Trials in Terrain ...

I like to think I'm fairly competent when it comes to making certain types of terrain for gaming use. Rocky outcrops are my bread-and-butter when it comes to stuff I make for my Etsy shop. But I have been wanting to extend a little into more diverse pieces, such as buildings. And while, in the recent past, I have dabbled in the odd ruin or platform here-and-there, I wanted to try a few more substantial bits.

Skipping back a little, one of the first testers of some new-type (for me anyway) terrain was very basic. I'd recently bought a basic hot-wire cutter for foam and tried it out on a few spare lumps, just to find my way with it and to see what the results would be. The end product was nothing special - it was the wire doing the work - but I was quite pleased with the look of the slant outcrops. And, just seeing them in their natural white styrofoam, made me think of, initially, painting them up as simple white snow wastes or icebergs. In the end I decided to go for an equally simple desert yellow colour.

As you can see from the pictures, very quick and dirty here. Usually I base my foam outcrops on card, but here cheap-and-cheerful was the order of the day. Plus, because the chunks were solid pieces, I felt confident that they would not be too delicate. Although I did sink small squares of wood into their bases, just to give some additional weight.

Painting-wise, again, very basic: After giving the styrofoam an initial coat of PVA and letting that dry, the pieces were coated in a mix of PVA and filler powder and brushed on - roughly and with some stippling for texture - then given a coat of mid-brown and gradual highlights, adding yellow ochre to the brown and a little off-white.

I was pretty pleased with the results; as another option for quick(ish) terrain making beyond my usual method for rock outcrops, I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. I usually like to sculpt the foam a little more, by both manually pulling lumps off and using a craft heat gun to shape. My general aim is to make terrain that will look perfectly respectable on the gaming table, while not necessarily, being hyper detailed.

This leads me onto trying out more solid-looking terrain buildings. As I mentioned earlier, I have made some buildings in the past, as well as some various ruins. Some have worked others ... not so. I tend to tread a fine line between being happy with the way something is going and annoyed to the point I just want done with it. It's why I marvel at modellers and terrain makers who have the patience to build taverns and homesteads with individual bricks and tiles and detailing - incredible stuff. I'm nowhere near that level. But I hoped to at least push for something a little more that my usual corner-wall ruin.

The results varied a little. Far from perfect and what I had in my mind; more and more of the detailing falling away as some aspects worked and othered didn't. In a way - and this is not an excuse - I think they, generally, turned out well. In the past, if certain details didn't look right, I'd either scrap the piece and move on, or push to make the detail work only to hate how it looked on the final piece anyway! In these buildings and ruins, I felt much more happy dropping the odd planned detail in lieu of having a piece that may be more simplistic, but would keep a general aesthetic. Here are some of my recently-finished bits ...

I was also asked to make some pieces of trench terrain as background/model photo use. In the end I made two sets after I rushed the first and wasn't completely happy with the result. Both were so-so in my view, but hopefully of some use.