava is expected to be "cooled down", were sprayed black for some contrast. Once they were done, the only thing left to do was highlighting the hottest parts of the pool, in the form of a Yellow+white mixture at the middle of the pool. All airbrush work, pure and simple... :)

Since I had applied PVA glue to the edges of the foam, it provided a protective layer so I was able to spray varnish to seal the display board from a can, without fearing that the propellant gas would eat through the foam. And that was a wrap.

I so wanted to finish this one before the last weekend to show off during the tourney held on last weekend; but just could not make it. But then again, what can you do sometimes right? By the way, the army on the board is the army I fielded in last weekend's tournament.

Let me know what you think about the board.