DIY Battle Mat Problem

[shadowdragon]

I'm nearing the completion of a battle mat (one last paint wash plus matt varnish). It's canvas with paintable, acrylic construction caulking for texture with art student quality acrylic paints. The caulking had a few days to dry and felt dry when touched. The paint also...on paper or any other surface dries quickly but it seems the acrylic paint has interacted with the acrylic caulking and now the surface is quite tacky / sticky. Maybe the varnish would help but I'm loathe to add the varnish until the surface is dry.

Suggestions? Has anyone else had this problem. Is it merely a question of waiting or something else?

Online searches haven't been helpful. Someone commented that painting caulking is problematic...but no suggestions. Someone else had this problem using house paint but got no useful suggestions.

[deadtorius]

Never run into this exact situation before but I do remember paint that remained tacky once. I would say there has been some kind of chemical reaction that may be causing the tackiness. You might want to make up a sample with your caulking and paint and spray it with dull coat to see what happens. In my own case it was using Acrylic medium dull coat to protect 1/72 scale plastic figures for WW2. For some reason the medium never completely dried and if the figs made contact in the box they would stick together and when pulled apart would pull off a small spot of medium and the paint underneath as well. I ended up spraying Testors dull coat over them and that seemed to solve my issue with stickiness. I also stopped using the acrylic medium on figs. I have used the gloss on water terrain pieces and found the same result. Might be caused by something in the artist acrylics, thats the only paints I use and have used for decades. Only other thing I have found to take some stickiness away was my old tendency to use fine sand on our gaming tables, back when we were playing British colonials in the Sudan and Afghanistan, and the dust from the sand would settle on the stuff and stick thus blocking or drying it out without too much noticeable change in colour.
Best I can come up with hope it was of some help to you.
Dead

[shadowdragon]

Thanks, testers dull coat is what I had in mind but I will wait a week. Would rather not toss it all in the bin as I think the colour worked out well

[Blathergut]

Invite us over for a game!!!

[shadowdragon]

That's a good idea...or if this project works out I can roll up the mat and take it down there.

[shadowdragon]

1806 Prussian cavalry trying out the battle mat.

[MDH]

I recently commissioned one from terrain Mats eras for WW2 deserts in 1/300 scale but it also serves for other scales and eras where the desert is a the terrain( so little use with FoG(N)) . Beautifully done and coloured in a range of shades to match the colours I used for my vehicles ( so when placed on the mat you can find them hard to spot!) but the one drawback is not to wear short sleeves using it as it can have a sandpaper like rasp effect on the skin if you lean on it ! The coastal overlays are lovely . A bit dear and a long wait but they are very obliging for bespoke orders.

[shadowdragon]

Thanks for that suggestion, MDH. It may yet be the way I go. With faint hope I tried warm water and soap on a corner...and I was right. It was a faint hope. I should have tested the paint first. Probably a coat of house paint primer was needed and may yet work, although I would need to repaint. I will do that after trying matt varnish....possibly Dead's sand idea has merit too. I did think of using artist's oils - I have done some hills with plaster and oils and to my mind give a superior result - but my wife thinks that's pearls before swine in this case....plus might not work and oil dries to become brittle.

[deadtorius]

I'm using acrylic paint myself which has a nice flexible rubbery dried finished product. Not holding up so well on some Perry horse tails but might work for your mat. Artists oils do dry brittle I believe

[shadowdragon]

I'm using acrylic paint myself which has a nice flexible rubbery dried finished product. Not holding up so well on some Perry horse tails but might work for your mat. Artists oils do dry brittle I believe

Alas, it was acrylic paint I used.

[shadowdragon]

I'm doing more testing....high quality acrylics to add spots of brown and in another spraying tiny amounts of flat black enamel. See if there's any detectable change to the tackiness. Pretty soon I will be spreading that sand you suggested.

[deadtorius]

MDH those coastal overlays look great. Well worth the monye thats for sure.

[shadowdragon]

The coastal overlays do look great.

I'm continuing to work on the mat. Added brown patches and a burnt umber wash over the whole mat using high quality art acrylics. Noticably less tacky.,,,so it's something to do with the cheap student quality acrylics.

The results so far:

[deadtorius]

Could be the Acrylics alright. I was also wondering if there might be an issue with the mat material. Upper layers are drying on acrylic lower layers on the mat material itself. Just a thought.

[shadowdragon]

It's been drying oh so slowly and I've been itching to play a game so I did your sand trick, dead, just with a mix of woodland scenic's flock....sand and burnt grass. Seems to have done the trick.

[deadtorius]

Glad to be of help

[shadowdragon]

I know, it's not Napoleonics, but I will get there. I tend to set up a battlefield and use it for battles from a number of different periods of time. I may post to the Ancients AAR board once done.

The Roman deployment...their Baueda fortified camp will be painted this weekend.



The Carthaginian centre...



...and the overview. I still have to replace the yellow card (open fields) with something better.

[deadtorius]

Elephants the great glass cannon, unless they have been changed to something a bit more useful. We stopped playing ancients when FOG R came out. Since FOG N came out thats all we play now.

[shadowdragon]

I play all the FoGs plus Across a Deadly Field / Johnny Reb (American civil war) and Command Decision-Test of Battle (WWI and WWII). I usually set up a battlefield and run though them all starting with ancients and ending with WWII. This particular game was set up to specifically use the elephants. Glass cannon or not I will have fun.

However, I mostly painting Napoleonics at the moment - Netherlands, Prussians, Swedes and Danes.