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Hey guys,

I'm somewhat new at building Terrain. We usually game at my friend's house, and Terrain is usually either store-bought or amusingly built with legos.

I'm trying to build my own terrain. I've had some success building some terraced rock faces out of styrofoam, no problem.

What I'm having issues with is building flat forested areas. I basically just want a plan flat oval type thing that I can put a few trees, or debris, barbed wire, or whatever on.

I used foamboard for this. I thought it looked great because I can cut the edges at an angle, which looks pretty neat after you put the ballast on it. My problem is that AFTER I put the ballast on it, the foamboard curls upward, so it won't really lay flat anymore. This wouldn't really be good for playing, it would spin on the table, and wobbly model syndrome would be rampant.

My next solution was to take a piece of plasticard and glue it to the bottom of the foamboard, and THEN glue the ballast to it. This fared somewhat better... but it STILL curled up some. I'm wanting to make a really large base for some Imperial Ruins, and it'll look awful if it's all curled.

I figure I must be using the wrong material... foam board must just not cut it. I really don't want to use WOOD... I don't have much of a workshop to work with with room for power tools, saws, and things.

Any tips? Can I still use foamboard, or should I use something different?

Appreciate the advice.

you might try a layer of foam board with a layer of pink insulation foam on top. Attach it with super glue or liquid nails. You can then carve and shape the insulation foam to be as thick or thin as you want. Make sure to paint the foam with a coat of paint or glue before any spray painting with melt exposed insulation foam.

Quarter inch MDF is the ultimate solution - its nearly impossible to warp at that thickness. Home Depot carries it in 4x2 boards and a cheap jigsaw would be needed to cut the oval (although you could also do it with hand tools).

Kurtz references pink foam. 2 layers of half inch pink glued and pressed should work well. Its easy to work with, but will put all of your terrain on rather thick bases.

Another option is pre-made artist panels. http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-canvas-panels/ The boards are cheap, square, thin and almost impossible to warp. Down side is they can't be cut into an oval and the fold in the corner will be impossible to hide. I used these types of boards for some of my first terrain pieces from years ago and they are still in good shape.

Hmm that's an interesting idea with the foam. Is this what you're talking about?

http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Insulation-Sheathings/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbaxx/R-100320343/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&superSkuId=202938960

I see what you mean about MDF. That stuff is definitely not warpable. It's actually what my game board is made out of. Maybe I'll look and see if a dremel tool would be able to shape it, but like you said, a jigsaw would probably work best.

Any other suggestions?

Jigsaw and mdf is the way to go. Imo

The Home Depot link did not work - the product you want is:

Owens Corning Foamular 1/2 in. x 48 in. x 96 in. Laminated Insulating Sheathing Squared Edge Foam

Comes in half inch, inch and 2 inch thicknesses. Easy to find in the midwest, not so easy to find in the south or west.

Pink is great for terrain building in general. Its easy to create all sorts of buildings in the same way as the foam board terrain you seen on GW's site. The pink will be sturdier and not have the ugly exposed paper edges on all of the cuts. Coat the finished product with a mix of house paint (oops paint from Home Depot) and plaster - the finished terrain will be nearly bullet proof.

I use tempered masonite board for the base for my terrain. For trees I bought of number of small fake green plastic foliage pieces from Michaels, stripped the plastic off the ends and punched the wires through some cardboard - viola, instant tree.

Nimbosa wrote:I use tempered masonite board for the base for my terrain. For trees I bought of number of small fake green plastic foliage pieces from Michaels, stripped the plastic off the ends and punched the wires through some cardboard - viola, instant tree.

+1 to this, the board you need is also sold under the name hardboard...

These are great suggestions. I found the hardboard that you're referring to. I think I may stop by Home Depot on the way home from work to take a look at it. This board is workable without any serious hardware?

Hardboards can, possibly, be worked with hand tools like hand-saws, and depending on how dense the board is you may even be able to use a hobby knife. However, keep in mind that the softer and easier it is to cut the wood, the closer it gets to being paper again, and may still warp if too much moisture gets applied to it. Even MDF board, the terrain-board of champions, may warp if you slather too much PVA glue directly on it. A couple things that help (not perfect solutions) would to seal the board beforehand with a spray-on wood sealer, and if you use a lot of watered PVA and/or paint on the board, weigh down the edges as it dries, or use some kind of clamp to hold it in position. (Shopping bags make good non-stick barriers between your weights, table and terrain.)

Drybrushing is the way to go

Also, if you have warping a layer of glue or paint on the underside of the terrain piece will help, if not perfectly.

Joey

I've actually had some success saving warped bases with more warping. The reason the foamboard is curling is because the glue on top is shrinking as it dries. A coat of glue on the bottom, then, should act the same way, pulling the curve back to flat. Well, ideally it would, but that's rarely the case. What you usually end up with is a piece that's more wrinkled than curved, but it's closer to flat, at least, and a bit of clamping can help get it in line.

You really have two options, here - either change your basing material or change your adhesive. Because the glue shrinking is causing the curl, if you use a non-shrinking adhesive to attach your ballast, you should have no issue with curling. Can't tell you what to use, exactly, but I'm pretty sure there are some very resilient, non-shrinking caulks and construction adhesives. I've seen some people use a mix of these adhesives, paint, and sand/grit to create their own "terrain goop" that can be applied as an adhesive, texturing agent, and sealant.

Working masonite board can be done with hand tools but you really want a saber-saw (some people call it a jigsaw) to speed things up. So borrow one off a friend, cut out a ton of terrain templates and then go to town.