How to make wargames terrain

The Modelling Journal

This blog chronicles my ongoing saga of painting and wargaming with small plastic men.

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Making wargames terrain

Below is a simple hill I made from nothing more than cardboard, styrofoam, glue, filler, paint, and some gravel. I first glued two sheets of cardboard on top of each other to make a firm base, then glued a molded chunk of Styrofoam on top of that. To make the crags (far right) I just hacked and carved at one side of the Styrofoam to make them appear rocky. I slathered some filler over the whole thing, filling in the gaps and giving it texture. Always use filler on Styrofoam; it will cover up the pebbled, unnatural surface of the Styrofoam. I painted the crags gray, then drybrushed in a lighter shade of gray. Finally, I glued on a few pieces of gravel in the niches. I painted the rest of the hill green, and flocked it.

Shadows and Highlights:
This simple and easy technique will do wonders to your terrain. This technique could also be called «instant 3D-ifying,» because it brings out the raised

Buildings are very simple, and all you really need is cardboard, glue, filler, and paint. (It is nice to have cardboard of varying thickness). Always work from a picture; this will help you to stay on track and make your building more realistic. You can make many different types of buildings: houses, bunkers, huts, shacks, etc.

Afghan Dwelling
The picture below shows an Afghan dwelling I made to go with my Caesar 1/72 Modern US Elite Force H058.

Be creative! Just looking around your house, I bet you will find innumerable great materials to make your wargame terrain. Anything goes.

Trees:
Trees can be a bit trickier, but they are essential to any battlefield. Look out the nearest window. Unless you live in a big city, there is probably a tree within site. Trees are omnipresent, and every battlefield needs them.
Because home made trees are difficult, time consuming, and generally don’t look good anyway, it’s usually better just to buy them. Woodland Scenics have a lot of options for buying premade or DIY kits for a wide range of tree types. I recommend basing them individually, so that you can move them anywhere you want and/or put them on top of other terrain features (such as hills) but you can also base them in groves or copses.
However, if you are undeterred by my warning and still want to make your own trees, here’s a method that works pretty well.

How to Make War Games Terrain. (City Ruins,Tank Traps,Bunkers & More)

Introduction: How to Make War Games Terrain. (City Ruins,Tank Traps,Bunkers & More)

In this instructional will be teaching how to make war games terrain pieces,For use with Warhammer scale Models,Or Trains Etc.
I have been making these for around 10years due to the highly expensive prices pre made buildings will cost you most likely in the £100s and 100s.

Making your own terrain is cheaper more fun and each model becomes your own Unique work,with its own little extras and embellishments added by yourself some ideas will be added rest will be left up to your imaginations. example ruined buildings nothing more,add a bunch of broken pipes and tubes,turn it into a factory! with nothing more then a few chimneys.

Step 1: Parts Needed.

Tools Needed! this is quite a lengthy list of materials,but are all easy to obtain and or readily available.

1:Hot Glue! & Glue Gun.
2:Super Glue.
3:Alot of PVA Glue. (Buy the 5liter tank kind if possible)
4:Tons of Cardboard Toilet Roll Tubes,Foil wrap Tubes,Lots of variations of card in all its forms.(exempt the laminated stuff)
5:Emulsion Paint,Acrylic Paint,Metal Paint.
6:Rocks & Pebbles,dig up your garden can collect some if you cannot find some local strewn around car parks etc,or buy some from a garden center.
7:Course & Fine Grain Sand.
8:Box Cutter,Pin Vice,Hole Punch,File set,Exacto blade kit.
9:Various Kinds of Sand Paper.
10:Pen,Pencil,Paper,Ruler,Compass.
11:Ceramic Tiles x2.(make great paint pallets & drying stands)
12:Various Collection of New Used,And Old Paintbrushes.
13:Drinking Straws,also the kind with bendable necks.
14:Filler,ready made & Self Mix Powder (kind used for wall and plasterboard repair)
15:Wool,Cotton balls,String,Household Sponge.
16:Plastic materials of interesting shapes,source of these being yoghurt pots plant pots,candy containers.
17:Masking Tape,Celotape(Transparent kind).

These are but a few of the materials that may and or will be needed.

Step 2: Different Projects and Builds.

Many Different Projects and Builds will be Listed and or Added here.
Everything you need to make a Whole battle field complete with everything from ruined bombed out buildings shot full of holes and covered in blast marks,to deadly minefields and crucial ammo dumps,all broke up by craters strewn crates ammo boxes fences,spike walls and tank traps.

(Not all Construction’s will be added strait away as i need to dig out and then recreate each structure and design for recreation)
(Picture is of some desert rock spires created from card construction not shown)

Step 3: Construction of a Ruined City!

(A STEP BY STEP GUIDE OF ALL THE BELOW WILL BE DETAILED AT A LATER DATE,ONLY MY OLD COMPLETED MODELS AT THE MOMENT),that and a detailed description on construction.

For this, Much Cardboard will be needed try obtain corrugated card if possible that is nice and thick,hot glue,And lots of PVA Glue next,Sand And emulsion paint..Masking tape (or more glue) Wall Filler,Pen and Ruler.

First off get your templates created,and draw out how you want each side of the building to look,do not forget floors will be added at the bottom and middle levels of each building,account for this with 2cm extra on your template,see pictures.

Now Cut out the template from the outside outlines,Followed by the Windows,And or Door/Doors,and repeat to the other side of the building,you will be only making a 2 sided structure,if you wish to have more sides simply add make another building and put it in opposite see picture,for a complete structure,but your not doing that yet until you make more.

Once you have Left the building to dry for a while and the glue is still a bit sticky and not full dry,but now more solid and fixed in place,Break out the masking tape or filler,and fill every gap in the corrugations of the card doors and windows,i find it better to use a slightly watery paste and use a couple of brushes into the holes in the card,see pictures,leave this to dry for 12hours in a warm place such as an airing cupboard,once dry and all the filler is white and no longer Gray,use a file and or sandpaper to remove excess filler from off the walls around the windows,top,and or door/s.

Now Adding Embellishments and battle scaring,depending on what kind of battle,Your will either want to cut small scratch like sword cuts into the walls,and add small sticks in clusters as spikes or spears,i added Bullet holes of various Sizes to resemble different calibres of weapons,and also cut out smaller sections around a window or two to add to battle damage,some caved in card,just push some in with your thumb,when textured looks like structural damage in the wall as it crumbles inside from shockwave damage. next Get your Sand! use the fine sand for this,and get a medium amount of watered down emulsion wall paint any colour will do,and add a few big pinches of sand to the mix now apply this gritty paint to the card walls of your building all over and let it dry some,then use the last of the texture paint on the building in parts where the sand it uneven on the walls spread it around and get it evenly distributed on the walls and into the bullet holes or sword cuts you cut previously. leave to dry for a last time,leave for 24hours+ this time,can take a while to dry and become hard.

When it is Dry Add Final touch’s,pipes tiles etc,inside the building itself,i used small cut straws and glued on the underside of each floor and pushed into the holes in the card before using filler,i also used large drinking straws glued in place as supports on the lower floor of the building see pictures.

Repeat this multiple times in a batch build 3/5 buildings of various shapes and sizes will be enough for a small city edge in model terms,and looks very good indeed when placed in close proximity to other buildings creating usually one large structure.

Uses of these buildings in war games are various and interesting from take and hold the tallest building objectives,or HQ structures such as hold the edge of town for a fixed number of turns etc.

Step 4: Construction of a Ammo Dump

(Detailed pictures step by step in the future,only completed models at the moment,and how i made them,plus one under construction)

Simple ammo pad created from plastic slices and pop sickle sticks,a straw and drinks cap,and lick of metal coloured paint are needed to construct this smaller ammo dump position,see pictures,construction of this was with some super glue,just glue the sticks as shown,then the straw and drinks cap add more glue,then paint it all up then just place your ammo boxes crates shells etc on the ammo dump/pad for a quick little ammo dump.

Large Walled Ammo Dump. (Under construction)

Step 5: Construction of a Minefield!

(Mini model) small scale and for warhammer games use. comprised of a few to many smaller dioramas! that make up minefields and there boundary’s. making a larger more complex minefield on a large base is as simple as a few craters,see step 8 with body’s wreckage blasts and exposed and unearthed land mines.

Easy to make collect a few model plastic bases,or alternatively thick bevelled cardboard circles,see pictures for complete model,now add land mine like things,i have water bottles from a old imperial guard troop,along with a piece of electronic wire partially buried to clearly show as some kind of trap,others include flame thrower tanks punctured with a knife most likely with a sniper or lasertrap set to ignite the mine,use your imagination,hell even flying hover mines for taking out low flying aircraft models in game,use transparent plastic stands and make up a sinister drift rule that makes the mines move 6″inchs a turn in a random direction that would change the game quite a bit,trying to dodge flying minefields of doom,More Archaic Races Like Man! more likely to use little clunky robots as opposed to advanced shiny plasma spiting drone mines with emp ability ion engines and the ability to teleport inside tanks at close range. human warhammer races more likely tracked land robots with overcharged lasers that might or might not blow up your own robot then things overly futuristic weapons.

Mines are usually far more simple in design however,especially with more elite forces that make there own equipment in the field as would troops in war games.

Take your spare model parts and arrange them in mine like formations and shapes,example a wheel of a vehicle cut in half lengthways with a small dome of card glued in place in the middle glued and painted right with some little wires glued from the card to the wheel sides creates a funky little AT Anti tank mine,so it is doable even with parts you never thought were landminey at all,check my pictures and you will have many ideas of your own,dynamite to a bit of wood from your garden painted and put in a jungle setting wargame etc.

Step 6: Construction of Walls & Barricades!

Wall and Barricades will be detailed here and and simple to make require little time to create a batch build,enough to encompass your town city etc.

Concrete walls with battle damage,and Spiked Fences will be shown here and how i made them plus paints used.

Concrete wall:Things your will need for this small city wall are corrugated cardboard,and flat thin card,hot glue,sand,small screwdriver or pin vice for making bullet holes,and emulsion paint,final colours would be Mat/Chaos/Abbadon Black & a Drybrush and of Codex Gray or similar,and a over brush of the same on the exposed stone inner wall.

Spiked Fence:These are created from strips of plastic or slices of thick card,and bevelled to a point x4 then braced and left to dry using superglue,then a rudimentary stand forming a rectangle connecting to the back of the upright spikes see pictures,once dry this will hold your spiked fences upright now make them in any size you like,i stick to 4 spikes long each fence section so it can go around corners of ruins bunkers etc. (The rusted look was achieved by painting a darker red and or rust like colour then heavy dry brushing of metal.

(There are a few Under Constructions here,of some concrete barricades,and a sewer entrance/inlet)

Step 7: Construction of a Bunker Complex!

(Step by step pictures will be added when i recreated the bunkers) however detailed build description will be added)
Here I will be detailing and describing how to create bunkers of various sizes from pill box size,to full on war,advancement stoppers.

Pill Box Size Bunker:Pill box Bunker for a Single or 2 man Team using man portable heavy weapons,such as missile launchers,lascannons,Snipers,etc. Again grab your cardboard and cut it to the size you and shape you want your bunker,and cut a window/firing port into one section,now cut the bottom sides and top,there will be no back this is a run in grab some cover run out kind of field bunker to break up larger bunkers,or fill the hole in the line of bunkers will a small one,let it dry use hotglue to create the overall bunker shape,then cut out your base,a nice oval shape i choose to use,and glue the box bunker to the base you have cut,then fill in with either hot glue or filler all the holes in the corrugated card so there are no holes sand off any extra or over spills and do not forget to fill in the holes in the card in the window section without filling up the window of the bunker,leave to dry for however long is expected hot glue around 10mins,filler more hours in a dry and hot place in the sun,poke in some bullet holes with a pin vice or small screwdriver,then paint in a watered down textured sand and emulsion wall paint mix,leave it to dry for a fair amount of time in a dry place,and apply a black undercoat to the whole bunker leave that to dry,then drybrush and overbrush gray paint onto the bunker,catching particles of sand in the textured wall as you go along until it is all picked out nicely,use a far amount of drybrushing leaving blackend marks under the gray as if scorch marks or heat damage,once dry,apply flock green (green sawdust) or drybrush the base in a gray also if you just want a moonscape around the outside of the bunker,i used green flock,and a little bit of model scrub,to make this cut up an old sponge and soak in green paint,then leave to dry,mash up a bit and break it up,there a little model sized bush dab some PVA glue on it in small parts and sprinkle on some flock sand etc for more effect,leave to dry,and your small bunker is done,add any touch ups with black an gray paint from chips and or flaking during the drying process. and use it in your wargames.

Multi Window Bombardment shelter & Bunker: (siege fortifications)
Medium size Bunker for withstanding tank rushes and stopping advances,can commonly hold a hole squad and special weapon such as heavy machinegun/bolter or flamer/flamethrower,build 1 of these and a smaller pill box,along with some barricades and tank traps you have a small bunker line section,for stopping a large enemy force.

How to make is similar to the pill box,create your rectangle box bottom sides and top,cutting x3 windows on one side, 1door and x2 windows on the other side which will be the bunker rear,now two side sections with x1 window..this will make a total of 1 door and 7 fire-ports/windows..glue it all together and let dry,cutting a section for the top,do not glue this it must be removable to place models inside the bunker,then paint in the usual manner with a textured paint all over the bunker,create a base a bit bigger then the bunker itself in an oval shape once again,Next paint it up in an undercoat of black,and drybrush heavy drybrush it in gray,the due gray colour tones one looks darker then the other,is created by the sand in the textured paint emulsion layer you apply after the main structure has been created,same as the pill box above,the lighter grays are areas of the card that have less and or no sand on them or only a little this creates a very concrete look that is solid,and looks tough,a few warnings and maybe a little model satellite dish on the top would look cool.

Step 8: Construction of Blast Craters and Tank Traps.

Easy and simple to make,requiring not much time or effort to create a whole blasted moonscape complete with anti armour tank traps.

Craters:These are simple and created from a card base and lots of plaster and PVA glue and Sand,make your medium or small size oval base,and make a small card circle in the circle or what you perceive as the middle of the oval,add smaller strips to the outside of the circle to build it up a little,now use filler all over the outside and inside building it up use a thicker mix of filler/plaster for this,and work it into and around until you create a crater like slope,now drag a bit of card from the slopes outwards only a little or even cut out a slice of crater wall and add more filler this is messy,and leave to dry,looks really messy at the moment yes,now make a PVA and Sand mix Don’t water it down too much,now cover the whole crater model/s in PVA Sand Mix,and leave to dry for a few mins,then sprinkle DRY fine & or course sand all over the still drying and most sticky sand glue mix,leave it to dry for a good while in a nice and warm place,on a flat surface so it will not warp,once dry paint in blacks and Gray dry brush,or dark brown lighter brown dry brush for woodland etc. Add any extras if desired,odd small model gun glued in the crater for example.

Tank Traps:Made from nothing but sprue plastic bits and pieces even very small mini tank traps can be created,if no plastic strip scraps are available,use slices of thick card,tank traps are created as follows glue an X with your card or plastic,now take one more bit and glue it in the upper gap of the X so it is balanced in the v of the X,see Picture its really very simple,now make a hole bunch of them,i a long time ago got carried away with this and made over 100 tank traps as pictured,enough to cover a whole gameboard

Step 9: Ideas for Setup.

Moonscapes of crater and tank trap strewn battlefields! with ruined buildings at one board edge.(Anti Armour Hell All on Foot slow and lots of cover,slow and nasty battle over craters and the odd ruin)

City Ruins and walls that previously supplied the nearby and full Ammo Dumps! (Fight over the ammo from the city ruins not much cover after leaving the buildings and safety of concrete wall leads to enemy unrestricted fire every turn)

Bunker Emplacement Line & Minefields! Designed to slow and stop enemy advancements 2/3 or more bunkers and some tank traps in a line splitting a game board in two,with minefields in close range to the front of the bunkers. (enemy must bust every bunker and break the line to win before a certain turn expires and reinforcements arrive to the bunkers)

(I Will Do each of these and post the pictures in the future)

3 Awesome Ways to Make Wargaming Terrain (Cheap, Easy, Free)

Are you a tabletop miniature gamer? The battlefield you play on might be a dining room table, but it should be more. That’s where terrain pieces come into play. If you’re playing games like Warhammer 40k and looking for terrain ideas, all it takes is an online search. Images of beautiful wargaming terrain are everywhere. But, if you want to make your own wargaming terrain without breaking the bank or spending a lot of time, here are a few great ways to do it.

In this article, I show you 3 fun and easy ways to make terrain for tabletop wargames and roleplaying games (RPGs), like Dungeon and Dragons or Warhammer 40k.

How to Decide What Terrain to Make?

Consider space and time.

The approach I’m using is made primarily for the Warhammer 40k terrain boards for an urban city environment. The basic principle is the same, however, across a variety of game types.

Terrain for wargames can span the gamut. History and place (anywhere in the imagined Universe, really) is open to a creative approach for terrain for wargaming.

Buildings are just one way to setup a board for a tabletop wargame. Terrain DIY style is great because it is free-form.

Ultimately, when it comes to making your own terrain for a tabletop game, you’re only limited by your ideas. If you have a vision for how you want your battles to play out, you don’t need to spend a lot of money.

Simple is elegant. Photo credit: Donjondo

Here, all you need is to grasp the idea that your battlefields exist in a space (the actual world) and the time period (whether this is a fictional or simulated actual history).

As with choosing a color scheme, deciding what wargaming terrain to make is simply starting with an idea.

Then, with this spark, you can go through the process of what you want to make.

3 Ways to Make Wargaming Terrain

Here are the 3 approaches you can use to make your own wargaming terrain:

1. Follow Reference Images, Photos, Books, and Papercraft

A lot of what you do in the modeling and miniature hobby arises from admiring all the work you find out there. The internet is chock-full of ideas and beautiful art.

You can see my Pinterest board with the things I’ve found inspirational for terrain pieces. Terrain making is an art!

Reference photos and books

The other way that can help you decide what terrain pieces to make is to use books. There are ton of books on the internet about wargaming and the art of making terrain.

For example, the book entitled “Wargames Terrain & Buildings: The Napoleonic Wars” is an excellent example of an instructional and reference for scratch building terrain buildings.

Scratch building techniques and approaches: very useful!

The book is all about scratch building terrain for a tabletop wargame. Although the period in history is a bit different than the dark grim style of the Warhammer 40k Universe, or other sci-fi genre, the basic principles for terrain making are the same.

You will see different terrain making techniques, including what to build, materials to use, including glues, and general best practices for more complex terrain builds.

Again, although you will find the history time period a bit different than what you might be lookin for in a game of Infinity, Warhammer, or any of the fictional war games we enjoy, the underlying ideas are the same.

Another great book for learning how to make realistic and effective terrain pieces for wargames. See more great how-to books in the miniature hobby

Finally, as mentioned, you can certainly find a ton of references with simple online searches.

Once you find something you like, you merely take some of the basic techniques from these books or other tutorials and create the pieces.

When it comes to homemade terrain, I like taking the easy route (see more about improvising terrain making below).

Make papercraft terrain

Along with using found materials and reference guides, you can download paper crafted terrain from various places on the internet.

What is paper craft?

Paper craft is an art form that uses paper or card-stock to create three-dimensional objects. Paper craft is another name for a paper sculpture.

For making terrain, there are various ways you can use paper craft. There are pre-printed plans that you can find online. Here’s a site that sells papercraft terrain (see DriveThruRPG). The site also sells 3D printable files of terrain and buildings, too.

This Paper Terrain site sells some really cool historical paper terrain.

If you’re looking for free paper craft tabletop terrain, there’s a huge amount listed here and here and here.

Of course, in paper craft there is some assembly required. In some cases, you may also need to color in the paper after you print them.

But, in general, paper craft is a very budget friendly way to get awesome looking wargaming terrain on your table.

It is certainly a step above DIY options, but still has the build and assembly aspect that many hobbyists enjoy.

Dropzone Commander, a 10mm scaled miniatures game, uses paper craft card stock terrain for these buildings. It looks great and functions really well!

Obviously, you’ll need a printer and good paper or card stock to make paper craft terrain. I can recommend these printers for card stock.

Best printer for papercraft terrain?

I have the Canon Pixma Pro-100 and print stencils (for airbrushing) and other paper-based things on it, including DIY cardstock terrain. These are 3 of the best printers for cardstock.

Canon Pixma Pro-100

If you’re looking to buy an ink jet printer, or upgrade, this is probably more than you need. There are budget-friendly printers on the market. They all produce excellent color, print fast, and work with heavy-weight card stock.

Card stock is a paper product that is more rigid that regular computer paper. You’ll want to print on cardstock to make your buildings stand up properly. Card stock is affordable, too.

The terrain and buildings will also last longer if you print on card stock.

See the images below of what you can do with a good ink jet printer and some card stock (this are paper Dave Graffam models).

Buildings printed on card stock with an ink jet printer! Looks great!

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2. Use 3D Printing and Modeling Software

The method I have used in the past for deciding what to make has been with 3D modeling software.

There are 2 ways you can use 3D modeling software for making terrain:

To actually make the terrain buildings with 3D digital models, you either 1) download the files for 3D printing (if you have a 3D printer), or 2) use the 3D models as a blue print for scratch building with available materials.

When you want to download pre-made buildings and terrain you merely have do an online search.

There are ton of free 3D files for you to browse on Thingiverse. All you have to do is type in the search bar is “wargaming terrain”.

And, this is an example of what you may get….

3D model render of a barricade terrain piece 3D printed and painted barricades Assembled 3D printed barricades form an enclosure; a perfect piece for a tabletop miniature game

If you’re looking for professionally made 3D terrain and building files, you can check out this site “Drive Thru RPG”.

Check out this site for downloadable 3D printing files and paper craft terrain

In general, making terrain with 3D modeling and printers is the more technical and recent development in terrain making.

But, if you pick up the skill and knowledge with working with 3D models (it’s not hard; more about it below), then you’ve got an awesome way to take advantage of all the creativity that people have shared online.

You’re just a few clicks away from downloading some amazing terrain pieces.

Look familiar? Warhammer 40k-stylized building and terrain is 3D printable, too. 3D printed and painted Shadespire terrain pieces. I painted these using very quick and easy techniques.

3D modeling for terrain and buildings

Let’s say you wanted to make your own terrain pieces with modeling software. In this case, there are another host of options.

But, I’ll narrow it down to the easiest and most budget friendly app for almost any terrain making needs.

In whatever scenario you’re looking for, my two favorite apps for creating 3D files of buildings and wargaming terrain are SketchUp and Fusion 360.

Importantly, there are a great tutorials on YouTube. Using videos from YouTube was the best way I learned how to 3D model.

By the way, I talk about Fusion 360 in another article for making custom model bases.

Using 3D modeling software to design your own terrain

If you’re looking for the simplest and best software for 3D modeling buildings, my recommendation is to first try SketchUp.

The software is free for use online. There is a desktop app for Sketchup, but it’s limited unless you pay for the pro version.

For students and educators, the professional version is free. I’ve used both the free version and pro version, and for the simple buildings either is fine.

Here are a few examples of efforts trying to make buildings for Infinity the Miniatures Game.

You draw simple lines and shapes in SketchUp. The only difference with 3D modeling here is that you draw these shapes and lines in the x, y and z-axis. The toolbar on the left hand side gives you a number of ways to create your terrain piece. The good news it that you don’t need most of them! A simple house that I rendered in SketchUp. Cool, huh?

The result of 3D printing terrain is based on quality of the 3D file. I have some work ahead of me to get my designs ready for the printer. But, you get the idea.

Software 3D modeling can get you pretty far along in the terrain design phase.

Below are some examples of 3D models that I printed from a Kickstarter Campaign that had rewards with 3D files of terrain pieces. You can check out Thunder Chrome 3D printable terrain pieces here.

A one story building with windows and doorways. After this is painted up, I think this would look great for a post-apocalyptic tabletop game, e.g., Fallout miniatures anyone?

By the way, Amazon even sells 3D printed terrain from different vendors, which are cheaper than a lot of the plastic model kits you might find. Though, you should shop for the better quality pieces. Here’s what’s available now.

A catwalk that was 3D printed from a downloadable file.

The cool thing about using 3D modeling software is that it’s scalable. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a large 28mm scale game, or the smaller epic scale stuff like epic 40k or Dropzone Commander.

Painted Thunder Chrome 3D printed model

With 3D files, you can enlarge or shrink terrain pieces for these miniature tabletop games as needed. Just be aware that at a certain point, the size of the details will determine whether they will appear properly on your 3D printed piece.

3. Improvise by Scratch Building and Kitbashing

I think this how most people who start tabletop gaming get their terrain.

It’s fun and easy. As I mentioned, I tend to go on Pinterest to collect ideas for making DIY wargaming terrain.

Now, there are a ton of ways you can take found material around your home, or workplace, and turn it into useful terrain and buildings.

It starts with this scrap, simple materials you find around your home.

In terms of what you need to jump in, you won’t need too much. Obviously, I’m assuming that most of the material you will use are used packing materials, e.g., card board, styrofoam, and what-not.

Here are the essentials for DIY terrain with stuff scrap material:

Simple right?

A knife to cut, a metal ruler to make straight edges, a surface that you can use for cutting, and glue.

I’ve written a lot about glues for tabletop miniature and model kit assembly. For scratch-building with paper based material, however, I recommend either PVA glue, also known as white glue, or a hot glue gun.

The hot glue gun that I have is one of the larger sized ones. It heats up quickly, has a low-drip nozzle (super useful), and a stand so it doesn’t tip over.

Don’t forget your hot glue sticks and paper towel rolls nearby.

My trusty Chandler hot glue gun is great for cardboard and any terrain DIY project. For those who want to avoid the heat, pva glue works well, too, for porous material.

The best knives for cutting card board are utility knives. They are affordable, and come with disposable blades. They are super sharp out of the box and take to cardboard like…cliche incoming… a hot knife through butter.

Any utility knife will do.

You may disagree, but I would suggest that you not use an exacto knife.

The small hobby knives you use for sprues and scraping mold lines won’t hold up to the demands of cutting through card board.

Sure an exacto-hobby type knife might give you more precision, but what you really want is a good grip on that handle.

Most hobby knives have thin barrels, e.g., less leverage, and because the blades are so short and thin, they dull quickly.

Card board is one of the most damaging materials to a sharp knife. Card board will dull out any knife super fast.

I don’t recommend using one of these hobby knives for cutting through card board. They are sort of flimsy in comparison to the demands you’ll put on it for making terrain.

A sharpener isn’t really necessary if you have a bunch of spare blades lying around. But, if you’re like me and don’t want to waste stuff, get a Dia-fold Diamond Whetstone sharpener.

I sharpen my utility knife blades on it. It’s awesome. And, in some cases, I think my utility knives end up sharper than they came from the factory!

Don’t let the name fool you, the Dia-fold Whetstone doesn’t require any wetting or lubricating agent. Just apply blade at the proper angle, and after a few even swipes on both sides that blade will sing through card board.

The Dia-fold Diamond Whetstone sharpener. I keep this handy to quickly sharpen my blades, even the disposable ones.

For those of you who are more systematic than I am, a metal ruler will come in handy.

I generally don’t use my ruler to measure anything. But I do use them for making straight edges.

I prefer to create by eye-balling dimensions. I feel this frees my mind up toward the creating process. For me, discovering what I’m making is part of the thrill of scratch building!

Just roll with it.

Of course, I’m sensible about my measurements. Although I don’t need to make sure things are to scale (more about scaling here), my terrain needs to work.

I want to make sure my troopers with 30mm diameter bases can actually fit through doorways, stand on steps, or stay put on walkways.

I’ll make sure my terrain pieces enhance gameplay, not the other way around.

Key Principles to Paper Sculpting or Scratch Building Terrain

To start making terrain, I generally take stock of what materials I have and ask myself what I could potentially make with it all. Indeed, a great place to start is simply collecting raw materials, then working with what you have on hand.

A key tip to improvising with found materials is to think big shapes.

Also, consider where and when your tabletop game takes place.

Start breaking down large materials into smaller elements that could form walls and rooftops.

Is it in a city?

Then, you’re probably looking at big blocks of different sizes. This probably means 90 degree angles.

Super easy and simple.

If you’re looking to make an urban environment, consider making it modular. Create boxes of different heights and footprint size.

Then, stack them. Ta-da! Modular urban environment.

Add details, like windows, and rooftop elements. Air ducts and chimneys provide cover and line-of-sight blocking objects.

Slowly work from the big shapes to the smaller details.

In general, I like thinking about crafting city-type terrain in three layers:

When I work with cardboard, I use the hot glue gun so I can move fast. Hot glue bonds within seconds of hitting the card board material. This allows me to work quickly to build up those big shapes.

Just a quick example of blocked out terrain shapes for city terrain. You can see my very young daughter’s hand in the background. She’s helping! You can get really nice forms and shapes with a few cuts into card board.

Within a few minutes I can crank out a bunch of boxes and urban-looking sets that can stack together to form a city tabletop board.

Image credit: Pinterest

A good tip to strengthen any card board or paper-based material is to cover every surface with a coat of watered-down PVA glue. Simply mix a 1:2 ratio of glue to water and use a large brush to cover the final terrain pieces. Let that dry and the glue will fill pores and harden the overall structure.

Here’s a great example I found on Pinterest. Using cut-up cardboard you can quickly create terrain elements for an urban tabletop game. With better materials and precision, you can even create model architectural marvels. This would be great for an Infinity tabletop game. Image credit: source

To add further realism and strength to a scratch built terrain piece, you can use DAS clay.

Use clay to build up and strengthen textures

DAS clay is a fast-drying clay that is awesome for terrain building. You can mold it, cover your buildings and terrain, and once hardened, paint it.

Before the clay hardens, you can even carve texture into the clay’s surface. You merely take clay carving tool like these, and you can create bricks or realistic stonework.

When you’re finished with these coating steps, you can prime the terrain piece and paint them up.

Smaller blocks of terrain with “big” shapes put together can form those medium-sized or detailed elements that can provide additional details to any wargame. Image credit: Pinterest After your piece is covered in a surface material, like DAS clay, you can prime and paint it. Image credit: Pinterest

For buildings with roofing and other detail elements, you can use cardboard scraps, bit of foam, plasticard, card stock, and wooden coffee stirrers.

All of this free stuff is probably lying around your home already.

A different take using the principles of starting with big shapes and working toward the details. Notice the roof sidings…they look like ice cream popsicle sticks to me. Image credit: Pinterest Cute and effective. Image credit: Pinterest Let your imagination run free! This is a tabletop scene built from scratch with different materials for Mordheim, a tabletop game. Image credit: Pinterest

Scratch building natural terrain pieces

Not all wargaming terrain needs to be urban, or human made. In fact, most pitched battles do play out on fields with natural formations, such as hills and rocky cliffs.

If you play games like Warhammer 40k or Age of Sigmar, natural phenomena on alien planets or other-worldly realms might be more in line with your scenario.

Tabletop games like Warmachine/Hordes (one of my favorites) also uses terrain features such as hills, forests, trenches, and rocky surfaces.

A hill made of card board. Image credit: Pinterest

The principles of making natural terrain pieces is the same as for buildings. Start thinking about big blocks with larger footprints. Then, move to the medium size shapes and stack them up.

Take a step back and see what you’ve made.

Wine cork on wooden bases turn them into great scatter terrain pieces.

A tool I didn’t mention that might help make things look more organic when you’re making terrain with foam is a hot-wire foam cutter. The one I have is really affordable.

There are better, more elaborate hot wire foam cutters, e.g., routers and “table saw” type machines, that may suit you if you’re in making a lot of terrain with foam.

For natural terrain elements, I do enjoy seeing what others have made. Everyone is so creative!

Notice the bigger blocks stacked on top of each other. They were probably cut with a hot-wire foam cutter. Another terrain piece for what looks like a role playing game (RPG), like Dungeon and Dragons or Pathfinder (which I play). A combination of materials, including paper and cardboard, make this great looking terrain piece.

If you’re looking for more ideas for scratch-building your wargaming tabletop terrain, you can check out my Pinterest board. I’ve been collecting some idea for a new table I want to make for Warhammer and other games.

Also I should mention, that all these techniques work well for making doll houses (if you have a kid like me).

Mickey Mouse sits by the log watching TV. A home for all the other toy miniatures. Scratch built with diaper cardboard boxes.

Final Thoughts

When you want to make your own wargaming terrain, there are several ways you can go about it. I’ve broken down 3 ways to make gaming terrain.

You can use reference guides, like books, 3D model and print your terrain, or improvise and scratch build.

If you’re looking for more DIY terrain ideas, you can do a simple image search in Google or use Pinterest. Best of all, terrain making is fun, inexpensive, and effective.

Do you have other ideas for how to make your own terrain for gaming?

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How to make wargames terrain

Below is a simple hill I made from nothing more than cardboard, styrofoam, glue, filler, paint, and some gravel. I first glued two sheets of cardboard on top of each other to make a firm base, then glued a molded chunk of Styrofoam on that. To make the crags (far right) I just hacked and carved at one side of the Styrofoam to make them appear rocky. I slathered some filler over the whole thing, filling in the gaps and giving it texture. Always use filler on Styrofoam; it will cover up the pebbled, unnatural surface of the Styrofoam. I painted the crags gray, then drybrushed in a lighter shade of gray. Finally, I glued on a few pieces of gravel in the niches. I painted the rest of the hill green, ready to be flocked.

This simple and easy technique will do wonders to your terrain. This technique could also be called «instant 3D-ifying,» because it brings out the raised areas of a surface, making it appear more 3-dimensional. After painting your base coat on, dip just the tip of your brush in a lighter shade of that same color. Wipe off most of this paint, so the brush is almost dry, then lightly brush it against the surface that you wish to paint. You will need to do this a few times to achieve the right effect. The way this works is that the brush will only really press against the raised portions of the surface, and leave the deeper recesses darker. This creates an instant highlight-and-shadow effect. After this, you can repeat the process again using an even lighter color, if you wish. For the crags below I first painted a base coat of slate gray, then dry brushed in light gray, then in white.

How to make wargames terrain

Recently I learned that one of the greatest resources available to us hobbyists had been removed from the market. For those of you who don’t know of what I speak, I am referring to the GW book «How to Make Wargames Terrain». This resource was a godsend to those of us who got into the hobby without a solid group to lean on. It gave us a chance to have a great table to play on, one which we could be proud of, and not using books to represent hills. Sadly GW has discontinued it’s sale, but if you can still get your hands on a copy it’s well worth it.

The main reason I can see for it’s discontinued sale is that GW has a lot more terrain for sale now then when they first published the book, thus they must feel the book competes with the premade stuff, and I guess it does to an extent. However the information is out there for those of us who know where to look and I’m going to highlight a few of the sources I think are worth looking into.

The first is a group called MiniWarGaming, they have a lot of videos for very specific terrain peices, like how to make a factory from a soup can. One of the added benefits of this groups videos has to be that the instructor has a bit of personality. All to often these videos are worse then a documentary of paint drying. I personally like a little quirkiness in my instruction, I mean we are all talking about playing with toy soldiers here. MiniWarGaming has quite a few Youtube videos up, not all of them are about terrain, but if you follow this link, you will get a playlist of there how to videos.

Next up is a guy from the other side of the world. Viv is a hobby enthusiast who runs his own shop. He has tons of hobby related videos most of which are about terrain and scenery. He does videos about how to make your own materials as well, such as colored flock. Word of warning, Viv can talk a bit fast, and occasionally I wish he would expound on what he is doing, but his stuff is solid. His youtube channel can be found here.

Of course, there are tons of other videos available for you to learn from. A simple look up of «how to make wargames terrain» brought up this list. So by no means am I saying that Viv and MiniWarGaming are the only way to do any of this. They just happen to be two of my favorites. Looking through list I just gave you, some were good, some awful, and some ‘meh’. But what I like and how I learn may be different from yours, so your milage may vary.

My last entry for you all today is Scratch Building Wargames Terrain. It is one man’s attempt to collect a slew of information on the topic, and he hits on a few topics, but none in great detail. The main reason I mention it, is not for the content itself (which is fine, just needs more) but for the fact that he has a great deal od links at the bottom of the page that showcase a slew of articles. I find this one to be a resource page more than an instruction page.

So anyway, I hope this helps any budding terrain makers out there, or showcases the fact that you can have great terrain without buying the premade stuff. If there is a resource out there that you know of that I didn’t cover, leave it in the comments below, I’d love to see it. Thanks again, maybe one day you and I will play an game made entirely of beautiful terrain that we made ourselves. Till then.

Источники информации:

• http://www.instructables.com/How-to-make-War-Games-terrain-City-ruinsTank-traps/
• http://tangibleday.com/3-ways-to-make-wargaming-terrain-cheap-easy-free/
• http://www.sites.google.com/site/themodellingjournal/home/tips-and-techniques/making-wargame-terrain
• http://lxg-blog.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-make-wargames-terrain.html