Building a 3D Island for Pirates of the Spanish Main

Lets begin with creating custom islands for Pirates of the Spanish Main by Wizkids.

In front of me is one of my more favorite materials - 1/4" Foam Core Board. So draw out the shape of the island.

It's time to pull out your hobby knife because the next step is to just cut out the island you drew in the previous step.

I have included a four mast ship to give you an idea of the scale of the island. You will quickly notice this island is much larger then the ones included in the game. This is because this Island is just one part of a total conversion for the Pirates Game.

Time to gather up some scrap paper to bulk up the island. I used old calendars from a local Games Workshop store. Cut each of the pieces of paper into three strips.

Crumple up each of the strips to form several balls of paper. Spread this across the island so that the approximately match the outer shape of the island.

Next Cover the entire island in some sort of tape to hold the balls of paper down and to give the surface of the island some structure. I used masking tape for this step, but duct tape would probably work fine.

Its time to give the island a hard surface to paint and apply flocking. For this step I am just going to coat the taped up island with Plaster of Paris. There are other methods of doing this, so If you do not want to mess with Plaster check with a local model train shop.

Let the plaster dry prior to applying the paint and flocking. Be sure not to accidentally plaster the island to the surface you are working on.

Once the plaster covering the island has dried, apply paint to the island. For this island I applied a base coat then several lighter shades of progressively lighter colors.

Just be careful of what color you choose. Its quite easy for it to end up looking like something else....

Spread some glue around to hold the flocking in place and now you have a brownie with frosting!!!!(yeah right....)

Cover the glues areas with flocking. I used the very fine flocking for the grass and the coarse stuff to represent forests. Once the glue has dried, shake off the extra flocking and your island is done.

You can purchase sand flocking if your island has a lot of beaches, or you can use ballast for model railroads if you once to have a rocky island.