Though the focus of the article pertains to the building of various terrain features for 6mm figures, many of the suggestions and techniques are applicable to virtually any figure gaming scale. What follows is a guide to provide ideas and production techniques of terrain items.
Terrain Requirements:
By experimenting with different materials we were eventually able to satisfy the following basic requirements;
Terrain Items:
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TREES : Coniferous (Fir) : Materials : Forest green bump chenille (from craft shop: costs $0.01 per tree), 1/2" metal washers (from hardware shop), primer, paint for base, glue. Production Steps : Prime and paint washers a suitable color to match underlying terrain. Cut chenille at narrow and wide sections to create the required cone shape. Glue chenille cone to the base. Repeat over and over ... |
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TREES : Deciduous (Leafy Types) : Materials : Bath or wash sponges, plastic bulletin board push-pins, 1/2" metal washers, primer, paint, glue. Production Steps : Prime and paint washers as above. Paint platic pin bases brown for the tree trunk and glue pin to base. Tear sponges into 3/4"-1" "balls" and glue to pointy pin end. Paint sponge varied green colors (oranges, yellows, and reds for fall colors). |
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ORCHARDS (Field variety) : Materials : Green 1/4" "pom-poms" and foam sheets (craft shop), black 3/4" carpeting nails, glue. Production Steps : Cut foam to required size and grid out the locations of the trees. Push nails through, gluing the heads to the sheet underside. Once dried, glue "pom-poms" to pointy end of the nail. |
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TREE ROWS (Lining Roads, etc.) : Materials : "Pom-poms" and nails as above, balsa wood strips (1/2 x 1/16)", paint, glue. Production Steps : Glue nail heads to balsa wood strip. Paint strip and trunks. Once dried, glue "pom-poms" to pointy end of the nail. In a pinch these rows can be lined up side by side for a needed orchard. |
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HEDGEROWS / VINEYARDS : Materials : Bath or wash sponges, balsa wood strips (3/8 x 1/16)", paint, glue. Production Steps : Cut sponge into long strips. Glue sponge strips to balsa wood . Paint balsa wood base and sponge strip suitable colors. In a pinch these rows can be lined up side by side for a vineyard or two. |
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ROADS / STREAMS / RIVERS / LAKES / PONDS : Materials : One foot sq. felt sheets (from craft store). Production Steps : Aside fromthe permanent terrain board features there always exists the need to customize the battlefield. Using cut strips of colored felt sheets works best as they are inexpensive, remain in place on the grass paper terrain boards, and very easy to use. |
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FARM FIELDS (Fallow and Cultivated) : Materials and Production Steps : For fallow fields we made use of a supply of earth tone cloth swatches, cut to rectangles. Cultivated fields are represented by cutting grass green indoor-outdoor carpeting into rectangles and squares. Easy-Peasy. |
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MARSHES (Bogs, Swamps, Wetlands) : Materials : Foam or felt sheets, paint. Materials and Production Steps : For marshes we made use of some brown or dark green felt/foam sheets cut to irregular shapes. Paints are used to give a patched look. In the exzmple to the left, some blue plastic sheeting was added to reflect bodies of water within the wetland. |
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BUILDINGS (Farm, Village, Town, Chateau) : Materials and Production Steps : We have made use of a wide variety of materials including; lead, resin and plaster castings, cardstock, and balsa wood. Individual buildings with trees, hedges, etc., have been fixed to three inch squares of foam sheet. This keeps the buildings static and allows us to build up larger towns by adding more building squares. |
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WALLS / WALLED CHATEAUS / COURTYARDS : Materials : Balsa wood strips (1/2 x 1/8)", paint, glue. Production Steps : If walls are stand alone then construction would be as hedgerows above. Wall sections can be accented with the occasional sponge "shrub". Commonly, we use walls for chateaus and other enclosures as pictured to the left. |
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EARTHWORKS (Redoubts, Fleches) : Materials : Triangle-shaped balsa wood strips, paint, glue. Production Steps : Production Steps : Cut, sand, glue, and paint the triangular shaped balsa wood strips. Paint brown tones for earth of greys for stone. The field fortifications can be as elaborate as you wish. |
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BRIDGES (Stone) : Materials : Balsa wood, paint, tape spool, resin, glue. Production Steps : Basic designs were taken from drawings and photographs. Arches of the stone bridge were fashioned from old adding machine tape spools. Filling the bridge "shell" with resin added some weight and solidness to the model. The bridge width is exagerrated to accomodate the figure blocks we use for our games. |
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BRIDGES (Wood) : Materials : Balsa wood, paint, glue. Production Steps : Basic designs were taken from drawings and photographs. Once again, the bridge width is exagerrated to accomodate the figure blocks we use for our games. |
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BRIDGES (Pontoon) : Materials : Balsa wood, paint, glue / Figures from Heroics & Ros. Production Steps : Pontoon bridges can be easily built from balsa wood, but for aesthetic reasons we have made use of the pontoon bridge and team produced by Heroics & Ros, shown pictured here. They paint up easily and can be moved where needed on the field. Additionally, the bridge and pontoon sections can be removed from the team and span the water feature as required. |
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LIVESTOCK (Cows, Sheep) : Materials and Production Steps : Some may argue that these are not terrain items, but livestock add further detail to the farms and hamlets on the tabletop. Irregular Miniatures has them available for only 34p (plus s/h) for each stand of 4 cows or 7 sheep. They paint up very quickly. |
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SMOKE (Battlefield) : Materials and Production Steps : I believe we have used the same box of cotton balls for over twenty years now and nothing comes close to representing battlefield smoke. For smoke from burning buildings, we have spray painted some cotton grey-black or have used coloured cotton from craft shops. |
Pending Terrain Building Ideas :
As Gradually, the following terrain items will be covered. Each will detail materials used, building techniques, and representative pictures;
Additional Terrain Building Ideas :
The following ideas were sent in by Mark Tewes and hope to add pictures of how they look on the tabletop;
Tabletop : Green felt (cut to size of table), painted green latex paint, heavily coated when wet with modeling grass from any railroad shop. When finished, it will look like real grasslands, put random material under to form hills, weigh down a day or so, and the dried paint filled felt adheres to the shape desired. This tabletop is re-shapeable millions of times.
Roads : Brown, grey or tan strips (as long as necessary) use paint or marker to detail. These strips will adhere to the table top like Velcro, and can be cut, moved and adjusted as needed. They can easily be twisted and turned as real roads.
Fields - Two Dimensional (2D) : Cut squares of corduroy into various field sizes, ridges look like furrows. Dip in a thinned out latex green, or brown paint. Sprinkle or detail plants. Allow to dry. Fields will also stick like Velcro.
Fields - Three Dimensional (3D) : Purchase a plastic floor mat green (corn) or tan (wheat). Dry brush golden yellow color to top surface. Flip over. Cut along ridges (between stalks) into squares, approximately 2"-3". Arrange these into fields as needed. When a miniature unit passes through, the squares are removed. Visually stunning!!!
Streams : Similar to roads except a tad more wandering. Paint stream color, while wet apply Saran (cellophane) wrap strips onto surface, allow to dry, trim and touch up with modeling grass. Will also adhere like Velcro.
Hills : Don't need, because the table top does it for you. If your group has a problem with the need for hill definition, (some people just like to nitpick) use a small level.
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