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Hey everyone, I wanted to get some craters but was wondering what you all generally use. Do you make them? and if you do what do you use to make them/how do you make them? What size area should the crater take up? Would you consider the Games workshop Moon planet craters as good craters to use or are they too large?

Personally my group tends to just forget about the whole thing. but i think these vehicle templates are nice.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/476011.page

Mostly my group just leaves the tank there.

You can make craters by cutting a hole into three layers of cardboard such that they stack up into layers of "steps", and then covering it with foam and/or papier mache.

Or carve it out of a block of foam.

Depends on the player, really. I mostly use these things from GW (although not much anymore, since not a whole lot of people are running vehicles at my FLGS), but I know one person actually has a baggie full of pebbles that he uses to outline destroyed vehicles before pulling them off the board.

I made these for my exploded vehicles.



I made them from a broken up VCT tile from the hardware store. Make them about as big as the vehicle itself. Break up the tile with pliers and then glue it back on the other part of the tile to form the crater. Then paint black with craft paint watered down. Brush on some PVA glue and sprinkle on some railroad gravel. Then a bit of drybrush gray. Glue on some extra bits for effect, paint some pools of "molten metal" all done. Cost about $0.60. Time abut 2 hours (not including drying time).

I carved them out of packing styrofoam I got from work

I took a base of plasticard, glued a ring of paper mache onto it and that was it. Other ones I took a a base and sprinkeled some kitty litter and put a chopped up bit from a rhino or other suitable vehicle

A friend of mine showed me how to make these, so I made two. They've always seemed to work and represents exactly what they are, craters. We only use them if a vehicle blows up, otherwise the vehicle stays if it wasn't blown up.

I made some color printouts of some exploded things, and cut them into shapes matching vehciels. They look good and cause no problems for models moving.

However, I can say that some of the crafted things here are awesome, but I wanted something easier to transport.

Nothing. If its a wreck we leave the vehicle if it explodes we just remove the whole thing.

I went with upside down aluminium pie plates glued to a sturdy cardboard base. Then, push in the middle section so you get a nice flat middle bit and a crisp edge, then slather in glue, grit, prime in black twice to help stick, and then dry brush. Perfect...although I made mine too big for vehicles after it was all done, except maybe a landraider!

made these from foamboard and a cut up mach 1 rhino.



They are a perfect fit for a rhino, incredibly easy to make and fit our table well.

I went cheap and use simple paper templates, cut to the size of my vehicles. However, I made them when I started to play my ABG lists and needed 12+ craters for some games.

People use craters?
I don't really use them. I just remove the vehicle from play when it blows up.

Vehicle craters can make a good place to hide when your ride blows up.
So, we use round piles of 'soil', as though an artillery shell had hit. Made from plaster, I expect, with gravel and painted brown.

The vehicle-specific crater models are nice, but too specific.

I don't wargame (yet), but I've always found the keeping of vehicles on the board in Batraps with some spray-painted cotton balls to look like smoke adds a nice touch to making it look like an actual battlefield. Flip it over, maybe remove the turret.

Plus it's a tad realistic, as even when powered by a fusion reactor, that shell of a former tank made of impossibly good alloys shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon unless it was death-by-Necrons.

Especially with weapons in W40K focusing on penetration above all else, there should be a shell left behind.



Plus a quick spray on a large ball of cotton isn't hard at all to make yourself. Cheap thing you can probably do with materials on hand. Just make five or so and bring them with you.

(Plus the remaining carcasses of the armor provides cover.)

We have a thread on this very topic in the painting forum.
something cheap and easy that i have seen used are small single serve pie tins. They can be bent into crater shape and look great painted up as well as being the correct size. he downside is they have to be primed very well as paint chips off them easily.

Iirc there was a decent tutorial on how to make some good craters in the 4th ed BRB if anybody has one of those lying around (I still have mine)