CRAFT: Making Hills, Rivers and Wooded Areas
Greywolf
the stuff I've learned about making terrain both for dioramas (I've partaken in
some local small-time contests and won ... by default =P ) and as scenery for
wargames and miniatures-based RPGs. This is based both on stuff I've actually
tried, as well as suggestions I've heard from others but never taken the time
(or spent the money) to actually try out. I'll try to be clear as to which
items I can actually claim experience with, and those with which I cannot.
FOAM INSULATION BOARD
Foam insulation board seems to be the perfect material for big pieces of
scenery, especially for hills. It is lightweight, quite cheap, cuts easily,
and can yield quite a number of different textures, as well as being easily
found at a wide number of hardware and building supply stores. It's usually
available in rather large pieces (too large to fit in the back of a hatchback
comfortably =P ) about 1 or 2 inches thick at most places I've shopped at, and
I was able to get a piece roughly 10' by 5' (I'm going by memory) by 2" thick
for $7 last year. I've only recently gotten down to the very last bits of it.
It usually comes as either blue, beige, pink or (so I've heard) sometimes an
ugly pastel green or yellow.
It's very light (beware trying to carry it out on a windy day!) and cuts easily
with a sharp knife -- Though if the knife isn't quite sharp enough, you may
experience a problem with the foam "ripping" with little chunks coming out
rather than making a nice smooth cut. If you want to make nice straight edges,
you'll find that the foam usually has a "grain", and whether you cut with or
against the grain will determine how the cut turns out. Even if the cut isn't
perfect, it is possible to sand foam, though it makes one BIG mess when you do
so -- Imagine sawdust that can build up static cling!
Another method of cutting foam is to use a "hot wire" cutter, to essentially
melt your way through the foam. I recall instructions for building such a
device being in an issue of the _Dark Library_. Perhaps Mr. Goodman might see
this and fill in this particular bit of information. (Just to be sure, maybe
I'll remember to ask him. ;) )
When it comes to assembling foam insulation board, my tool of choice is a hot
glue gun, but this is by no means the perfect solution -- Once the glue gun
gets sufficiently hot, the glue will actually start /melting/ the foam. I've
been able to get suitable results with white glue, but the exterior surface of
the foam sheet is rather slick compared to any cuts you'll make, and you'll
probably want to sand it down a bit first. I sometimes "peg" pieces of foam
I'll be sticking together with toothpicks.
As for /painting/ foam insulation board, spray paint is totally out of the
question. The foam will start melting almost immediately. The best method
I've found for painting this foam is to either use latex house paint, or else
to be willing to use LOTS of cheap craft acrylic paint. Whichever route you
take, it's going to take a while for the paint to dry -- For acrylic paint, it
usually takes overnight (as the paint tends to seep into the foam), but for
latex house paint, it can take much longer.
HILLS
Foam insulation board is very handy for making hills and rocky pieces of
terrain for wargames. Basically, you cut an irregular shape, bevelling the
edge very slightly, then cut another shape that's a bit larger for the next
level of the hill and so forth. Stacking these pieces on top of each other,
you should have a "tiered" hill. Be sure that each "tier" has enough exposed
space for models to stand on it, or else the tiered effect serves only to make
the hill look strange while offering no benefit to miniatures. I usually hot-
glue my levels together (the most expedient method for large areas) and then
use latex house paint to give it a good base coat. I would prefer to have dark
green, but I rely on leftovers, so I just settle for neutral grey. Once that
has dried, I will go back with a good amount of dark green acrylic paint. Once
that has dried, I smear on a bunch of white glue (trying to disperse it as
evenly as possible). I've been told that watering down the glue would make
this easier (and I'm certain this is the case), but I have very poor luck with
getting it done just right so that my water-glue doesn't just run off and make
a mess. Soon thereafter, I sprinkle "grass" flocking, picked up from a
railroad hobby store, of a lighter shade than the paint I used. (The darker
undercoat serves to provide a good contrast and looks nice. If I just use
plain bright green for an undercoat, the effect is rather strange and cheap-
looking.) I often have some leftover lichen (from tree kits) to put here and
there for minor shrubbery.
Another alternative is to give your structure a rocky surface ... or else to
leave a "cliff" exposed somewhere. Some local scenery builders accomplish this
by using latex texture paint. I haven't bought any, but locally it costs
somewhere around $8 for a gallon bucket at Wal-Mart, so I hear. When you've
put a good deal of latex paint on the foam, it's generally safer to experiment
with spray-painting highlights and shadows onto the form, and various dry-
brushing techniques (with decidedly LARGER brushes than what you'd use for
miniatures) can add nicely to the jagged surfaces you'd presumably make in the
foam. It's quite easy to make interesting features such as natural bridges,
"balancing" rocks, and alien-looking rock formations.
TREES
Unfortunately, I forget the brand-name (either "Life-Like" or "Realistic" or
something like that), but there's a supplier which makes plastic tree kits for
railroad hobbying. These come in bags of plastic tree trunks that are made of
a durable plastic that you can twist about (without it reverting back) for some
variation in form, and then dab some glue on the branches, dip the "tree" into
a bag of foam flocking, and you have a pretty nice tree! As the directions
suggest, you might want to dry-brush each of the trunks with a lighter shade of
brown before applying the flocking.
The trees come with a number of "temporary" bases which the trees can be
plugged into. My method for making forest terrain that could be set up
relatively quickly for wargames or "outdoors" RPG sessions was to get several
pieces of plywood and to cut them into hexagonal shapes. (You could just as
well make them irregular shapes, as I've not really gotten any great benefit
from my "terrain tiles" being able to fit together.) I then paint them, glue
some of the plastic bases to the plywood piece, and flock the piece. Now, I
can simply set down the plywood base, plug in the trees and have a cluster of
trees that won't be knocked over quite so easily. For storage, I just pop out
the trees, stick them into a bag, and stack up the plywood pieces. I find that
I can get away with just putting a few trees at the edge of any given
"woodland" base to effectively provide an indication that the area covered by
this plywood represents a "wooded area", with some room to fit miniatures
inside. Some of the leftover flocking from the trees can be used to make a few
bushes. I've also picked up a few lead "tree stumps" put out by a few railroad
hobby suppliers, which (judging from their frequency in "grab-bag" deals I've
gotten from other miniatures hobbyists) apparently are relatively easily
obtained in hobby stores.
For a more fantasy edge, I picked up some "Clay Mache" at Wal-Mart, a material
that's sort of like modelling clay, though it is somewhat fibrous and semi-
spongy, and does not become chalky or crumbly once it dries. While it is not
ideal for any sort of detail work (due to its semi-spongy nature), I found that
it is perfect for making "mushrooms" to set up as an unusual "terrain hex" to
put in my "fantasy forest". Just make some mushrooms, paint some spots on
them, and they add a bit of color to an unusual bit of woodland terrain.
RIVERS
Unfortunately, what information I can pass on here is of limited use, because I
was quite fortunate to have access to some industrial resins and elastomer
molding material during a sculpting job I had last year until all of the
departments started laying off people like crazy just around Christmas. I've
tried asking around and even writing to the companies that manufacture these
materials, but have had no luck so far in obtaining this material through
channels that I would consider easily available to the average hobbyist.
Basically, I first made an "original" in a roughly hexagonal shape, using a
tile from Milton Bradley's "Battle Masters" game for a template. I made this
out of a plasticene (non-hardening clay) that was a combination of bearing
grease, motor oil, tile clay and wax. My premise was this: I made one
original that was a "straight" river section, while the other was a "bend"
river section. I made molds off of these originals out of elastomer -- a
flexible poured two-part molding rubber that cures at room temperature -- and
then removed the plasticene, dissolving any remaining chunks of the pseudo-clay
with Xylol (which does wonders for dissolving plasticene while not damaging
elastomer). For other modellers, a similar process could be accomplished by
making your original out of your rough material of choice (perhaps some
modelling clay on a plywood base) and then checking out craft stores for
various hobby molding materials.
I made castings off of this mold with a variety of materials -- left over
resins, elastomers and (on my own) Durham's Water Putty. The latter is
available at hardware and building supply stores everywhere. When you mix this
stuff, be sure only to mix it as a paste. The label claims you can pour it as
a liquid if you put in enough water, but once it dries, it ends up being
terribly brittle such that it's nearly impossible to even survive extraction
from the mold. In paste form, this stuff is reasonably tough, and even
survived an accidental drop onto a concrete garage floor in one case.
Once you have your castings, you'll need to sand the bottom, as it's rather
tough to get a nice smooth surface with that putty on every try. My tool of
choice is a belt sander. Any method is bound to make a mess. =P I primed my
pieces black, and then painted each section once dry.
My best success at painting these sections went thusly: My "riverbed" was
comparatively flat. I painted it a dark brown, and scaled the color toward
black toward the center. Rivers, after all, aren't shining blue -- They tend
to be brown in color, and the darkness toward the center suggests changing
depth. Next, I used several coats of glossy clear spray paint, so that I'd
have a nice shiny surface in the middle. Sometimes I would leave small pebbles
here or there, which effectively got stuck in the paint.
I would then paint the banks, in the same way I'd paint and flock a hill or
wooded section. I would then have a number of hexagonal pieces I could lay
down to make a "river" to meander across a table. If I'd had any foresight, I
might have endeavored to make a "fork" section, but it hasn't really been all
that much of a loss. For a "ford", I simply fused several pebbles across the
middle of a straight section.
I tried using wax for the "water", but my experiments with this stuff have
always been dismal. It inevitably clouds up, and is easily messed up by
handling. It's not worth the trouble or the money. I haven't experimented
with any of those melt-down "plastic pellets" available in some railroad set
hobby shops. In any case, such methods do require the river to be a bit
"deeper", making your banks raise a bit conspicuously above the rest of the
table.
For a bridge, my best results came with the use of insulation board once more.
It was rather easy to score the surface of the foam to suggest wooden "planks"
for a bridge, and to use toothpicks underneath the bridge to support the weight
of any models placed on it. It is important to have the "ramps" on either end
of the bridge to be at a suitably gentle slope, lest figures topple over at the
edges.
GRASS
One simple way to turn a plywood table into something that can pass for grass
is just to get a really big piece of sweatpants cloth (or whatever you call it
that you can get in crafts stores that you would use to make a pair of
sweatpants) and lay it over the table "flocked" side up. I regularly use such
a tablecloth for RPGs as well as wargames, since it looks nicer and because the
dice don't roll quite so far as on a hard flat surface. (Of course, that
latter problem can easily be solved by just bringing a small box to roll your
dice into.)
I've also had some minor success with using "fake fur" scraps to pass for field
grass. Sometimes you can find some /really/ ugly colors of fake fur in remnant
piles that you might wonder why they ever made -- but which can do reasonably
well as tall "grass" or "weeds".
...
Anyway, that about sums it up for my experimentation in the realm of making
"natural" terrain (and related features) for tabletop games. For dioramas,
much of the same techniques might apply, though I'd probably be far more
willing to experiment with the afforementioned plastic melt "water", since in a
diorama I need not make any considerations of making my pieces "blend" with a
flat table ... nor any consideration of giving miniatures a place to stand
except for the special spot(s) I intend to situate them in.
--
-Jordan PEACO...@cobra.uni.edu Illustrator/programmer/ ..
T. Jordan "Greywolf" Peacock desktop publisher for hire! .OO.
I love God, family, friends, unicorns, wolves, LARPs, RPGs, minis, O/\O
doodling, sculpting, writing, old cars, meks, and fruit pizza! =) ~~