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On many occasions have I attempted to make terrain. At least half of those times I have failed terribly. I have found ways of getting cheap(er) buildings from places other than Games Workshop but I find that the buildings are only half of what is on the board in terms of scenery. I've chosen a sort of desert battlefield to play on but I have had trouble making desert craters or sand dunes. I have tried quite a few techniques but the reason for my failure may quite frankly be my lack of skill (I still enjoy it though.) Does anybody have any cheap methods of making desert buildings or landscapes for wargaming (specifically Wh40k)?

What I would to is this:

Take some rigid plate (thin board, mdf plate or similar) as foundation. Glue a thicker slab of say 3-4 cm styrofoam or anything else you can cut into on it. That way you can create rivers, depressions, holes in the ground, trenches and the like.
Then, take some wall-filler (smoothing cement or whatever) along with some glued-on extra layers of styrofoam or similar for hils and slap it on the surface. that way you create an uneven board that looks more like natural landscape and less like a deserted parking lot. After everything is dry, you can glue sand on top for desert layout or paint it for another surface type.

For buildings, I'd get some inspiration from starwars/tatoine. The windowless, angular design should be quite simple to reproduce with materials from your local home depot and some dirty white paint.

See my Tau Desert Base buildings.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-299-14098_Tau%20Scenery.html

They are made from things like Japanese soup bowls, yoghurt cartons and toiletry containers, plus plasticard and some detailing parts from Anteonciti's Workshop. Sprayed with textured spray paint and weathered with inks.

If you want to make dunes, I think it could be easily done with pink insulation foam and a hot wire knife.

In this gallery there are some shots of the buildings used on a brown desert mat.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-299-12717_Platinum%20Snow%20Devil%202010.html

Note the "sand sea" areas which are just cut up sandpaper with alien tree models put on top.

Check out my gallery and plog for some rock spires and(possibly) desert terrain pucks (i cant remember if they are in there or not).

No links as i am on my phone :(

Rock spires are probably the most popular option to add the odd bit of LoS-blocking terrain to desert boards, in part because they're so easy to make. Essentially, all you need to do is glue up a stack of roughly cut disks - since the goal is a windswept, striated rock surface, you want to be imprecise in your cutting, since that's what gives you the requisite variation. Pretty much foolproof. Here's a video using disposable styrofoam plates, but the process also works with foamcore or even corrugated cardboard (in a pinch - the edges won't look good unless filled, which is extra work that I couldn't personally justify over picking up a sheet of foamcore):

Foamcore board is cheap from graphic art and larger office supply shops.

Can be cut very easily with a hobby knife, and glued with PVA.