Collins Does Scarif Table Build
The Making! Part 1
Effective what I did was to cut out the bases of MDF using a jigsaw, then sand the sides to a bevel using the Dremel. This was quite time consuming. I did 7 bases in an hour and I got covered in MDF dust. I did wear googles and a mask and so should you!
I then sealed the bottom of the bases using a cheap wilkos house emulsion paint in an appropriate colour like hessian.
once dry I flipped them over and wetted with water. Then I slapped on a few lumps of DAS clay and smoothed out into mini hills. You wet the MDF first so the clay sticks better and drys more evenly. If you don’t, you’ll find the clay will pull away from the MDF on drying.
Once that was dry I slapped on some sculptamold so to build in some texture. perhaps this can be skipped but I felt it would help keep the clay down a bit and add minor texture to the otherwise flat areas of the MDF.
Once dry the whole lot got painted using the hessian house paint.
Including drying times (in the English sun) this took about a day to achieve. The clay was the biggest time waster here. polystyrene or high density foam would have been much quicker, I just didn’t have any!
Once at this stage I basically followed Luke’s video with some minor tweaks.
I tea strainered the grout over the bases and hit it with a misting of 99% isopropyl and then a watered PVA spray. I found old window cleaning spray bottles to be excellent for this. raid the cleaning cupboards people!
tea strainered tile groutOnce wet I left it for a good few hours before going anywhere near it. Best to leave overnight at least, which is what I did
I also did one experiment to try and save time. apply mixed herbs under the tile grout to see if the effect looks like tree debris mixed with sand. I didn’t like it and so didn’t do it for all bits.
looks a bit too mixed in for my liking. calling that a fail
I’ve done the MDF with sculptamold laid on the top as well. To keep the clay down I screwed in some small self-tapper screws and then superglue them to stay put. Being careful to not go through the bottom of the MDF.
Once the screws are there the clay has more to hang on to.