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So, I've been keen to get started building a table and covering it with scenery so me and my nephew can have some interesting games of 40k (although I do have a couple small fantasy armies, we could try that at some point too )

I'm pretty sure I want to make a flat table with place-able terrain pieces each on bases of mdf or something like that.

What I'm not so sure about is what terrain to get/make, how much we need, etc etc.

I quite like the GW terrain sets, although not the prices... I could probably stretch to get an imperial sector + a few of the seperate building pieces. Or alternatively a tempestus firebase set, and some of the wall of martys stuff.

So I thought Id throw it out there, would that be enough scenery for a nicely variable game? (not being much of a player this is an area where Im totally not sure lol) will I feel like I need more? twice as much? less?
Any good alternative kits? (maybe a £200ish upper budget) or nice and easy diy projects? I'm happy to build it, but being a father of a 1 year old... well theres just not the spare time for it that there used to be :( and it'd take me till this time next year to piece together a decent set of things to play around. So to that end I dont mind shelling out some pennies, particularly if its as detailed as the models themselves

The realm of battle board, I think Il pass on, I can make that out of ply or mdf (albeit heavier) fairly cheaply.


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No one got any comments about how much scenery is realistically needed to have a decent game?

Or ideas for scenery outside of GW?

I would say about 25% terrain...which is actually quite a lot, square footage wise.

You want pieces of varying heights to block line of sight.

First up is to decide the "theme" you want for your terrain;

* wilderness
* buildings
* ruins
* desert
* ice world
* etc.

Pegasus hobbies has great looking gothic building terrain for good prices, and gale force nine has a lot of very good "battlefield in the box" sets.

There are tons of great tutorials and terrain making vids on youtube if you want to make your own - its not every expensive and if you enjoy the crafting process, can be a lot of fun.

OMG thank you sir for that pegasus gaming link, they will be making roughly 200$ off of me in the next 7 days lol.

When you make the table, Make it 42-48" tall so you can put a shelf @ the 18-24" make for storage of said gaming material.

CDs make excellent bases for terrain pucks - small features which can range fron flat areas with a few patches of grass, some trees or rocks to ruina or chaos terrain like floating rock spires and lava pits etc.

I have a lot of plain flat ones with some static grass on to make my table a bit more interesting to look at, as well as some with rock spires (my table is desert themed and the spires are made out of broken up polystyrene covered in polyfiller sculpted with a toothpick to look like wind erroded rock) and some with corners of ruins. There are a few pictures in my gallery.

Awesome, thanks for the ideas, suggestions and helpful tips

Quite like the look of those kits from Pegasus hoibbies, Grabbing a few of those could give me a lot of scope for piecing something together, only really lacking 40k specific detailing compared to the GW terrain.
The galeforce nine stuff, well Ive had a quick browse through, and it looks like a great range for fantasy or WW2 games. But less so with 40k, only really the ruined gothic building sets look suitable to me.
For a theme I'm fairly open right now, not having started theres nothing set in stone.
I've always liked the look of the urban city tables out there, but they looked like sooo much work has gone into them that It would be more a long term project.

So far I'm leaning towards trying to get some of the pegasus hobbies kits shipped to me (or locating some closer to home), 'Syber clicks' 'platformer' 'hexagon' 'power plant' and 'chemical plant' all look very fitting for a Sci-fi industrial area / city and could be used to make no end of things byu the looks of it. Maybe combine them with the GW cities of death stuff for some variety

edit; :( most dissapointingly I'm struggling to find the pegasus hobby stuff available in the UK, I probably wouldve got; hexagon, platformer, chem plant, power plant and syberclicks all at the same time, but they dont do international shipping. Can find maybe the platformer or hexagon kits elsewhere for a really inflated price, anyone know where we can pick up these kits for UK shipping?

Glad the info helped....

The galeforce nine stuff, well Ive had a quick browse through, and it looks like a great range for fantasy or WW2 games. But less so with 40k, only really the ruined gothic building sets look suitable to me.

40k can be played on anything. really.

Colony worlds with forests hills and small buildings.
desert wastelands with dunes, rock ridges and a maybe a few crashed ships.
frozen plains of glacier and ice, with giant crystals stabbing toward the sky, and ice flows
burnt lands with lava flows and giant obsidian rock outcrops
small starports, or landing fields with a few buildings, a big landing pad area and some surrounding hills and a few trees.
barren blasted lands with pools of oil and toxic waste, with junk piles and wrecks everywhere.
an ancient valley filled with the remains of long dead beasts and moisture collection devices...
mud filled plains crossed with trenches, embankments and bastions...
An industrial complex filled with cranes giant chemical tanks and catwalks.

The possibilities are endless.

Take a look through the books, battle reports and millions of gaming pictures on the net - city fight games are a lot more rare than people think - while the gothic ruins are iconic, they are not the norm.

For a theme I'm fairly open right now, not having started theres nothing set in stone.

Thats great - I would just make sure not to pidgin hole your creativity with any preconceived limitations of what a 40k table "looks like".

I've always liked the look of the urban city tables out there, but they looked like sooo much work has gone into them that It would be more a long term project.

City tables indeed are a lot of work - and are maybe best for a long term project.

I would start first with a basic outdoor table - some hills, water features and a few scattered buildings. there are tons of sci-fi buildings out there, or if you want to make your own, dozens of great terrain channels on youtube on making cheap terrain (terrainaholic and rubbish-in-rubbish-out are two that easily come to mind).

best of luck and have fun!

Thanks for the input.

As it happens I just found the pegasus sets at wayland games listed under 'Conflix' Terain construction sets.

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/conflix/terrain-construction-systems/cat_1091.html

Which has made me happy

Yeah while 40k can, and does happen on any setting one can imagine (one of the best things about it really) I don't know why precisely, but Im keen on the urban / industrial / military installation kind of settings with small - medium sized encounters as being the most exciting.... Maybe it was playing through the Space Marine shooter/slasher game, but I really liked that industrial city it took place in.

Having a flat (lightly textured or clothed) board, with placable based scenery would let me arrange a totally different land scape with new scenery pieces later on so I can still try out some more open grounds and rather different settings down the line.

Allthough oneday I'd like to try my hand at one of the foam based city boards with depth and height to it, theres some really stunning pieces around.

2x2 foam insulation boards are carried by Home Depot now.

 Thokt wrote:
2x2 foam insulation boards are carried by Home Depot now.

Im in the UK, so no Home Depot... but one of our DIY home improvement type stores might do them. I'l have a looksy when it comes to going for the timber part.

Still I want a relatively quick build paint and set up for this board, so keeping it simple is probably the best bet.

Storage is an issue as having a 6by4(plus a bit if i have a books+dice area) table kicking around is a fairly serious commitment of space in an already cluttered place.
Something that folds away, perhaps sitting atop an existing table that could be cleared for the purpose of a game, perhaps with attachable legs.. we'l see.

I've been shopping for terrain to place about ti a fair bit online, and so far I'm looking at getting some Conflix Hexagon, Platformer, Power Plant, Chemical Plant and maybe Syberclicks sets from Wayland Games, combined with some of the GW sets, I like both the Walls of Martys and the Cities of Death themes they have in their buildings, but cant realistically splash out on all of it trying to decide which GW sets will better compliment the Conflix stuff. Probably a little of both will turn out the best.
Rather than keeping all the buildings loose, I think I'l be getting some thin ply or mdf and make sceneic bases for a selection of buildings that can be scattered across the board.

If all goes to plan, I'l likely document the process of getting my table together on here as a blog/guide for others who might be thinking about the same things.

Finally got my funding sorted out for this project

Had a box of vintage old citadel figures in the loft which have been ebayed off, the listings ended today and its just a matter of awaiting payment and posting off the models to their new homes.

Managed to raise a modest 150 pounds from the lot. Which I'm quite pleased with.
All proceeds are intedned to go towards this gaming table

My brother is a builder by trade and has a bunch of tools
(he's not quite an Artisan Carpenter unfortunatly but he'l do)
The plan is to make a folding table legs that tuck away underneath, with a lip around the top to secure 6 modular tiles, which may or may not be double sided
Without really checking any prices my brother suggested that £50 will easily cover building the table part, leaving me roughly 100 to get some scenery to go on it... I just dont know what to get hehe.

Given a budget of 100 pounds.. what would you do to cover your gaming board in terrain?

Answers on a post(card ... hehe) below.

I would honestly look on Kickstarter before you did anything else. There are a ton of kickstarters that are dealing with table terrain these days, and it can be a great way to get some excellent battlefield scenery to work with.

 bossfearless wrote:
I would honestly look on Kickstarter before you did anything else. There are a ton of kickstarters that are dealing with table terrain these days, and it can be a great way to get some excellent battlefield scenery to work with.

^^This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for hehe, something that hadnt occured to me before Thanks very muchly for the suggestion.

Would love to hear from everyone else

First of all, if you have terrain-making skills $100 (around 61 GBP?) is more than a loooot.

But if you rather want to play with them straight away and you want lots of terrain for a limited budget, Amera is the way to go. They're a little soft in the detail but good enough. Their terrain pieces go from 3 to 9 pounds each.
http://www.amera.co.uk/

 heartserenade wrote:
First of all, if you have terrain-making skills $100 (around 61 GBP?) is more than a loooot.

But if you rather want to play with them straight away and you want lots of terrain for a limited budget, Amera is the way to go. They're a little soft in the detail but good enough. Their terrain pieces go from 3 to 9 pounds each.
http://www.amera.co.uk/

Oh 100GBP lol not $, just gota wait for the bidders to sort the financials out and I can look at what to get.

I've no problems scratch building... although very little experience with it. Would like to give it a go, but will be needing to get some premade/store bought stuff to get us started as the free time to build is limited between work and my baby, so in the spirit of getting a table with some terrain asap im happy to spend upto (maybe over if necessary) the stated budget on stuff and things for it hehe. perhaps include some quality scratch building supplies and any special tools that are needed too.

Let me point you in the right direction with terrain-making. Now, let's start with something basic that almost every board will need: hills.

Now you'll see there's an abundance of hill tutorials out there, but this is the best one by far:

http://www.3t-studios.com/archives/2642

If you solidify the theme you want for your board, me and the others would be very happy to point out specific tutorials and terrain pieces to go with your board. Good luck!

Thanks heartserenade, those 3T studios hills are really nice looking, I'l be sure to make some of those.

Will probably grab a pack or some sheets (however it comes) of foam core, and plasticard sheets/pieces. Just to play around with and see what I can make. It all sounds like good fun hehe just time consuming.

So the hundred pounds idea is about having something to game around straight away, that I can add too or replace later.

I've spotted GW Imperial Sector for £52 at one 3rd party stockist. And the conflix/pegasus hexagon and platformer sets at another retailer, I'm still leaning towards getting both and combining the kits into whatever I can muster.
Just looking for other options and ideas before I actually get going really lol.

For a board theme 40k wise I want buildings, maybe a city, maybe industrial or military complex, or something religious for chaos to befoul
Industrial sounds good to me, lots of potential objective and mission opportunities for my looting orks.
While other armies that will probably step foot here are Dark Angels and Chaos Marines. Anything that will help me forge narratives around those is great for this (perhaps a shrine / artefact to fight over, or a corrupted city scape etc etc or just imperial installations would work well - abandoned, defiled or functional all cool and useful

Its also looking like Kings of War is on the cards, so having a reversible surface to play fantasy games on or a surface suitable for both would probably be a good call.
I know theres plenty of crossover in landscapes for both settigns, but the obvious fantasy lush grassy plains just doesnt sit well with me for 40k 'grimdark' setting

I'd reccomend the Deadzone scenery from Mantic.
http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/pre-order/deadzone/product/deadzone-scenery-upgrade-pack.html
You could maybe get it cheaper somewhere else too.

I got some of their scenery on kickstarter and I love that it can be assembled into lots of different structures, and then reassembled into something else.

I know there are also ruined versions coming out eventually which will probably look more 40kish. Not sure when though

I just bought some stuff from http://www.minibits.net/ which, to me, represent very good value for money.
I would then get some pink or blue rigid PIR insulation - your brother should be able to get you some offcuts for free or try B&Q if not.
Use a bread knife (the ones with a wobbly blade) to shape into hills.
Also try http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/wargames-scenery-terrain/sci-fi-scenery-terrain.html

I think you are on the right lines with the Imperial Sector boxset Hairy.

To be fair to GW their terrain kits are very good and one like the IS can be stretched out a long way when combined with Foamcard or cardboard. I.e use the foamcard for sizing and the IS to detail and give the piece a 40k flavour.

Good exponents of this is Dakka's own Panic and ArbitorIan. I've had the pleasure of playing on there tables a few times and they always look great and very 40k without just being GW kits. I would suggest a look at this thread (spot the Pegasus kits too) - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270642.page

Something that I've also played on and is very cheap a board is an underhive board made simply with foam walls on a board base. The chaps at the Overloards club made this but we added a load of terrain detailing bits for cover. Worth considering;

[url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/526608-Interior%2C%20Necromunda%2C%20Terrain%2C%20Tunnels.html]
[/url]

The detailing bits are from Bandua and Spartan and quite reasonably priced.

My final pointer would be for the excellent products from Table Scape, they're are made from an expanded foam that has a hard surface,comes ready painted and is as tough as hell.

Also google "games workshop necromundaa table" the result is a fantatic example of the GW stuff with DIY materials.

Might be a bit late to the party, but Amera plastics makes some good terrain and ruined city sections worth checking out. There stuff can be found on ebay as well as their website.

 heartserenade wrote:
Let me point you in the right direction with terrain-making. Now, let's start with something basic that almost every board will need: hills.

Now you'll see there's an abundance of hill tutorials out there, but this is the best one by far:

http://www.3t-studios.com/archives/2642

If you solidify the theme you want for your board, me and the others would be very happy to point out specific tutorials and terrain pieces to go with your board. Good luck!

Wow, that is a very effective and simply way to make amazing hills. Thanks for the link