Helping the army!

This project was a new experience for me. The army contacted me to recreate a piece of training ground on a 6ft x 4ft table so they could use it in the class room before go on exercise.
I don't know what scale it ended up being as it had to fit the table so it was what it was. I had the OS maps so was able to convert the contour lines into a 3D model of the area.
This process I find a challenge as I do it all by eye. This time I had 6 boards, all 2x2ft so I was able to calculate what the shape of the ground was at all points where the boards met. I gave the carpenter, who makes my board carcasses a profile of each board side so they all fitted together.
Once I had the carcasses I filled them with insulation foam and then carved them to shape, constantly referring to the map of the area.When I was happy with the shape of the landscape I then covered it in grout and then a covering of sand to give it texture.
Once all that was dry, I needed to add the wooded areas. Although I don't know the scale of the board I do know it is very small so I used coarse grit for the woods. This worked well especially once I painted them a darker green to the rest of the board.
The natural landscape was now done so I finished it off by adding the roads, paths and power lines to the area. I just used different coloured paint for different things and it all came together pretty well.
Here are some photos:

It was great to see it finished. It would have been fun to play a 1/300th game on it with some interesting line of sight issues as it is very hilly with lots of woods.
I didn't finish it with my usual flock finish as it needs to withstand class room use so it needed to be as durable as possible.
Overall, an unusual commission that I really enjoyed doing.