Materials for making scenery

[Eternal_Freedom]

On behalf of my Warhammer club, I would like to ask the boards advice ont he best materials for making scenery and game boards and so on.

My initial thought would be something like chipboard for the base, with sceneray and such being made with polystyrene.

Does anyone (preferably those in the UK for local details) have any better suggestions, and any suggestions for the best place to acquire such materials in moderate quantities (as in, not bulk quantities but not very small amounts either)?

Many thanks.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

How set are you on making your own terrain from scratch?

Gale Force Nine's Battlefield in a Box brand is priced pretty damn good if all you're looking for is some terrain to populate a table with. Beats the snot out of GW brand terrain in both price and general quality.

[Starglider]

The best way is to use vacuum formed plastic over clay moulds (painted, flocked and detailed as applicable). Light, durable and with complete freedom to model the shape. I used to make my wargame scenery that way when I was a teenager and it always looked better than the standard 'hills made from stepped polystyrene' or 'bunkers built up from plastic food containers'. If you work quickly you can even reuse the clay, it isn't in the former long enough to dry it out significantly.

[Dalton]

My advice to you is to find a local hobby shop and ask around. You'll also find all the materials you need. We also have a few scale model builders on the board; you may have more luck in AMP.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I told my club to go ask model shops, but i said I'd sak on here as well. Thanks for the tips, especially the Gale Force Nine and the vacuum-formed plastic stuff. We have one of those machines in the desgin workshops, I'm sure the staff would let us use it if we asked nicely.

Thanks everyone.

[Slacker]

What exactly are you looking to make? A friend and I, over the last month, populated about eighteen tables worth of Flames of War terrain.

For bases suitable for use as forests you want thin mdf board-quarter inch or smaller. Cut them into kidney shapes with a saw, smooth the edges out, white glue and flock to taste.

Hills, you want to use the pink insulation foam that's sold here in hardware stores. You can get big sheets for nominal cost. Cut them out with a hot knife, white glue them and then apply a liberal coating of crushed walnut shell. That's available in sandblasting supply and is available in something like 50 pound boxes for $30. The coating, when dry, is pretty much bulletproof. You can then basecoat/drybrush/etc to taste.

Buildings, we cast them, so, Battlefield in a Box is the way to go there. Trees, you can pick up Woodland Scenics armatures, bend to taste, white glue, green puffy stuff until satisfied. When dry, spray with a very dilute solution of water and white glue to set them.

If you want more specifics, please, ask away. We're making roads (the trick we use for 15mm is great but too small for 28mm), and all sorts of other terrain features. I've been meaning to get around to making an online tutorial for my rivers, as without bragging too hard they look fucking awesome.

[Eternal_Freedom]

The boards the club is aiming for area forest board, an urban board, an ice-world and a lava field. I'll pass on those suggestions, they sound eminently practical. Thanks.

[RedImperator]

Do you have a model railroad club nearby? Those guys would probably be happy to talk both your ears off about scenery.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Now there's an idea. We do indeed have one nearby, but it never occurred to me to ask them. Thanks.

[madd0ct0r]

the most difficult one there is the urban, purely because you need a lot of reasonably detailed stuff.

is storage an issue? because then normally weight and geometry limitations come into it. otherwise:

Lava - anything like a polystrene ceiling tile or so. Something brittle that can be snapped to create sharp edges (not to damn sharp, you want to be able to put your hand down). Make lots of roughly fitting together shapes with about 1cm of space between them. spray black, paint in the lava using a reversed highlighting method for hot glow. You can make cool mesas from the same material. Get a packet at B&Q or Wickes or keep an eye on your local skips.

Iceworld - as above, except spray it blue then white. Flock it with sawdust and pva first for snow. Need sawdust? Craft shop / workshop / piece of wood and grinder. Coffeegrounds will also work, but will require more coats of paint. Tissue and pva papier mache can also be good for choppy snow or stirred mud.

Area-Forest - buy a box of cheap trees online, stick on varying height bases, include some grey craggy rocks for flavor. If storage and weight not an issue, real rocks work well. Also Aircrete if you can find a block or two lying about ( I don't think you can get single blocks for DIY). Again, building sites are good.
For general terrain - Builders expanding sprayfoam can be a very very easy way of building tough hills and things. You can mould it to a certain extent, but it won't carry detail smaller then 2mm, but is cheap, light and tough as anything. Some ruins can be good - basically lord of the rings yah?
bunkers, stream and bridges ect for that WWII feel.
Actual twigs and branches can look good, espcially for fallen and rotting timber. Grape stems make good dead trees. Swamp is also a possible area terrain.
Palm trees can be done cheaply with wire bundles, maksing tape and feathers: http://www.cybermodeler.com/tips/palm.shtml

Urban - ok. urban on the cheap? Make one good apartment block face and cast repeatedly for dystopian feel.
Pipework will look good, split height levels will look good (a mono-rail station will look fantastic). It's a bit of a bugger balancing getting a busy city look and having a usable gaming table. Printed propognada posters are a very cheap way of covering lots of wall area, and fit 40k extremely well.
Open sewers / drains are also easy, as are craters if you have 'ground level' on top of a 2-3cm thick piece of builders foam.
Statues using old models can look good, using 54mm models look even better. My favorite urban soil mix is currently chopped sprue, sand, coffeegrounds, tea bags and bits of eggshell. Teabags make good cheap sandbags, canvas cloth, parts of waste piles ect.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Excellent, thanks for all those detais, I'll pass them on to my club. To be clear, I am not actually involved in building the scenery; I left the school a couple of years ago but I remain in contact with them. I offered to ask here to help them out. Thanks!

[Slacker]

We bought a couple bags of inexpensive zinc washers to use as weights for trees. Again, Woodland Scenics armatures for the trees themselves. Glue the trees to the washers, then use white glue and flock away.

I'll have pictures up from our recent Flames of War tournament in a couple of days, want to clean them up a bit to make the details more clear.

[Elheru Aran]

Not sure if it's been suggested already but...

If you're not too concerned about detail-- you know the black plastic X sprues that hold the bases?

Glue those together and spray paint 'em, and they make some pretty decent lookin' tank-trap type things.

Random bitz that come in the sets... you can just use them as 'battlefield debris'. A severed arm poking out from under a rock, a broken lasrifle laying in a trench, a knife stuck in a door, grenades in a heap waiting to be thrown.