Pr0fane
04-06-2006, 12:30 AM
OK, the second board is done for the GAMA demos (still no water in the swamp :( ). I added more grass than I planned, but such is life. I decided to make the terrain a little less stark than my Wasteland terrain so it would have at least a little color. All the bushes and tall rock formations are removeable so that you can add as few or as many as needed. Suggestions welcome if you think this board or the Swamp needs something else done.
Sorry the pictures are not better, but I have been home sick today and did not feel like fancy lights and tripods etc. . . . First picture is a before I drybrushed and added details picture for comparison.
Oh, if you can't identify the Colorful Foes in the pictures, you need to go back and retake Sci-Fi Miniature Wargames 101 at your local hobby store. :roll:
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133094/930140rockyterrain1.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934189RockyTerrain1.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934190RockyTerrain2.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934191RockyTerrain3.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934192RockyTerrain4.JPG
Well, I will give this a shot, but if I miss something or you have questions, please fire away.
1.) First step in this project was getting the round wood base. Normally I would suggest hardboard or some other very hard and warp resistant material to base your foam against, but here I needed a round surface and did not have the tools or time to cut it myself. What I used is a precut table top from HomeDepot made of particle board (approx. $3.50)
2.) I needed to add a number of elevations and some texture to the surface, so I used blue insulation foam from Lowes (Home Improvement Store). There are two types of foam Insulation suitable for making terrain. One type is blue and one is pink depending on what company made it. Both are very dense foam that cuts very well with a long razor knife or a foam cutter like I use. I prefer the blue over the pink since most of the pink foam has a beveled edge for joining pieces together that I do not want or need. You may also find that the foam comes in various thickness for a standard 1/2 inch to as much as 2 or 3 inches. I live in the sunny south, so all we can get is the 1/2 variety. :x The thicker pieces work well for making all kinds of hills and rock formations, but if you are stuck with thin stuff like me, well then you have to glue lots of sheets together to get a good thickness.
3.) Cutting and shaping foam is a special art depending on what you want to do with it. I have a Foam Factory Setup that I use for most of my foam cutting. You can see it here http://www.hotwirefoamfactory.com/products/customer/home.php I would say that such tools are very expensive for the casual gamer, but if you plan to make a lot of terrain, they are well worth the price. I also use several wood burning tools with a variety of tips to sculpt foam. Sand paper can also be used on the pick and blue foam, but it tends to tear up the standard paking foam that you see made from little pelets or balls. You may also see battery powered foam cutters in hobby and craft stores, but they eat batteries VERY fast and are not very flexible in how they can be used.
As you can see from the pictures, I wanted a rock surface that looked windswept that showed where it was segmented in layers over time. To do this, I used my foam sculpting tool, a wire between two arms that I can bend either flat and straight or into an outward curve, to cut the various pieces. Basically I just started cutting and jiggled the cutter a lot to produce the jagged zig-zag cuts. This takes a little practice, but I have done a lot of pieces this way and it eventually becomes second nature. The ability to curve the wire outward in a half circles allows me to make rounded cuts into the foam. You can see these in many areas of the rock. The Scroll Table cutter allowed me to round off the terrain to fit the boards after it was glued down. Not sure how I could hae done this so cleanly without the special cutter? :)
4.) Glue and Foam. Normally I glue foam with wood glue since it is very strong, normally water proof and I can buy it buy the gallon (yep, big massive bottles of glue). You can also use products such as Liquid Nails and white glue, but if you are ever unsure about the glue, test it first since many glues eat foam. You could also use hot glue if you do not wish to wait, but it has a few drawbacks. Hot glue must be used only on a cool setting, so if your glue gun does not say it is cool or does not have two settings, expect that it is HOT. HOT glue will melt big holes in foam in a hurry. Even when using "cool" hot glue, it can still melt some types of foam in a bad way, so again check first. One advantage of hot glue is that many wire foam cutters can cut through it if you need to make corrections after gluing (you CAN NOT use a wire cutter through Liquid Nails or most other glues so be careful). Hot glue tends to keep pieces from going completely together, so gaps are more common between layers using it than using other glues. Overall, it will take some experience to decide what works best for you. Oh, if its already glued and you need to make a correction that the wire foam cutter can't do, you should still be able to use a razor knife and sandpaper.
5.) Painting foam. First and most important lesson, Spray Paint EATS FOAM!!!! Never directly spay paint foam since 90% of foams and paints do not mix well. The paint will eat away the foam in unpredictable ways and you hard work can quickly disappear. Always coat foam with something before spray painting it. I would suggest latex house paint for most purposes. You can look at the reject paint in most home improvement stores and get a decent terrain color for $5.00 rather than $15.00+ for a normal can. Also, brown and gray tend to be mixed badly very often, so you should be able to find one of them in the reject section. You can use materials such as Artist Gesso (used to cover canvas for painting) or water putty mixed into a think solution to cover the foam, but in most cases, stick with the house paint.
6.) If you wish to add texture to the surface, you can always take a plastic cup and fill it part way with latex paint. Add sand to the paint and mix it all together. You can then paint the sand onto the surface of the foam to add texture and the paint will bonded it all together. Make sure that you have a base coat first before the sand and do not try to skip a step since the sand and paint mixture will NOT cover very well and you will likely have gaps that could allow spray paint or sealer to ge to the foam. In some cases you can add fine sand to wet paint and it will stick, but not as well as if it was mixed into the paint.
7.) Once you have done the under coat and made VERY certain that no foam is showing any where, then you can use spray paint and sealers on the foam. With this in mind, you may want to look at the first picture I included of the unfinished terrain. You will notice a glossy black wash over the entire thing. I did this to add some highlights and recesses, but it also had a very important function. It was to seal holes in some of the foam I used. Since I was using some cheap packing foam for my rock spires, they had lots of tiny holes in them that the latex would not sink into. I have lost many a rock formation when I sealed them due to these holes, so I had to find a way to stop the wreckage. I found that buy mixing Future Floor Wax (yep the same stuff that many folks use to paint minis) and paint, I could make a very nice paint/ink wash that had the side benefit of sealing my little foam holes. Future Floor Wax is an acrylic bonder, so it works like a thin coat of acrylic paint over the entire surface of my terrain. The wash dries glossy, so plan on a spray matte finish being needed toward the end of this entire process.
At this point you can add spray paint to the terrain. I often use various colors of brown and tan to add soem detain to the surface of my rock and dirt. Try and blend the paint some using various layers so that you do not have stark areas of one color or another. After the next step, it will all hopefully blend together. You may want to add another wash at this point so that any areas where the spray paint covered your recesses and highlights will stand out again. (Oh, do to limited supplies, I did not use spray paint on the terrain shown.)
8.) Time to dry brush the terrain surfaces. I am not going to explain dry brushing here in detail, but its when you wipe most of the paint off you brush until its almost dry and then run the brush over the object your painting. The raised surfaces will receive the most paint, while the under surfaces will recieve little or none. This is a fast, but not very accurate, way to paint a large are and bring out the details. Many layers of progressively lighter colors are used with less and less paint being applied and then only to the edges that receive the most light. Since this destroys brushes and eats up a lot of paint, I suggest really cheap materials for both. Get a large cheap brush to use on your terrain. You will likely have to toss it out after this, so make sure its just good enough not to drop hairs all over the terrain as you work. You will also want to use cheap craft paints like Apple Barrel or CreamCoat etc that are about a dollar each bottle from Wal-Mart etc. DO NOT use you mini paints since they cost way too much and will not produce a noticeably better result.
9.) Flock and Static Grass. In this case I would recommend Woodland Scenics products that are widely available (EXCEPT their crappy EZ Water Product!!!). I would not use GW flock since it is way too expensive for terrain making. You can select a large variety of colors and textures for the terrain. I used static grass for this board, but often use standard flock for really large areas where I do not have the ground/dirt showing through. Make sure to mix colors of grass and flock to ensure a more realistic appearance since nature is not all one color of green or brown. You have two ways to add flock. First, it can be added early on to a second coat of wet latex paint. This is a fast way of making terrain if you do not have areas you plan to dry brush (like when all you are doing is grass and all the trees and buildings etc will be on separate modular bases). The paint normally does a great job of holding the flock down. Second, you can use white glue or scenic glue (Woodland Scenics product that dries very flat / non-glossy) mixed with a little water. Whether using paint or glue, brush it on and sprinkle the flock/grass into it until it is completely covered. Make sure that you press down on the flock a little so that it sticks. You will beend to add a lot of flock or grass to ensure the are is properly covered. Once the glue has dried, shake of the excess into a box on onto a piece of plastic since it is expensive and there is not need to waste it.
10.) Sealing the grass and terrain surface. I recommend a matte spray sealer such as that made by Krylon or PlasticCoat. These are easy to find at Wal-Mart or a home improvement store and will work fine. If you want a really flat surface use Testor's Dullcoat (its very expensive to use on terrain). Make sure NOT to soak any areas of foam where you thing the sealer might soak through the paint and eat the foam. The sealer will also help attach the flock, grass and sand a little better.
OK, now you need to make trees and buildings and such, but that is for another time and place. I have written way too much now.
Good luck and let me know if you have more questions.
Sorry the pictures are not better, but I have been home sick today and did not feel like fancy lights and tripods etc. . . . First picture is a before I drybrushed and added details picture for comparison.
Oh, if you can't identify the Colorful Foes in the pictures, you need to go back and retake Sci-Fi Miniature Wargames 101 at your local hobby store. :roll:
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133094/930140rockyterrain1.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934189RockyTerrain1.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934190RockyTerrain2.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934191RockyTerrain3.JPG
http://prod.bsis.bellsouth.net/coDataImages/p/Groups/102/102860/folders/133628/934192RockyTerrain4.JPG
Well, I will give this a shot, but if I miss something or you have questions, please fire away.
1.) First step in this project was getting the round wood base. Normally I would suggest hardboard or some other very hard and warp resistant material to base your foam against, but here I needed a round surface and did not have the tools or time to cut it myself. What I used is a precut table top from HomeDepot made of particle board (approx. $3.50)
2.) I needed to add a number of elevations and some texture to the surface, so I used blue insulation foam from Lowes (Home Improvement Store). There are two types of foam Insulation suitable for making terrain. One type is blue and one is pink depending on what company made it. Both are very dense foam that cuts very well with a long razor knife or a foam cutter like I use. I prefer the blue over the pink since most of the pink foam has a beveled edge for joining pieces together that I do not want or need. You may also find that the foam comes in various thickness for a standard 1/2 inch to as much as 2 or 3 inches. I live in the sunny south, so all we can get is the 1/2 variety. :x The thicker pieces work well for making all kinds of hills and rock formations, but if you are stuck with thin stuff like me, well then you have to glue lots of sheets together to get a good thickness.
3.) Cutting and shaping foam is a special art depending on what you want to do with it. I have a Foam Factory Setup that I use for most of my foam cutting. You can see it here http://www.hotwirefoamfactory.com/products/customer/home.php I would say that such tools are very expensive for the casual gamer, but if you plan to make a lot of terrain, they are well worth the price. I also use several wood burning tools with a variety of tips to sculpt foam. Sand paper can also be used on the pick and blue foam, but it tends to tear up the standard paking foam that you see made from little pelets or balls. You may also see battery powered foam cutters in hobby and craft stores, but they eat batteries VERY fast and are not very flexible in how they can be used.
As you can see from the pictures, I wanted a rock surface that looked windswept that showed where it was segmented in layers over time. To do this, I used my foam sculpting tool, a wire between two arms that I can bend either flat and straight or into an outward curve, to cut the various pieces. Basically I just started cutting and jiggled the cutter a lot to produce the jagged zig-zag cuts. This takes a little practice, but I have done a lot of pieces this way and it eventually becomes second nature. The ability to curve the wire outward in a half circles allows me to make rounded cuts into the foam. You can see these in many areas of the rock. The Scroll Table cutter allowed me to round off the terrain to fit the boards after it was glued down. Not sure how I could hae done this so cleanly without the special cutter? :)
4.) Glue and Foam. Normally I glue foam with wood glue since it is very strong, normally water proof and I can buy it buy the gallon (yep, big massive bottles of glue). You can also use products such as Liquid Nails and white glue, but if you are ever unsure about the glue, test it first since many glues eat foam. You could also use hot glue if you do not wish to wait, but it has a few drawbacks. Hot glue must be used only on a cool setting, so if your glue gun does not say it is cool or does not have two settings, expect that it is HOT. HOT glue will melt big holes in foam in a hurry. Even when using "cool" hot glue, it can still melt some types of foam in a bad way, so again check first. One advantage of hot glue is that many wire foam cutters can cut through it if you need to make corrections after gluing (you CAN NOT use a wire cutter through Liquid Nails or most other glues so be careful). Hot glue tends to keep pieces from going completely together, so gaps are more common between layers using it than using other glues. Overall, it will take some experience to decide what works best for you. Oh, if its already glued and you need to make a correction that the wire foam cutter can't do, you should still be able to use a razor knife and sandpaper.
5.) Painting foam. First and most important lesson, Spray Paint EATS FOAM!!!! Never directly spay paint foam since 90% of foams and paints do not mix well. The paint will eat away the foam in unpredictable ways and you hard work can quickly disappear. Always coat foam with something before spray painting it. I would suggest latex house paint for most purposes. You can look at the reject paint in most home improvement stores and get a decent terrain color for $5.00 rather than $15.00+ for a normal can. Also, brown and gray tend to be mixed badly very often, so you should be able to find one of them in the reject section. You can use materials such as Artist Gesso (used to cover canvas for painting) or water putty mixed into a think solution to cover the foam, but in most cases, stick with the house paint.
6.) If you wish to add texture to the surface, you can always take a plastic cup and fill it part way with latex paint. Add sand to the paint and mix it all together. You can then paint the sand onto the surface of the foam to add texture and the paint will bonded it all together. Make sure that you have a base coat first before the sand and do not try to skip a step since the sand and paint mixture will NOT cover very well and you will likely have gaps that could allow spray paint or sealer to ge to the foam. In some cases you can add fine sand to wet paint and it will stick, but not as well as if it was mixed into the paint.
7.) Once you have done the under coat and made VERY certain that no foam is showing any where, then you can use spray paint and sealers on the foam. With this in mind, you may want to look at the first picture I included of the unfinished terrain. You will notice a glossy black wash over the entire thing. I did this to add some highlights and recesses, but it also had a very important function. It was to seal holes in some of the foam I used. Since I was using some cheap packing foam for my rock spires, they had lots of tiny holes in them that the latex would not sink into. I have lost many a rock formation when I sealed them due to these holes, so I had to find a way to stop the wreckage. I found that buy mixing Future Floor Wax (yep the same stuff that many folks use to paint minis) and paint, I could make a very nice paint/ink wash that had the side benefit of sealing my little foam holes. Future Floor Wax is an acrylic bonder, so it works like a thin coat of acrylic paint over the entire surface of my terrain. The wash dries glossy, so plan on a spray matte finish being needed toward the end of this entire process.
At this point you can add spray paint to the terrain. I often use various colors of brown and tan to add soem detain to the surface of my rock and dirt. Try and blend the paint some using various layers so that you do not have stark areas of one color or another. After the next step, it will all hopefully blend together. You may want to add another wash at this point so that any areas where the spray paint covered your recesses and highlights will stand out again. (Oh, do to limited supplies, I did not use spray paint on the terrain shown.)
8.) Time to dry brush the terrain surfaces. I am not going to explain dry brushing here in detail, but its when you wipe most of the paint off you brush until its almost dry and then run the brush over the object your painting. The raised surfaces will receive the most paint, while the under surfaces will recieve little or none. This is a fast, but not very accurate, way to paint a large are and bring out the details. Many layers of progressively lighter colors are used with less and less paint being applied and then only to the edges that receive the most light. Since this destroys brushes and eats up a lot of paint, I suggest really cheap materials for both. Get a large cheap brush to use on your terrain. You will likely have to toss it out after this, so make sure its just good enough not to drop hairs all over the terrain as you work. You will also want to use cheap craft paints like Apple Barrel or CreamCoat etc that are about a dollar each bottle from Wal-Mart etc. DO NOT use you mini paints since they cost way too much and will not produce a noticeably better result.
9.) Flock and Static Grass. In this case I would recommend Woodland Scenics products that are widely available (EXCEPT their crappy EZ Water Product!!!). I would not use GW flock since it is way too expensive for terrain making. You can select a large variety of colors and textures for the terrain. I used static grass for this board, but often use standard flock for really large areas where I do not have the ground/dirt showing through. Make sure to mix colors of grass and flock to ensure a more realistic appearance since nature is not all one color of green or brown. You have two ways to add flock. First, it can be added early on to a second coat of wet latex paint. This is a fast way of making terrain if you do not have areas you plan to dry brush (like when all you are doing is grass and all the trees and buildings etc will be on separate modular bases). The paint normally does a great job of holding the flock down. Second, you can use white glue or scenic glue (Woodland Scenics product that dries very flat / non-glossy) mixed with a little water. Whether using paint or glue, brush it on and sprinkle the flock/grass into it until it is completely covered. Make sure that you press down on the flock a little so that it sticks. You will beend to add a lot of flock or grass to ensure the are is properly covered. Once the glue has dried, shake of the excess into a box on onto a piece of plastic since it is expensive and there is not need to waste it.
10.) Sealing the grass and terrain surface. I recommend a matte spray sealer such as that made by Krylon or PlasticCoat. These are easy to find at Wal-Mart or a home improvement store and will work fine. If you want a really flat surface use Testor's Dullcoat (its very expensive to use on terrain). Make sure NOT to soak any areas of foam where you thing the sealer might soak through the paint and eat the foam. The sealer will also help attach the flock, grass and sand a little better.
OK, now you need to make trees and buildings and such, but that is for another time and place. I have written way too much now.
Good luck and let me know if you have more questions.