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Hello fellow mini war gamers i was wondering if any one had any tricks to make realy cool terrain with just pretty much trash or recycling, if anyone noticed cool things to make for the war table?

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Thanks.

Save the tops from any Coke or Pepsi bottles, file down the little burrs you get when you undo the bottle and glue them together with poly cement to make a cheap and easy sci fi looking barrel.

Save any Polystyrene sheets you may get when you buy new furniture, either that or ask your local furniture/hardware shop for some for free. Use a hot wire cutter (or bread knife if you dont mind getting messy!) and carve them into hills and rock formations, I then coat them with PVA glue and sprinkle sand on them for texture.

If you are looking for pieces of hardboard to base terrain on, a good place to pick them up for free is IKEA! Quite often in the car park (where they keep the trolleys) they will put out off cuts or bits from broken kits for people to take for free.

Bits of sprue can be useful for all sorts, you can chop them up to make rubble, carve then into brick shapes and use the longer lengths for girders.

Wooden coffee stirers (pinched from Starbucks!) are a great way of making planks of wood, idea for wooden floors or wild west style buildings.

My two main "don't do tips" are, dont use spray paint on Polystyrene unless you have sealed it with PVA first as it will melt. Also try not to use plastic drinking strawers for pipe work, as good as it may look it is almost impossible to get paint to stick to them.

I usually get an idea then look for stuff that can be made into it. You can also get ideas from whatever it is. Never use cardboard though.

Bottles of all sizes. I find (usually like small shampoo, empty asprin bottles things like that) that if you flip them upside down and glue them to a homemade base, they make PERFECT fuel containers or water containers. Stick some straws on them in random spots for the WATZIGIGGITS and youve got it done. costs are only a few bucks and simply paint. ?Easy and cheap.


I have kids, and naturally that means they eat push pops. I save ALL the "handles" from those for ALL KINDS of building material. Ive made gun barrels, piles of rubble/metal tubes, building structure. You name it.

I've used plastic hair curlers (no not ON myself ) as ladder cages up sides of bottle fuel tanks and other tech terrain.

You can find all sorts of inexpensive stuff at Dollar stores. I once got an 18"tall plastic vase that, turned upside down, looked like a sleek nuclear plant tower.

Broken electronics are great for little techie bits. My friend works for the tech dept. in a local school and brings busted computer drives and the like for me to tear apart for bits.

Foam, cardboard, sand, gravel, rocks, bark, straws, craft/stir sticks, twigs, wire... you can do a LOT with minimal investment (financial, at least - don't expect 15 minutes with some cardboard and PVA glue to yield the world's snazziest bunker... but hey, it CAN give you something to play with, at the very least).

I'm a packrat, so I already have more bits that I'll probably ever use, but I always keep an eye out for anything I think MIGHT be useful and grab it. Play around with all the random crap you find. The more you build, then better you'll get at it. Want a ruined building? Mock it up in cardboard, spray paint it, and see how you like it. If you do, make a better one in foamcore, plasticard, bits, etc.

thanks for all the really great posts ill definatly try them out