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Youtube, look for terrainaholic, rubbishinrubbishout and kamloopian.

There are man more good resources there as well.

As far as "talking to" they talk to you.

Here are some things to consider ...

What are your storage needs.
Do you have a particular type of terrain you like?
What kind of a budget do you have?
What is a more limited resource - time or money?
How are your crafting skills?

Think about those things, then let us know any specific questions you might have.

(last note: on the paints regarding citidel...please at least look through this forum...there are AT LEAST two active threads on cheaper paint. However, for most terrain you don't want model paint - craft paint will be just fine - you can get craft acrylic paint at most crafting stores cheap).

best of luck!

Good info.

Sounds like you will want a table with the surface made of the high density insulation foam (not the white stuff, but the blue or pink stuff you can get at home improvement stores) that way you have thickness you can carve into for your rivers of lava.

If this does not work, you can simulate a depth change with some various surface techniques of building up "banks" with putty or hot glue (this is common in cardboard RPG terrain) - but the foam is a lot easier to work with.

I would say, get some foam, make a few simple sketches and watch a few videos on the net and experiment.

While you can get tons of ideas and tool suggestions online, nothing replaces first hand experience.

One final note: when working with foam, high temp hot glue melts it A LOT, and you need to coat it with something before spray painting it as the propellants in most spray cans will eat it.

best of luck and have fun!

For protecting/priming foam:
I have used -
*craft paint
* paint can primer
* acrylic gesso (from the craft store - basically a primer)

For working with foam
* various brands hot wire cutters - very awesome.
* bread knife.
* big blade utility knife
* high grit sanding sponges
* various scraping tools
* heat gun (be careful of fumes)
* soldering iron

Oh, and this ....thing! (I could not remember what it was called). For doing negative surfaces (i.e. cutting INTO something, rather than cutting something off...) this tool is VERY handy.
http://www.harborfreight.com/curved-multi-rasp-66641.html

I do enough terrain (for our group, and I also do large project commissions) that I even built my own hot wire cutting table, although to be honest for this simple trench work you don't really need one (its handy for making buildings, lots of walls, bridges, etc.).

best of luck!