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Hey guys a few friends and I plan to make a bunch of terrain for Infinity this coming week. I'm planning on going to the hardware store in a few days to pick up supplies. I have a general idea of what I need to buy, but was wondering if anyone else has any suggestions or ideas.

Currently I plan on buying
-A few sheets of foamboard...

-Metal Rulers

-More X-Acto Blades

-Some type of cheap paint, any suggestions?


Anyways I'm looking for any ideas or tips you all would have!

Thanks!

hot wire cutter. its an electric tool hat makes shaping the foamboard a breeze. you wouldnt need the exacto knife. or thr medal rulers if your using them for straight edges

If you can get hold of a small hard touch to burn into the foam. You can use it to make rivers, creators and trenches.

OP when you say foamboard i take it you mean foamcore and not the foam insulation boards you get? I think your list should work fine for making foamcore buildings. You might also want to look at using printed textures on the buildings rather than painting them. I have some examples in my p&m thread http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/493203.page There are lots of texture files available to download.

 bantha_beast wrote:
OP when you say foamboard i take it you mean foamcore and not the foam insulation boards you get? I think your list should work fine for making foamcore buildings. You might also want to look at using printed textures on the buildings rather than painting them. I have some examples in my p&m thread http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/493203.page There are lots of texture files available to download.

Yes haha sorry I do mean foamcore, I thought the terms were interchangeable, but I suppose not.

Anyways how difficult is it to make the printed textures look good? I mean aligning them and such, my friends and I would just like to make enough terrain to cover out table as quickly as possible.

By the way Bantha I looked through your thread you have some really awesome stuff there!

Its pretty easy to make the textures look good. You can either print the textures out and cut the foamcore so that it fits easily, or else manipulate the size of the texture file to suit the size of the building you want. I've seen buildings done both ways and they both look good. Here is where i downloaded the files for the buildings i posted pictures of. http://www.art.eonworks.com/gallery/texture/texture_gallery_4.html

How would you be painting the buildings if you were doing that? I think that just plain or painted buildings can still look a bit like foamcore buildings where adding the texture covers the edges up and disguises the fact that its foamcore a bit.

 bantha_beast wrote:
Its pretty easy to make the textures look good. You can either print the textures out and cut the foamcore so that it fits easily, or else manipulate the size of the texture file to suit the size of the building you want. I've seen buildings done both ways and they both look good. Here is where i downloaded the files for the buildings i posted pictures of. http://www.art.eonworks.com/gallery/texture/texture_gallery_4.html

How would you be painting the buildings if you were doing that? I think that just plain or painted buildings can still look a bit like foamcore buildings where adding the texture covers the edges up and disguises the fact that its foamcore a bit.

Thanks for the link! I think we might try doing a few buildings like that, we have not completely decided what we want our board to represent. Whether that is an industrial complex, city blocks, etc. So we will probably hold off on painting and such till we decide that.

Something else that occurred to me was that we need to create some scatter terrain. Does anyone have any recommendations? I suppose we can use the foamcore, to make crates and platers, but we would like a variety of things on the table!

Scatter terrain depends a decent bit on what you want to represent with your board and how you expect to play it. Air conditioning units and vents, for example, can make nice scatter, but they'll only see use if you're playing on rooftops.

Probably best to start simple and generic, until you have a better idea of your plan. Shipping containers, crates, and barrels work nicely for this, as do things like garbage cans and dumpsters, which you can find just about anywhere. They're a bit dirty for a sleek, futuristic city, but you can download paper terrain files for a few scatter pieces from this site and use them to skin simple cardboard/foamcore shapes. Takes the image manipulation duties off of you, so you can knock them out quickly and easily.

I thought i had posted it already but here is a link to my paint thread on the Infinity forums. http://infinitythegame.com/forum/index.php?/topic/3230-medusas-paint-shop-mint-karakuri/page-4 It has some ideas for making scatter terrain (usually from things you can eat or drink first! ) If its just for your use various bits of junk can make perfectly good scatter terrain with a bit of paint.

I appreciate the links and ideas guys! We are going to start making the terrain this evening and I'll be sure to post some pictures.

I believe the only thing I need to pick up now is pvc glue. Are there any brands that are better than others or will elmers orange tip stuff work fine?

If you mean pva then elmers glue should be fine. I used some generic white glue on my buildingsand they're pretty solid. I also added some extra strips of foamcore next to the joints to give them some added strength and to make lining up the joints a bit easier.

Id figure Foam core, rulers, knives or blades, hot glue gun, pva or wood glue, sand, Cheap craft paints, Varnish.

If your going to spray prime the terrain seal the exposed foam to avoid it melting into a mess.

I highly recommend Aleene's Tacky Glue for foamcore. It makes good, strong joints and with foamcore, that's a good thing.

Holesaws and jigsaws work pretty well at cutting foamboard as well, so long as they're sharp. It pleased me to no end to be able to do 45degree cuts on foamboard.

Also, I recommend basing any terrain you make with hardboard. Foamcore tends to warp. Bring twice as many knife blades as you think you need--foamcore wears those out quickly.