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Any idea's of cheap brands and colors for these brain children? I will be needing big quantities for some of them and am on a very strict budget.

Mountainscape: Black granite, glaciers, ice, and snow.

Evergreen Forests: Trees, bark, rivers.

Industrial/Urban: Terracotta brick, metals (including bronze, silver, steel, adamantium, and gold.) precious gems, and rockcrete.

You can just list them if you have a ton of suggestions. Thanks for your consideration, I will get back to you all with an article now that summer is coming.. I have a sweet project idea brewing!

Me myself, I use craft paint and/or water-based house paint (acicolor, which is still technically acrylic. Never use enamel). What you can also do is ask the paint store guys for paints that were mixed "wrong": they'll be buttloads cheaper and they may come in the hue you just need.

i'd use real bark, snapped twigs, pebbles slate, plastic tubes and platicard for the most things you mentioned... snow will be a little harder...
icicles can be made with a small rod or some wire and some super glue dripped down from it.

some companies also sell small leafs you can also use for your forest bases also some grass tufts are easier to use then regular static grass, and there are millions of miniature companies that sell snow, you cant make that yourself as far as i know

DijnsK wrote:i'd use real bark, snapped twigs, pebbles slate, plastic tubes and platicard for the most things you mentioned... snow will be a little harder...
icicles can be made with a small rod or some wire and some super glue dripped down from it.

some companies also sell small leafs you can also use for your forest bases also some grass tufts are easier to use then regular static grass, and there are millions of miniature companies that sell snow, you cant make that yourself as far as i know

Yes you can make snow. Baking soda + bit of white paint to avoid yellowing + PVA glue. There are tons of tutorials on youtube about using baking soda for snow.

For small leaves, you can open up teabags or use grounded basil leaves used for pasta. Be sure to seal them with paint-on matte varnish though, to ensure they'll stick and not deteriorate.

I would check periodically at hardware stores for mixed paint at 1/2 price or less. I picked up a gallon of very dark, flat charcoal grey interior water based paint for $4 and after two tables, I still have over half the can left. I was also able to grab a lighter brown, grey, and green really cheap. If you are in the early planning stages, you might have a good chance of eventually coming across what you need if you don't see the colors you are looking for right away. Also, try bargaining with the store clerk about the cans, they usually just want to get it off the shelf and will take anything for it.

Also, start looking for foam board from packing materials. Either from your own purchases, friends, family, etc. I love to recycle what others are just going to throw away. You can find good foundations for buildings from packing material, sometimes flat board that can be carved and stacked for hills, and you can augment with spray foam ($5 a can) to make organic shapes.

For flock, get saw dust, strain it through mesh to remove the big particles, and then water down some craft paint and mix it together - you don't want to overdo it with the paint to sawdust ratio (may take a little practice, but it's super cheap). Let it dry and then break it down with your fingers or a tool and sift through the mesh again. You'll have all the flock you will ever need with enough saw dust and a few dollars in craft paint.

To add texture to terrain or basing, collect some sand from outside or use cornmeal.

Terrain can be made incredibly cheap, and it can look cheap too; experiment first before taking on the full project and you'll have a good chance at making awesome terrain for pennies per inch.

Mis-tints of house paint can, as mentioned, be found on the cheap, should you be lucky enough to find something in a useful color. While useless for detail work, nothing will cover large tables/basing boards better, for the cost.

For the rest of the paint, head over to your local arts and crafts store and check out their stock of craft acrylics (Michael's, A.C. Moore... even Walmart carries a number). The craft stores, at least, usually carry a a wide spectrum of colors and finishes from each of several brands. Prices vary, somewhat, by brand and by store, but they're generally the cheapest stuff you'll find that's suitable for most tasks.

I'd suggest passing over the absolute cheapest of the bunch, though. At Michael's, at least, that's the CraftSmart brand. Everything I've heard about it falls somewhere in the range between "absolutely terrible" and "just not good." FolkArt, Apple Barrel, and Americana are a decent distance ahead of that - the jump in price isn't totally insignificant, but is less than one might expect for the increase in quality. At the top of the craft paint pile is Delta Ceramcoat. They've become harder to find, of late, but their consistency and coverage is the best of the bunch.

I should add that most of those come in 2oz/59ml flip-top bottles, but a more limited range of colors is usually available in larger bottles. Also, you can expect "special" ranges - metallics, neons, gloss enamels, etc. - to cost a bit more than the standard colors.

Get a pint of paint from Home Depot, tinted to the color you want, it works great for painting a board. Make sure you get interior waterbased flat finish, though - glossy is no good.

I like larger quantities because you can pile it on to easily seal in sand and the like without worrying about running out. Although, because of this I have about 6 cans of paint I'll probably never finish. Time to make more terrain :-p