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I've recently re-entered the world of war gaming, and started playing kill team. Other than three 'cover but non LOS blocking' craters, I have zero proper terrain. Even with some hastily koblled together extra terrain pieces (a couple of rhinos, and a gothic candle holder which works quite well as some kind of tower thing) there wasn't really as much as me and my friend wanted on the board, so we threw in a couple of polystyrene packing blocks that happened to be in the room.

Great from a tactical point of view, but obviously lacking in aesthetics. As such I want to turn them into... something. I'm drawing a blank though, its been about two decades since I made terrain from scratch. Any suggestions of what i could turn them into (that'd make sense with the size and shape) and any pointers on working with polysterene of this type? (Or links to tutorials!)

Even simple base coat of black and dry-brush of light gray will leave you with large line of sight blocking blocks of rockrette.
And painting a caution stripe of paint or a block numbers on them will give the pieces industrial look.

I'd think the easiest and quickest route to simple, nice looking LoS blocking terrain would be to carve those blocks to look like rock formations. If you have a hot wire cutter then you could have them shaped in minutes. But a good box old box cutter will do.

Paint em black, whack on some various shades of grey and away you go.
Only thing to remember is if you use a rattle can of paint then coat them in watered down PVA glue first, otherwise the chemicals in the spray paint will melt the styrene.

I tried to use ppolystyrene, but i thought just breaking it apart would make the jagged rocky texture, but its just small little balls instead. Not sure if carving them makes balls pop out creating rounded holes in it, good luck.

That depends on the method you use. A hot wire cutter melts the styrene as it cuts. So that leaves you with a nice smooth ball-popping-out-free surface. A sharp blade should also do a pretty good job of keeping your balls from popping out. It's really only when your blade starts to dull a little that it begins to catch and tear at the styrene that you encounter problems.


Also too add to my early post, If you want a more volcanic looking rock, or just something a little alien, a spritz of spray paint can actually create interesting effects in the styrene. Just don't go to heavy with it because it'll melt too much away.

You can also melt Interesting shapes into polystyrene using poly cement, although I'd do this outside as the fumes are toxic.

I’ve been using standard polystyrene for some of my scenery, creating rocks, trenches and craters; something I’ve found that helps is to coat it in air-drying modelling clay (non-branded Fimo). You can get a big block from craft stores for not a lot of cash and use it to coat a rough shaped block (or sculpt on it’s own). It’s light and tough once dried and it not only does it smooth out the surface, but also seals it against solvent spray.

Use a liberal amount of water to help it mould; I dampen the surface of the polystyrene and then dip a chunk of clay in a jug of water and sculpt it with my hands, then finish with a tool. It’s messy as hell, but very therapeutic!

Honestly that sort of polystyrene isn't great to work with.
Whatever you do make it cheap and quick.
For the amount of time, effort and materials it takes to make that stuff look good and stop it from crumbling, denting, chipping you can make something from scratch properly.

Awesome ideas. Can't decide between fimo and a hot wire cutter now!
Might have to flip a coin.

You could always pva some cereal box cardboard on the outside of it and turn them into small shanty buildings pretty easily.

should be sturdy enough for like a year or so before needing to be replaced which isnt bad for literal garbage.

I'd carve them into rocky shapes, and then put spackle or plaster on them to give them a more rock-like texture. Drywall spackle is super cheap and comes ready to use. You can just slather it on with cheap paintbrushes, spatulas or whatever.