Tabletop Terrain Painting Tips

I just wanted to write a brief "Quick Tip" on painting your terrain pieces. Depending on the size of the piece, you will want to have two good soft bristle brushes. One for painting the base color or wet brushing a wash coat and the other for dry brushing to bring out the highlights of the piece.

Lets assume you are painting a rock terrain piece that is made of the insulation foam with out any drywall mud. First, paint the entire piece with black acrylic paint. Let it dry for about an hour. Next, use a stone grey color paint or mix black and white to give you the desired color of grey. Dip your brush and than wipe off all the excess paint buy dabbing it into a terry cloth towel or paper towel. The goal is to remove most of the pigment from the brush. Once done, light brush the surface of the rock. As you do, you will notice that the grey paint is adhering to the higher texture of the rock, leaving the lowere area black or darker.

This technique create depth in your piece. Crevices will be dark, points and high spots will be lighter, just like in nature. Once this is complete, let dry for about half an hour. Next simple use white paint and wipe off the excess paint like you did for the grey. Paint it on lightly. As you do this, you will see your piece come to life. This is my favorite step in painting terrain. It is an easy way to make your game board come alive with realistic playable pieces of art.

Until next time...Keep building your world.

John

Broken Ground Terrain Piece (Part 2 of 3)

OK, let's get started.  For this terrain piece, you will need the following tools and supplies:

1. 3/4 inch blue insulation foam
2. Wall joint mud
3. Small ballast (from hobby shop)
4. Hot glue gun
5. Wire foam cutter
6. Palete knives
7. Box cutter

Step 1:
The first step is drawing your bbase on the foam. This piece will be about 12" long, 5" wide and almost 4-1/2" high.

Draw the base

Step 2:
Next usining your wire cutter, cut along the lines at a 45 degree angle so the base has a slope.

Base is now cut

Step 3:
We are now going to trace and cut the 2nd level of the broken land. This base will also be cut at a 45 degree angle, but first you need to place the top of the base on a new piece of foam. Take a pen and trace the base onto the new foam.

Get ready for the 2nd level

Place base top on new foam

Outline of 2nd level

Next, cut the foam with your foam cutter. Cut with the traced lines up, angle the wire in and trace the outline as best you can. the edge of this piece will meet with the top of the base piece.

Cut inwards

Finished 2nd level

You now want to repeat this process for the next 3 pieces. But this time to not cut at an angle. Instead cut at 90 degrees. Remember, these cuts do not have to be perfect. You are only making a skeleton of the finished product, so don't stress if it is off a bit.

3 more top pieces

Plug in your hot glue gun

Glued pieces

Step 4:
Glue all the pieces together.

Step 5:
Now that you have the basic design cut and glued, it time to add the texture. Using your palet knife, spread the drywall mud evenly over the entire piece. Don't worry about a smooth coat or even if you miss spot. Nothing in nature is perfect and neither is your broken land.

Wall board compound

Pallet Knife

Piece with wall board compound

Another angle

Step 6:
Next sprinkle the small ballast on the base with the wet compound. When dry, this will create extra texture to the overall piece design.

Ballast on base of broken land

Now you have to wait about 24 hours to proceed with the next step. In the third and final part of this series, we will paint and flock using several techniques to create a realistic piece of art you can play with.

Until next time
John

Broken Ground Terrain Piece (Part 1 of 3)

Greetings!

This is the first of a three part post building a tabletop terrain piece from start to finish. This step by step tutorial will show you how to build great "Broken Ground" terrain pieces for your board.  The Broken Ground piece is similar to the deserts of the American southwest with its canyons and mesas.  If you can picture those giant rock formations that stand striaght and tall as the base slope out from a million years of erosion.  The color is a desert brown and can be used in all types of game play from 15mm - 28mm.  We recently used several of these same type of hills for the warhammer 40K game Aeronatuica Imperialis at Games Day Baltimore, 2008. 

This post is the introduction, the next post will include cutting, gluing and texturing followed by the third post of painting, flocking and sealing your finished piece.  Subscribe to our blog today and don't miss this great learning series.

until next time

John

Build A Simple Terrain Hill (Pictorial)

Here is a quick picture tutorial on how to build a simple grass hill for your terrain game board.  The tools used are a wire cutter and hot glue gun.  The materials are blue foam board, Green, Brown and Black acrylic paint, grass flock, Mod podge. and an imagination.

Building you own terrain piece is what ever you can picture in your mind. The one shown above is simple, yet it is a good piece to set on any table.  As I continue to post, more and more projects will become more detailed, elaborate and genuine works of art.

Until next time - John

Tools used to create your own Wargame Terrain

Greetings,

Today, I'm going to talk about some of the basic tools you would need to start building your own terrain scenery.

The first tool needed is a foam cutter.  This can be a simple battery operated one that can be found at most hobby shops and craft stores.  The foam cutter is used to melt the insulation foam around your piece to produce a smooth yet realistic cut.  They can be used for straight cuts or angled to make slopes on the base terrain piece.  The foam cutter is also great for making cliff faces and rough cuts.  Once you decide terrain building is something you will continue to do, you can invest in an electric foam cutter.  They average about $35.00 - $45.00 but can save you time and money in the cost of batteries.

Tools Of The Wargame Terrain trade

Other tools you need are a good box cutter for cutting smaller pieces of foam from your main 4'x8' insulation board.  You shoul also invest in a good exacto knife.  Next, pallet knives are also a must for applying drywall compound over the foam.

Paint brushes ranging from 1 inch down to fine for wet brushing the base coats over the drywall to drybrushing the highlights.  With paint brushes, you should also have a good variety of acrylic paints.  Most used will be Black, White, Green, and Brown.  I also use Blues and Yellows to add contrast and realism.  Also invest in a package of 2 - 4 oz dixie cups and wooden stir sticks to mix and hold paints.

That pretty much all the tools you would need to start building your own wargame scenery pieces. 

My next post will touch on some basic materials needed to get started!

Until next time...

John