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So I am helping out my FLGS and putting together some terrain for them. I built my first piece and it came out real nice IMHO but the problem is I am not a wargamer and am not sure what pieces would be useful/desirable for play. The hope is that it can be used for 40k/fantasy/warmachines/etc.

One of my big questions is do I need to put ramps on the pieces? Also are there any height based rules I should be aware of, currently I'm using 2" pink foam and mostly focusing on hills but will be moving on to foliage, barricades and walls. Thanks.

The best suggestion I can give you is to make sure that the scenery gives good cover and not so that tanks can park at one edge and clearly shoot over the top of the hill! There is no restrictions on scenery height just make sure that you don't make speed bumps. It can be helpful to players if the scenery allows them to stand figures on without them toppling over all the time: think of a layer cake approach to hills with each successive layer being narrower than the last. Ideally scenery should be designed in a way that will force both players to move in order to fight rather than remain static and shoot at distance.

swollendeathray wrote:So I am helping out my FLGS and putting together some terrain for them. I built my first piece and it came out real nice IMHO but the problem is I am not a wargamer and am not sure what pieces would be useful/desirable for play. The hope is that it can be used for 40k/fantasy/warmachines/etc.

One of my big questions is do I need to put ramps on the pieces? Also are there any height based rules I should be aware of, currently I'm using 2" pink foam and mostly focusing on hills but will be moving on to foliage, barricades and walls. Thanks.

There's basically two types of terrain: those that block Line of Sight (LOS) (walls) and those that limit Line of Sight (cover). Models can't shoot/be shot through walls, and they can shoot/be shot through cover. Cover exists in two forms: hard cover (barricades) and soft cover (bushes and the like). Hard cover is anything that would stop a bullet, soft cover simply makes the target harder to see.

You should aim for a mix of LOS blocking and LOS limiting terrain, both hard and soft cover, and varying heights. Also, some mixtures of both LOS-blocking and limiting terrain (for example, a ruined wall) add some variety.

For reference, 40K basically has infantry height (~1-2") and vehicle height (2.5-3+"). Some will be bigger, some smaller. WarMachine has 3 height categories: 1.75", 2.25", and 2.75". So if you wanted to make a wall that infantry could hide behind but vehicles (and for WM, large based models) could shoot over, aim for about 2.5". If you want everyone to shoot over it, try for .75"-1".

Also, hills should have a height of at least 1". This is the standard height for "elevated attackers" in WarMachine and a lot of other games, but it could easily be taller. Don't try to do ramps out of foam because they're likely to break or chip. Try to make rounded edges (maybe 1/2" diameter) as they'll last longer than sharp edges. Gamers are used to dealing with Wobbly Model Syndrome (WMS) and will figure out how to prop up or support their models.

Thanks biccat that is exactly what I was looking for. I'll update with some pics later today if there is any interest. Thanks all!

Welcome to Dakka and always good to see terrain pics so please post some updates.

It might also be worth Making this into a blog and asking a kind mod to move to the Painting and Modelling forum
That way your work in progress might be useful on others looking for ideas and tips on how to.

(Assuming you have the time for updating WIP of course)

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Welcome to Dakka and always good to see terrain pics so please post some updates.

It might also be worth Making this into a blog and asking a kind mod to move to the Painting and Modelling forum
That way your work in progress might be useful on others looking for ideas and tips on how to.

(Assuming you have the time for updating WIP of course)

Sounds good to me. I'll ask a mod about moving the thread. I too love thread pr0n so I shall be sure to update with some pics!

Cool look forward to the updates
quoth Chibi who lamentably fails miserably to update his own blogs!

Someone should write a good article on designing game-friendly terrain designed around models being able to stand and interact and clearly fitting good types within the rules...

Walls, barricades, ruins and such are all great if designed for model use and not just to look pretty.

So here is a pic of a the soft cover I painted. Its not scratch built but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think I'm going to hit it with a little brown wash near the base and maybe some pva glue on the stained glass to make it uneven and more glass like.

Where did you get the stained glass sheets from?

I pulled some images off the net that I liked, sized them in photoshop and then had them printed at Kinkos on a transparency sheet. I just added another pane to the 2nd arch and a piece of broken "glass" to the base. My only issue is with the back side, I'll take another picture so you can see the updated image.

You can either print your own on inkjet or laser printer transparency sheets, or buy them. Model Railroad suppliers make them, and you'll want "O Scale", or 1:48th scale sized window glazing.

Can't say that I believe a light would fall and end up on its side like that but who cares when it looks so good!

Not sure I would go glossy on the stained glass
The glass tends not to reflect light off it too much, so with the scale a gloss finish might look not quite right.
Also am not sure that they get cleaned all that often so the dust can dull the shine

Also our local church windows have been protected with toughened glass after some vahdalism a few years back. Just a reference for possibilities on the reverse side.

Ok so here is the updated pics. I could build up the back with green stuff and paint to match the front, or maybe just paint the frame directly on the transparency (might go this way since it will be way easier).






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Is anyone familiar with this terrain piece? I'm staring at it and it looks like maybe there was a piece for the back. I was just given it glued together so I don't know if the person left off a piece of plastic.

No, thats how they all look on the back.

Grimgob wrote:No, thats how they all look on the back.

Thats a bummer.

Well here are two crappy pics taken from my cellphone of the terrain.





Does that look like something that would make a functional terrain piece? Its 2" at its tallest.

Looks okay to me in terms of game play.
Looks good as a piece of terrain also

Am guessing it is about 6" square? So not a bad size

With terrain, the more that you can do with it, the better it is. Ask yourself: Can it break line of sight and completely conceal a unit? Can it provide cover? Can models move in it, on it, or through it? The more yeses, the better the terrain piece. And generally, if it is a rise of less than 2", my game store just lets you move across it.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Looks okay to me in terms of game play.
Looks good as a piece of terrain also

Am guessing it is about 6" square? So not a bad size

Yup about 6", thanks for the kind words!

So I'm gona bug you guys some more since you've all been giving me some great tips. Here is the piece I'm currently working on, its 29" long and about 23" wide at its deepest. Is this a good size? Too big? I could break it into two pieces if you guys/girls think its too large. Thanks again!

No problems again imho
Is good to have different sized hills.

PUZZLE PIECE!

But seriously, give it a puzzle piece cut-out right down the middle. You want a little hill? Disconnect, Boom little hill. You want a big hill? Interconnect, Boom big hill.

PraetorDave wrote:PUZZLE PIECE!

But seriously, give it a puzzle piece cut-out right down the middle. You want a little hill? Disconnect, Boom little hill. You want a big hill? Interconnect, Boom big hill.

Awesome idea! So to you think I should do an actual interlocking piece or just make it a zig-zag? My only worry about doing a true puzzle piece is that the little interlocking section might be fragile.

I wouldn't interlock them. If it's store terrain, the foam will break.

Terrain looks good. Height should be 2-3 inches imo, no need for ramps on buildings but on large hills it can be neat to have some ramps. It makes it look like the army may have prepared a hill to fit some Leman Russes/artillery pieces on top.

In my experience you can never have too many barricades, walls, and large rocks in an FLGS' terrain collection.


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malfred wrote:I wouldn't interlock them. If it's store terrain, the foam will break.

Agreed, interlocking terrain is a bad idea for an FLGS. People aren't careful with terrain that isn't theirs, we learned that the hard way at GE Pasadena. We had a beautiful Foam Sphinx that fit the Tomb King aesthetic or Necron aesthetic perfectly. Yet the head popped off after a few weeks...

Suggestion for the puzzle hill:
start by cutting and shaping the foam to match the general shape of the final large hill. after this, cut the sections in natural looking lines. complete each section separately. to finish, put a few partial bridges over the places that overlap. when seperated, these are ruined bridges, when the large hill is used, they work to make the crevices not count as difficult terrain if you dont want them to.

Wow more great ideas!

So no interlocking pieces, its a shame we can't have nice things huh. This is the progress so far, does the gap look wide enough to count as impassable, I added a Black Ork for scale. Also if I want to allow light to medium vehicles to cross the bridge how wide should I make it? Cheers.

The interlocking hill is very cool

Cool stuff. Regarding your bridge question, heres afew common 40k measurments -

Rhino (Common transport vehicle) - 3.25" wide.
Chimera (Common transport vehicle)- 3.75" wide
Land Raider (Heavy transport vehicle) - 6" wide including sponsons.

I havent owned any other vehicles unfortunately, but these 3 are pretty common in 40K.

S'jet wrote:Cool stuff. Regarding your bridge question, heres afew common 40k measurments -

Rhino (Common transport vehicle) - 3.25" wide.
Chimera (Common transport vehicle)- 3.75" wide
Land Raider (Heavy transport vehicle) - 6" wide including sponsons.

I havent owned any other vehicles unfortunately, but these 3 are pretty common in 40K.

Thanks for the measurements. I'll have to play around, 4" would be ideal but might be to wide for the gap.


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Small update. I've got the sections cut and sanded, just waiting for them to try then its paint time.

Ok I've got one of the sections painted. Just needs some static grass now.