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So my nephew has gotten the bug, and has been working at his painting, and we've played a bit on the dining table... but I think I need to make a more 'propper surface to play on

I've built and painted a lot of models.. but no tables and very little terrain so far. Mostly I'm in it for the P&M side of things tbh. And the armies of orks, skaven and dark angels on my shelves have seen very little playtime.

Totally blank canvas here, and few ideas yet :/

I need to construct something to play on, 6 by 4, able to be stored away somewhere when not in use.
maybe with somewhere to plonk the rulebook and codexes etc
Suggestions on terrain theme would be nice as I don't know where to go with that yet.
I guess scatter terrain is the way to go for simplicity and storage, any ideas about cool terrain to buy or build?

There are TONS of great videos on youtube on building portable gaming tables.

A lot of them involve some type of surface that attaches or mounts on top of a 6' long folding table.

Here is one that might suit your needs;
http://youtu.be/6BqeqLLbh7A

Another one;
http://youtu.be/PugcM5BE0H4

this is also a good one, but slightly more elaborate in its construction;
http://youtu.be/CAcs_u4mRi4

Scatter terrain is also the most flexible.

Regarding making your own, do a few searches on terrain here, or on youtube, again, there are tons of great channels on making your own cheap terrain.

This should get you started; and after following a few links from some of those - you will find tons of other videos on terrain and tables.

best of luck!

First off, Welcome to the Fold! If you like painting and modelling the most, then terrain making is right up your alley.

There's a lot of options and resources out there. Simple is stuff is to use styrofoam packaging or cardboard and dress that up. Ruins are drop dead easy to make. You can go for a more complex level by scratchbuilding with foamcore, plasticard, and insulation foam (blue or pink).

As far as theme goes, your imagination is the limit. You can do city ruins, hills, desert wastes or jungle all quite easy.

Some resources (besides the dakka gallery)

www.terragenesis.co.uk
http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/forum/17622/
http://www.warseer.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?102-Terrain-Project-Logs
http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showforum=104

A good temporary solution is to simply buy three 2x4 pieces of MDF, paint them up according to your terrain scheme, and plonk them on top of another table whenever you want to play.

They're easy to make, easy to store, and give you a nice, standard-sized playing surface without having to fuss around with hardware and carpentry.