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I'm used to making the ridged edge hills, but I'm interested in building hills with
gradual slopes for 15mm miniatures.

They'll need to be _very_ gradual slopes, otherwise your models will tip over all the time.

I don't know how old you are, but whether you have access to a Mom or a Wife, chances are she has kitchen knives. If she will surrender one to the cause, a serrated bread knife is perfect for the job. This example is an 8" knife, but I would strongly suggest a 12" blade.



This baby will taper your hills like a champ. I promise.
When you use this though, the foam tends to get a little chewed up due to the sawing motions. One of these knives in tandem with some sandpaper and you'll be awash in hills in no time.


My wife bought a new set of knives and let me have the old ones for my terrain. I've only ever used the bread knife and a fillet knife.



Ghidorah

the 'forever sharp' knives you can buy from a high street department store for £30 (and get two extra plus other knives for free!... don't ask) aregood for cutting through most polystyrene type things. The blades are about 10", serated, bendy and very sharp when used correctly. I've made several deep cuts in fingers that were so clean I didn't feel it until the blade dug into finger nails. The deepest didn't even bleed - it was so clean it sealed itself up almost instantly. Don't give them to kids!!!! They also have a lifetime garantee so if you do blunt it they'll replace it for free! other than that a hot wire cutters great for ploystyrene - it's what they use to make the GW terrain in the mags, before the days of plastic hills anyway. I'll second the not steep slopes thogh. For small minitures slopes are ok but for any larger ones sloped hills are a nightmare!

I would point out that sawing up polystyrene makes a hell of a mess and that if you've borrowed the knife from your wife to do this in the house I wouldn't be in a rush to give it back to her too soon.

You could use playdough for the basic structure of the hill, and then cover it with something else if you like. Works really good, AND its cheap and dries hard as a rock. *whispers* and you can play with it while waiting for the hill to dry!

Another cheaper suggestion if you are making the hills from pink foam - Make the rough cuts with a drywall handsaw (very cheap), use a wire brush to do the initial smoothing out (also very cheap), then finish it off with a foam sanding block (cheap as well, see the pattern?)

Pics of what that saw looks like. Mine has smaller teeth and was about $4
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=drywall+saw&tag=googhydr-20&index=tools&hvadid=4451440377&ref=pd_sl_3xtpqu5t8t_b

Wire brush. VERY useful for any terrain building to second stage of shaping on pink foam.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OUXAB2

Foam sanding block. This is great for final smoothing before you spackle and smoothing after spackle or whatever you use is dry.
http://www.thepaintstore.com/Hyde_Tools_Foam_Sanding_Block_p/45310.htm



- Blackbone

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Blackbone wrote:Another cheaper suggestion if you are making the hills from pink foam - Make the rough cuts with a drywall handsaw (very cheap), use a wire brush to do the initial smoothing out (also very cheap), then finish it off with a foam sanding block (cheap as well, see the pattern?)

- Blackbone

I'll probably go with this. I still need to build up my collection of home improvement
tools not being used to improve my home.

About models falling over: The goal is 15mm and models for Flames of War, Field of Glory, etc.

Question: Should I use 1" foam or something else?

Edited my post with links to tools.

If you are making tiny little hills, just go with 1". If you are spoiled and have a big GW store nearby and are just making something small, you can probably just gank a little from them!

- Blackbone

Thanks for the links!

This isn't for GW stores or games, so it's not likely for me to get away with their stuff.