Flocking and basing tray

I tend to do a lot of rebasing of figures as I can't find the best look or rules system. My latest approach however is to group figures in a diorama fashion which suits Amarti and Impetus rules and also my lastest foray into "To the strongest" ( more about these later).
Anyway I never had to hand a suitable tray to catch the flock or grit and often resorted to newspaper for my rebasing activities then I saw this in Tesco's.

What we have is a stackable set of wire trays used for cooling cakes. I found it in the Tesco's baking section for £10. There was a single rack £2 option but the cross wires only went one way and with a large gap I felt figures could fall through. This wire mesh however is ideal for allowing the flock to pass through but not the base. The stacking also increases my storage capacity which is an ongoing problem.

 Here is a sinlge rack with the legs folded up.

However what was also needed was a suitable tray to catch the flock. Using standard mounting board (card board) from Hobby craft I constructed a deep box into which the tray could fit.

Hey presto a rebasing tray. I'm am going to modify it possibly by cutting a hole in one of the shorter sides and glue in some guiding walls so that when I tip the tray up the flock will head towards the hole and I can pour it back into its storage container. The tray took about 2 hours to make including drying and used about £3 of mounting board.

To Hexon or not to Hexon - Kallistra

I've been eyeing up Kallistra's Hexon system for some time and am going through the internal processes of justifying the purchase. After a great deal of thought and looking at the pro's and con's it will probably end up as an impulse buy anyway, much like most of my lead mountain, mainly because it looks cool.
Having said that I'm not particularly happy with the way things like roads and rivers are laid on top of the hex grid. I fully appreciate that this is the most pragmatic approach to this wargaming dilemma however a search of the oracle provided one solution. This involves purchasing blank hexes and inverting them. You then have a depth of 10mm to play with allowing you to sink rivers, roads and trench system below table level. Anyway I thought I would give this a go.

I purchased Kallistra's standard blank pack containing 10 single hexes for £7. First step was to mark out on which face the river/stream would enter each hex . I then cut out the side walls of those hex sides using a Dremil.

Next step was to carve out from 10mm styrene foam the course of the river. Sheets of this foam which is dense and can be carved and shaped and purchased from Antenocitis Workshop. The foam was then glued down using a special styrene cement (UHU Por Styrofoam) which wont dissovle it but which adheres different plastics unlike PVA.

This was then covered with a standard DIY premixed filler mixed with a little PVA.

All pieces were then painted with Dulux Salisbury Stone acrylic as recommended by Kallistra which matches the colour of the plastic. This paint range is ideal for terrain making as a 250ml sample pot can be purchased for around £3. The large DIY stores can usually mix a colour on demand from a range of 16,000.

The water was cover with Saphire Blue from the same range. Yes, river water is usually brown/green but it doesn't look as good.

River banks were added using the colour Rich Havanna then a topping of sand grit which was dry brushed with Earth glaze and Desert sands. The water had a layer of Vallejo water effect which adds a texture and a gloss shine.

Finally, the ground was covered with Kallistra flock so it will match in with their preflocked range of hexes.

And the finished result which I'm quite happy with. However 10 hexes will not a river system make. This took about 5 hours over a week to make and I probably would need about another 30 pieces for a small table but similar techniques can be used for trench systems and sunken roads so the approach is feasible. So do I purchase the Hexon system?