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Having had my school misplace my copy of How to Make Wargames Terrain (one of the best books GW ever made if you ask me) I was looking for a replacement on GW, and saw that not only How to Make Wargames Terrain, but How to Paint Space Marines and How to Paint Citadel Tanks are gone.

Is this just me looking in the wrong place, or have GW gotten rid of them? I hope they haven't, as they were excellent books,

I'd bet money 'How to Make Wargames Terrain' is gone for good. GW now sell stuff they tell you how to make in there.

GW is infamous for not keeping these books in production for vary long.

The best part of this story is, that GW is forcing you to use the internet to find tutorials on terrain making. Let me tell you, they did you a favor. Not because their book on terrain making sucked, to the contrary, it was actually pretty nice. But because there is SUCH a wealth of terrain making tutorials on the internet, that you could spend weeks watching videos, and reading forums and blogs. Believe me, you are not without a multitude of resources.
Spend 15 mins web searching "wargame terrain tutorial" and see what you get.
All is not lost.

Yes, making your own terrain is no longer considered appropriate behaviour by GW. Use their pre-fabricated terrain kits or face excommunication from the hobby.

No worries, found one on Amazon for £10 anyway. But thank you, I will look around.

Advocacy of IP piracy is not permitted on Dakka. -Mannahnin

Another symptom of a company trying to make money in any way possible. Having guide books defeats the purpose of buying expensive GW terrain.

For a while GW did both. Anyone else remember the old foam hills and terrain pieces? Those were sold right alongside the terrain books.

But then someone decided that terrain needed to be injection molded and that people would rather pay high prices than make it themselves.

Aerethan wrote:For a while GW did both. Anyone else remember the old foam hills and terrain pieces? Those were sold right alongside the terrain books.

But then someone decided that terrain needed to be injection molded and that people would rather pay high prices than make it themselves.

I remember those items. think the old hold out was the GW trees. they were sold for years.

Well, keep in mind these old "How to" books were written using the old paints. They have their new paint guide using the new paints for how to paint stuff...

That is no excuse to get rid of the terrain book, though. Unless they are concerned about any reference to older paint names, but still.

I understand a local GW had to get rid of all hand-crafted terrain, and is now all GW plastic all the time. There was some really cool hand made stuff, too. Can't have people realizing that hardware store foam core can be made to look really nice!v

If you can locate a copy on Amazon or Ebay, I'd recommend it. I have this book and it's actually pretty nice; a touch better for WHFB then for 40k maybe.

There's no real evidence that these books are gone forever and not just being revamped for the new paint names. The cynic in my started crying as I typed that.

Adam LongWalker wrote:Another symptom of a company trying to make money in any way possible. Having guide books defeats the purpose of buying expensive GW terrain.

I don't think it really "defeats the purpose". GW's terrain looks pretty nice and making your own buildings, landing pads, etc. to match that kind of detail would be more trouble than it's worth.

For plastic hills and gak though, yeah, you're much better off making your own. It doesn't take much to make a much better looking hill than what they can cast in plastic. But I don't think keeping the book around would hurt sales of GW terrain too much...unless the money they make off those gakky plastic hills is really just too much for them to lose.

In any case you can find all that info online and for free anyway, so feth GW.

By the way, these guys? http://www.3t-studios.com/archives/2642 : doing it right. Not only do they show you how to make something cool yourself using materials you can get from a hardware store, but they also include the use of resin-cast bits that they sell themselves to enhance the piece further and get a really unique look. Better than GW's approach: "Buy our plastic hills! You have no other option!"

matphat wrote:The best part of this story is, that GW is forcing you to use the internet to find tutorials on terrain making. Let me tell you, they did you a favor. Not because their book on terrain making sucked, to the contrary, it was actually pretty nice. But because there is SUCH a wealth of terrain making tutorials on the internet, that you could spend weeks watching videos, and reading forums and blogs. Believe me, you are not without a multitude of resources.
Spend 15 mins web searching "wargame terrain tutorial" and see what you get.
All is not lost.

Definitely agree with this. There is an absolute wealth of 'make your own' stuff on the internet, and pretty much any style you could care to mention.

The only time I buy terrain is for more complex buildings and accessories that are difficult or very time consuming to scratch build. Anything else - hills, roads, the board (especially the board!) you should definitely make yourself I think.

Yeah, I'm making my own board out of polystyrene packing and foamboard, and it's working really well. I do like the GW board, but it's so much cheaper and more rewarding to make your own.

GW's modular building kits, however, are excellent.

GW´s terrain is a nice kit to have. And fairly priced for GW´s standards but I wish they had something more than Imperial ruins, Imperial Forts, Imperial Landing pads... and less skulls I wish the would cut on the skulls :(.

M.

Sidstyler wrote:

Adam LongWalker wrote:Another symptom of a company trying to make money in any way possible. Having guide books defeats the purpose of buying expensive GW terrain.

I don't think it really "defeats the purpose". GW's terrain looks pretty nice and making your own buildings, landing pads, etc. to match that kind of detail would be more trouble than it's worth.

For plastic hills and gak though, yeah, you're much better off making your own. It doesn't take much to make a much better looking hill than what they can cast in plastic. But I don't think keeping the book around would hurt sales of GW terrain too much...unless the money they make off those gakky plastic hills is really just too much for them to lose.

In any case you can find all that info online and for free anyway, so feth GW.

By the way, these guys? http://www.3t-studios.com/archives/2642 : doing it right. Not only do they show you how to make something cool yourself using materials you can get from a hardware store, but they also include the use of resin-cast bits that they sell themselves to enhance the piece further and get a really unique look. Better than GW's approach: "Buy our plastic hills! You have no other option!"

I know what this corporation is doing. But I'll give them a benefit of the doubt that perhaps (gasp) they might redo their guide books to current paints and models on hand.

I doubt that though it will be immediate. They need to keep up their revenue stream at current or higher levels.