We figure gamers are a thrifty lot. At least we like to think that way. After spending amounts we really wouldn't like to discuss on little lead men, we pride ourselves in our ability to turn discarded dairy packaging into futuristic cityscapes and old ice cream sticks into rustic farms. And the slight whiff of sour milk only adds character to the terrain.

I was that way too, no point denying it. Every once in a while you would bump into some other hobbyist who would talk about actually buying things any crafty modeller can scrounge for free. We'd all laugh at the insanely priced tiny plastic tubs of sand or dirt. Buy sand? Are you nuts? What next, cans of air?

When I made my original terrain boards, there was just no way I would actually buy the sand for them. Instead I took an empty paint bucket and went to the kids' sandbox to grab some sand for free (well, technically speaking I had paid for that sand too, but it doesn't count). I even borrowed their sieve to sift the largest pieces from the sand.

The boards turned out pretty ok, and I've played many games on them. But as you can see from this picture, the sand mixture is a bit rough. It's mostly okay for individual miniatures, but when you place a larger piece with a hard base on the board, it sort of floats in the air because it's actually sitting on a handful of the the tallest pebbles on the board.

This is especially atrocious with area terrain bases, which I made with the same sort of sand flocking thus creating a double layer of pebble float. The forests are literally in the air...

So when I decided to make a new set of terrain boards finally (been thinking about that only for the past six or seven years I guess), I finally broke down and decided to check if I could get some uniformly fine sand.

Still being almost as thrifty as ever, I did not rush to buy gazillion microscopic tubs of Official Games Workshop Tallarn Sand(tm). Instead, I went to the local discount hardware store, Biltema, and bought a 14kg sack of, you guessed it, sand.

The new boards are made with the new sand and they indeed got a much more fine texture. The sand is easy to work with and it's uniformly fine without any errant lumps. The color is kinda lame sandy, but mixed with paint and glue you don't really notice it. And the sack cost me all of seven euros.

Some habits die hard, though. I put most of the sand in an empty paint bucket. And I used an old industry-sized spice shaker to spread in onto the boards -- that actually worked really well.

It's the age old thing with hobbies. When you're young, you have lots of time but no money. Older, you got the money but find free time hard to come by. I guess I'm just old enough to pay for sand and save myself the trouble of, ahem, acquiring it otherwise and sifting it etc.

P.S. I've no idea if GW really makes official Tallarn Sand or not. But they'll probably sue me for the idea anyway.

P.P.S. Yes, I know they sell cans of air.