Help on terrain and buildings

Hey there

I was wondering what you guys use for making terrain pieces, and Buildings? Styrofoam, clay, green stuff, Wood, or?

Appreciate anything on the subject

Kroxy out!

 

That's the great thing about terrain building... you can use just about anything. There are plenty of great blogs on this forum from which you can gain some great ideas. @Crowsfoot made an amazing watchtower once out of Coca-Cola cups! (and won the terrain building contest with it!).

I myself build a lot of my terrain pieces using wood. Partially because I have familiarity with it it (via Scroll Sawing) and partially because I am not nearly as skilled with insulation foam as many of the members on this forum.

It's a good idea to keep a box of potential terrain building materials. When something interesting catches your eye, put it a side for later.

Do you know the difference between these? Have you worked with both? Are they different in any way besides colour?

 

Look around your hous, there is probaly plastic containes. Go to a hardwood/home reno store flooring section, ask for samples of vinyl or linolium or laminate samples, all make great bases. Come up with the build, but you can make a lot of stuff with what you plan on recycling. Foam board is great for walls, you can peel paper from one side, and draw a brick pattern on with a pen, this will indent the foam so it will be easier to paint as a brick and mortar building.

 

Foam core is a godsend for walls, and cork bark makes excellent rubble for crumbling masonry. Plant roots depending on their size can make for awesome deadfall, vines ,dead trees, rotting stumps or extremely realistic frames for clump foliage trees.

 

I use lots of toothpicks skewers chopsticks and stuff like that. Good for fences palisades and every wooden thing that has a rough look like crafted from tree trunks... also some real stones can make nice rocks... I like to use them when I need to add some extra weight... And I use paper/cardboard and some polymeric clays from the 1€store.... And cork in all forms...

 

+1 to this, especially lovely porous ones with lots of texture such as Coraline aragonite or lava rock(both of which are extremely easy to find at aquarium supply stores)

 

Thanks for all the input!

I think i'll go to home depot one of the coming days and see if i can find some of that foam you guys were talking about. :3

 

You can use plain old white Styrofoam (also the other kinds), but you have to cover it with something before priming,
I found that powered water putty, makes for a great indestructible surface.
It also lends itself well to just dropping rock and sand into its surface while its wet.
Also you can use a mixture of white glue and water to cover your foam.

Anyway check out my blog for lots of terrain building tips and WIP pictures of projects.

 

Lots of great terrain examples on this site, and even more on youtube!

I like this channel, taught me how to use water effects (Woodland Scenics)

 

terragenesis is a great source as well.

 

I use my 3D printer. Which is mostly cheating I think, still need to get around to painting most of it. I only have a single tower painted up so far.

 

Is there a dedicated terrain sub-forum here I forget?

{{{ ...goes to look... }}}

Looks like there is not. Or I am too navigationally challenged to find it.

 

That thread is very useful! Is it indexed somewhere for easy access too?