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I'm in school right now and for one of my projects I need to find a good use for junk. My idea would be to design, construct, and finally as a finished product, play upon a Warhammer 40,000 table made out of entirely recyclable and reused materials. Preferably on the cheap,I will make a tutorial, take heaps of pics, and otherwise will be posting as many details as I can about it.

Problem is, I need your help because I don't know where to start or what to look for.

Dakka Dakka, I call upon thee, help me make a war table that Greenpeace would be proud of!!!

This is a great idea and I myself am in the process of finding uses for recycled materials as terrain. I recommend looking at miniwargaming.com they have some nice tutorials on making terrain from cans of food. I can't wait to see the finished product! Good luck!

Shipping Pallets for wood to build a table.

Lots of paper mache(newspapers) and stryofoam (packing material) terrain.

A friend of mine built a full scale board similar to the GW Realm of Battle board (same hills, no skulls) with the option of flipping over 2 of the tiles to get a river. The foam used to make it was found over time on the side of various roads.

Ruined Buildings? Break a ceiling tile. It'll show the decaying edges of a ruin very well.

Hills? Foam (see above for the origin of the battle board).

Look at polystyrene packing found with TV's & other electricals for futuristic buildings.
Cans & bottle tops.
Straws for pipework.
Coffee stirrers from Mc Donalds for timber boards, doors & fences.
Match sticks for fencing & small timber details.
Sand & gravel for basing.

I just finished a gameboard made entirely out of ceiling tile. It turned out very nice!

Got any pictures of it??


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Also - cardborad tubes or toilet / kitchen roll tubes for industrial chimney stacks.

Sure thing...
also look here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/457149.page#4489922 for some interesting terrain ideas they used dome cups and containers from what i can tell most of it could be recreated using recycled materials.

Yeah, I knew about the Styrofoam and rolls for toilet paper - I have enough rolls that I'm definitely making a factory with them - but the all the suggestions are awesome! I've been researching a bit (I've had an idea to build a board for years) and the real question of something I still don't really know how to do is construct the infamous:

I have an idea of how to do it, especially with recycled and renewable materials, but I was interested if any of you have neat tricks, or pointers where I could find more information. Needless to say, I will be using techniques for brick, terracotta colors, and snow to recreate that iconic Moskva and it's Ruski feeling. Also, as I'll be on the lookout for plastic, I'm hoping to make a lot of "glass" and industrial complexes. We'll see how far I dive into this project, it is still in it's infancy after all.

Great job - cheers for sharing.

Re the OP, steal some of your Mum's Christmas decorations (they only way I could think of to get them for free) for the onion tops - can't think of anything else that's similar.

Go to http://www.terragenesis.co.uk and spend a few days reading the thousands of threads that showcase DIY terrain projects, many of them using "junk".

Not only will you get ideas of what junk to use for what, but you will find tuitorials on how to build and paint it, etc.

 CT GAMER wrote:
Go to http://www.terragenesis.co.uk and spend a few days reading the thousands of threads that showcase DIY terrain projects, many of them using "junk".

Not only will you get ideas of what junk to use for what, but you will find tuitorials on how to build and paint it, etc.

That is a FANTASTIC link, thank you! I've already read about 10 articles, I'm devouring them!

i agree wonderful link! I have already started on some of their prodjects!

 bubber wrote:


Re the OP, steal some of your Mum's Christmas decorations (they only way I could think of to get them for free) for the onion tops - can't think of anything else that's similar.

Lol that's a fun idea, but I'm not sure how well that'd go over with mom.... I thought of doing something closer to taking a few aluminum soda/beer cans, cutting them so they are sheets, then wrapping them around actual onions I have access to, to get an impression, take the onions out, form to perfection, then filling the aluminum molds with something that would eventually harden and when I strip the aluminum off, viola! Onion dome. Any idea's / comments for that?

I just finished my table made entirely of paper craft models. Let me know if you want to see it.

Of course! You don't have to ask on this thread, just post and share your works as well as ideas!

All is fair here. (For everyone!)

Here it is!

Ah nevermind, it works. Nice stuff.

I definetly plan on creating my own modular board and even add on bits, with a more fields/swamp side and a desert ash/city side on the other.

Another great link in the tradition of TerraGenesis (and has been around about as long (mid 90's) is IronHands.com, formerly known as Necromundicon. This guy finds uses for junk, bits and toy parts that are unparalleled. Check out his materials and how-to pages as well.

http://www.ironhands.com/necro.htm

Also, my club's blog does alot of cheap terrain. Here's a recent tutorial on quick caverns from old mattress foam.
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/08/terrain-tutorial-caverns-and-rocks-fast.html

I've also got a couple of tutorials on fantasy buildings from Christmas houses, but that may be cheating since you have to acquire them somehow.
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/03/28mm-on-cheap-fast-and-cheap-fantasy.html
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/05/medieval-village-grows.html

I've seen that website before Eilif and i've been looking for quite some time for it. You are completely right to say that the artist that is handling those projects does an absolutely phenomenal job. Those mattress rocks are fantastic (and easy!) as well, I may just have to find some it to use. I'm going to stay away from destroying Christmas decorations because I don't have access to them.

Thank you so much for your post.

I'm not freeloading this thread either, I've long been on the hunt for ideas and in my search I found a good series of tutorials on Youtube. Thought I'd share this man's channel because he does a great job - especially on things I am interested in doing.

Here you go:

P.S. If anyone is interesting in doing me a small favor, please help me find obscure resources for graffiti art - not just the very first thing that pops into google, it goes with the symbolism and ideology of the Korzacks (the army that will be a part of the table.) I'd greatly appreciate it if you shared with me your discoveries. Thanks.