Any Tips on building Terrain?

[Dieshe 0]

Hi. I am thinking to build terrain by myself.

Like houses, ruins and hills.

Does anybody have any links or tips for me?

Thanks

Dieshe

[Cornwolf 28]

I was going to post the same thing but you beat me. I will sit here quietly and see what drops in

[Don Henderson fan club 85]

YouTube.

https://www.google.fr/search?q=wargames+terrain+youtube&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=YO28WuCyNIfSXuzYtZAL

[Vineheart01 6,403]

pinkfoam at your local hardware store is extremely common for terrain building. Its technically insulation stuff but its nice and firm/light and easy to work with so its great for terrain.

Do note though that it melts when exposed to superglue or any spraycan (the propellant specifically in the spraycans). A wise idea to do is to cover it in a layer of watered down PVA glue before you paint it/glue sand n stuff to it.
A hotwire cutter will help a ton, but they can be a little pricy sometimes.

As for other sources, terrain makers tend to just get creative. I've gotten to the point where i see random junk and go "Dude, i can use that to do X!" - its kinda turned me into a semi-hoarder because i have so much junk i want to use for terrain but never get around to it.

[Canuck7 23]

Some common materials:
Pink Insulation Foam for hills, escarpments, etc
Foamcore for buildings
MDF board for basing (foamcore is a reasonable stand-in, but can warp)
Drywall Spackle, PVA glue, flock, clump foliage, static grass, gravel, cheap acrylic craft paints and brushes, an aerosol glue, a ruler, and a good Xacto knife

As Don Henderson points out, though, there's thousands of videos and tutorials online already, between other wargames and model railroaders. Youtube and google will be your friends. Terrain Tutor is a pretty good YT channel.

[Jacen007 31]

If you can get your hands on some pine bark mulch it makes great ‘rocks’. I let them dry, then coat in pva before hitting them with primer. Then just paint up with highlights and a wash... it’s actually pretty simple. I used a CD for the base...

Edited March 29, 2018 by Jacen007

[Dash Two 309]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_aro8CTHw7ZD5H661hC6Q

This guy ... 

[Gorthaur25 130]

I stopped using spackle for most things and use Sculptamold instead. It is a blend of paper mache and plaster and dries rock hard and much faster than spackle. It is also a lot lighter and you can carve stuff into it. You can use it to texture ground, mold hills with it over a pink foam base etc. It is paintable and seals up foam so you don't have to worry about spray paint. I even spread it over cardboard tubes and then sculpted it to make Endor trees.

It is great stuff.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Gorthaur25

[Vineheart01 6,403]

Sculptamold huh? i'll have to try that out. Sounds dope.

Ironically, i employ paper mache quite a bit lol. It gives foam a rough edge and protects it from spraypaint, but since its still...paper...cant really do anything "fancy" with it.

edit: anybody have any recommendations for water effects? I've only done really tiny pools which are actually easy to do with just PVA glue but doing full rivers or ponds....yeah tried that doesnt work with PVA lol (basically i want it to dry in a "wet looking" state, which case i paint it to actually look like water. Larger than a dime worth though and it doesnt pool right)

Edited March 30, 2018 by Vineheart01

[Patteous 112]

23 hours ago, Canuck7 said:

MDF board for basing (foamcore is a reasonable stand-in, but can warp)

From my experience with MDF through woodworking it can warp a TON. Especially if it’s thin cuts. I think melamine would be a better stand in for bases. 

[Hidatom 503]

 

[Derrault 1,091]

On 3/29/2018 at 6:25 AM, Dieshe said:

Hi. I am thinking to build terrain by myself.

Like houses, ruins and hills.

Does anybody have any links or tips for me?

Thanks

Dieshe

The terrain tutor(sp?) on YouTube has great walkthroughs for terrain building using all sorts of materials, even going so far as to show comparisons of outcomes with different glues on materials, etcetera.

The method that worked best for me was:

materials: Corrugated Cardboard, styrofoam (leftovers from packages), PVA glue (PVA is the chemical name of your basic non-toxic Elmer’s glue that is pretty much universally available), box cutter/exacto, vinyl spackle, disposable plastic gloves, acrylic paints. 

1) First determine what I’m actually going to make, and figure out all the parts I’ll have to shape.

2) Create an appropriately shaped base in corrugated cardboard, do this twice with the lines perpendicular to each other, and then PVA glue together for greater strength. Bevel the edges with a box cutter/exacto knife.

3) Create any other shapes you plan to use. For a mesa I broke down an amazon box and drew circles/ellipses on it, cutting them out and then test piling them until I got a end result I liked. Then glued each layer together one at a time and glue to my beveled base.

4) Once the glue sets, get a pair of gloves and smear spackle into the crevices of all the cardboard until it’s got a layer all around, smooth to the desired end surface texture. Let this cure, I just put it away for 24 hours.

5) Prime the new spackle surface (it should be somewhat white already) and begin painting in whatever colors you desire. For desert things I typically mix up a couple colors of brown/light tan and then just do a few layers of them until I think the surface looks right. For my own butte I decided to make it more of a red-rock, so I mixed in a bit of red with the light brown. (Brown+White+Some red)

 

The end result (spackled cardboard) is lightweight and durable enough for plastic minis. 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Derrault

[SaBeall 3]

On 3/29/2018 at 3:29 PM, Dash Two said:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_aro8CTHw7ZD5H661hC6Q

This guy ... 

Seconded.

[DagobahDave 1,621]

[KraydKaflar 47]

I've used pink insulation foam for three buildings so far. I mostly stacked pieces one on top of the other then used spackle to hide the seams. After that I raided my Gundam spare part box painted random parts different shades of steel and glued them on.

[Davard 10]

Some stuff that’s also good is durham's water putty. A powder that you mix water into to be as thick or thin as you want. Also cork bark is really good in conjunction with the pine bark mulch 

And if you want to make Tatooine buildings this weekend is a great time to stock up on plastic Easter eggs. 

Edited March 31, 2018 by Davard

[Force Majeure 4,108]

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