Warhammer Terrain Ideas...

[Oddsod Blok'ed]

I'm going to make some new Warhammer terrain for the FLGS so that I don't have to see the same hills and forests all the time. I already worked on a sacred-grove type thing with some Lizardmen bits and Chaos heads, but I want to try something else. The other players said that they wanted to see marshes, scrubland, a wizard's tower of some sort, and maybe some kind of ruins. I'm up the creek for trying to do ruins or a wizard's tower - any suggestions?

Scrublands: I was thinking of getting large patterns of cardboard, either hand-painting or spraying it a sandy color and getting some sand or dirt, bits of plants to use as scrub, etc, and then gluing everything to the cardboard to represent a scrub area. Thoughts?

Here's what I'm thinking for the marshes: I'll get some cardboard and cut a pattern out of it, then cut a thin outer rim out of cardboard and glue that down to the cardboard base, mostly to form some sort of boundary for the marsh. I'm wondering if I need to use some sort of sticky-tack or other paste to fill in the gap between the edge of the rim and the base so that it doesn't look squared-off; any suggestions? I was also thinking that I could spray-paint the cardboard with black primer, and try to highlight bits of it with Skull White or Bleached Bone to account for waves in the pond. Then I'd get some of the clear plastic bits that Citadel makes (so far as I know) for water features and use a heat gun to melt the plastic and thus preserve the paint. If that turns out well, I'll use a small turn-drill to bore holes in the plastic and put in some marshy-looking plant bits.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Good idea? Bad idea?

[Broken]

I would suggest using thin MDF or something rather than cardboard, as cardboard has a very clear pattern after you paint it.

And you might consider using resin; there's an article about in White Dwarf... maybe 2 or 3 issues ago?

[Sulpicius]

Ruins should be fairly easy: do a bunch of half-buildings, throw some signs of damage around, and away you go.

Here's what I've done (WH40K, but the basic principles hold). I tend to build buildings out of the cheap plywood from the hobby store, usually covered over with glue and some fine sand to represent stucco, stone, or concrete. For burned out buildings, do only, say, three sides, then rough cut those sides down with somewhat jagged edges. Add some wood for beams (jut a couple over the tops of the walls), paint some burn patterns, and away you go.

For "ancient" ruins, you might have some more work, but not much. Say you want to do an old ruined temple. First, bop down to the local wedding cake decorating store (you read than right) and see about buying some of the plastic columns they use between layers (alternative: have a relative get married, and then scavage). Cut them in different sizes, used some putty to in the tops, and presto! ruined columns ready to go. You can paste some of them around the base, or lay them on their sides. For the floor, one thing I've always thought about doing (haven't tried it yet) was popping round to the local hardware store and buying plain tiles, like are used for bathrooms. Most of them are cheap individually (usually less than a dollar in the US). Use a couple to form the floor of the ruins (especially if you can fine ones with a grid pattern), or break into pieces for that collapse section of roof.

[Brass Monkey]

i can see right now that i am nowhere near crafty and imagineative enough to do cool terrain. SHIT.

[Oddsod Blok'ed]

Originally posted by Broken
I would suggest using thin MDF or something rather than cardboard, as cardboard has a very clear pattern after you paint it.

What is MDF? And my options are sort of limited here, since I'm a college student with almost no money at the moment. Would paperboard work for this?

[Broken]

Originally posted by Oddsod Blok'ed
What is MDF? And my options are sort of limited here, since I'm a college student with almost no money at the moment. Would paperboard work for this?

MDF is kind of like fibre-board or plywood, except it's pretty heavy, and has very little texture; when you paint it, you don't get a pattern under the paint.

If cash is a problem, and when is cash not a problem?, I'd suggest going to your local building center (Rona or Home Depot) and going to their scraps bin. For a dollar or two (not exagerrating), you can get a big 3x4 sheet of wood that has had one or two sides beaten to shit. That doesn't matter, though, because you're going to be cutting it up into weird shapes anyway.

However, if going to Rona is not practical for you, you might try taking cardboard and covering it in a heavy layer of paper to cut down on the pattern coming through. I've never tried that, but it should work...?

I'm not sure what paperboard is, which is why I'm not answering that question.

To simulate the marshy-look, you might try cutting an ovalish shape from your base material, painting it black, then dark blue, dark green, a lighter green, then giving it a super thin brown wash. Cut the bristles from a cheap brush, jam them into a half-inch scrap of styrofoam (that you previously sealed with watery glue so the paint didn't eat it..), spray the bristle/styrofoam with a light green, and glue it to the base. Add as many of these clumps of grass as you want, remembering to leave space for miniatures. When you've got all you want, using a heavy-gloss varnish, put on several coats to give it the "wet" look.

[Broken]

Originally posted by Brass Monkey
i can see right now that i am nowhere near crafty and imagineative enough to do cool terrain. SHIT.

Of course you are.

Do you read White Dwarf? You can get a ton of ideas from that. Have you googled for terrain-making sites? There are some very cool ones.

As for the actual making of terrain, just have some patience, have fun doing it, and don't worry if your first few pieces look dumb. They're still better than nothing, and everyone needs to practice.

[Rolzup]

You might want to take a look at TerraGenesis:

http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/

...a site full of excellent suggestions and ideas.

[Rythian]

Originally posted by John_C
You might want to take a look at TerraGenesis:

http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/

...a site full of excellent suggestions and ideas.

Thanks for the site John

Alsor there are a multitude of clear water type fillers at local hobby stores, that are much less toxic then plastic. Paint underneath, add filler, voila. Also there are liquid types which stay gooey for a while which you can if you are careful add inks to to change the basic clarity. I'm going to use this in the Cauldron of Blood conversion I'm making (cause I hate the model, got to make something better).

Hoo