Craft a Swamp Terrain Board for your Tabletop RPG and War Games

Craft a detailed swamp terrain board for your tabletop RPG and war games! Works great as a bayou as well. Great for dnd, warhammer, and more.
You can also purchase this board at my Etsy Shop if you don’t want to build it on your own: www.etsy.com/listing/1335465735/
Hey there crafting community! This swamp terrain board is actually a pretty simple crafting project for tabletop gamers who want to have a detailed, static, large board for all of their murky encounters.
I built one of these for myself a long time ago, and this particular board you are watching me build is a repeat of that for a client.
This particular terrain board is great, because it leaves a lot of room for scatter terrain. That way you can re-use it and mix it up for scenarios.
Hope you guys enjoy this video, and enjoy making your new board even more! Feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions about the build. Happy crafting!

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Lively Tavern by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com
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Woods Of Imagination by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com
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Elegy for a Family by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com
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Untouched Land by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com
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Adventure by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com
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[@Were_M_Eye]

I wasnt board watching this...

[@FelipeBudinich]

One suggestion I have is to pour small amounts of resin in the borders of the seal first. That way, if there are any leaks you can control them easily.

[@parttimetabletopper]

Great tip

[@nickwiese3467]

This was an amazing tutorial. Thank you so much for doing this

[@mythic1868]

This is amazing. Thanks for showing off how to do this

[@cerisekappes580]

Looks really good 😊

[@jnlsnfamily8747]

You are the man, thank you!

[@magnusmillerwilson]

Another great video. The pacing is perfect! Pro and great results!

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thanks so much! It’s been a while, but I have two more on the way.

[@robertobassatt3141]

Amazing tutorial

[@AzraelThanatos]

I've made some marsh pieces that were semi-similar in a lot of ways. The insulation foam is an unnecesary step in this unless you're trying to match sides up with other boards. You can also use other things than the foam core for it. With mine, I used some large plywood discs from a craft store (14") and cut up a cardstock from the cases of 36 can soft drink containers to add some elevation for the land and a bit more of a slope to the edges. Then I blended it in, using some of the filler from dollar tree that I just watered down to make it thinner, focusing on the edges of the land areas. While it was still wet I put some stones, sticks, and sand over it. I painted it similarly to my normal terrain. For foliage, one thing that works great for reeds is to get a cheap paintbrush with bristles of a light color from the home improvement store. The kind the wider ones the better, but you want 1-2 inch bristles, you can cut chunks off and put some gel superglue on the board where you want them and hold it up for a few seconds so that it starts to hold. Another it to take the basic office supply hole punch, and grab a 3x5 card or two, paint the card in various greens and then go to town, cut a notch and you've got a to scale lillypad for extremely cheap. But put those in after the water effects are down and when they get close to dry. For water, with how thin you're going, a better and cheaper option is the high gloss polyeurethane. For this, the larger bottles you can find in a lot of craft stores or isles right next to the craft paint is a better option than what's in the general paint section of a home improvement store because it's easier to handle and tends to be a bit thicker. Just glop it onto the board where you want the water, I had sand and other under it with a bit of a brown ink brushed over it, the thin layer over the top means that you get the look of water really well and the colors underneath look right...then for the greens in the water, get your fine flock and dust it into the polyeurethane when you put it down, the flock sucks it up and gets into it to leave you with the algae filled water look, then when that's done, just brush on a second layer and add your lillypads adding a dab of the gloss ontop of them to fully fit them in. If you want another option, instead of the readyboard, put the insulation foam down ontop of the plywood base, then hit it with a heatgun along where you want the water to be. The main issue with the readyboard is that your banks are more vertical and can easily look off.

[@parttimetabletopper]

I’m glad you have a method that works for you! Thanks for sharing. Everyone has aesthetics and methods they like, and I’m sharing mine is this video. The foliage options are all creative ideas. I personally like the quality and convenience of Woodland Scenics or similar product lines, which is why I go that route. The sticks are the only “homemade” piece of foliage, because they’re just from my yard. I also like the raised look from the foam base with the black edges. Gives it more of a display look. I do also have the intention of being able to line it up with other boards someday. Working on the Moathouse from Elemental Evil and am using them exactly that way now. This time though, I shaved my readiboard to make sure the banks were sloped. I’ve done a 12”x12” river piece using the heat gun method. I think both work. Will have to try the polyurethane sometime. I’ve always used resin pours and have liked the results. I also wanted my water to be particularly murky and not able to be seen through, so I went heavy on the acrylics for that. For that river pieces I mentioned I focused more on the river bed, rocks, and transparency of the water (just a bit of brown mica powder).

[@FlimFlame]

A bit late to the party but thanks for this, definitely going to give it a try, for my warcry Ghur board, I feel inspired!

[@gnollnonsense]

Great video, this was very helpful

[@parttimetabletopper]

I’m glad you think so!

[@jmaccsarmiesofmiddleearth]

Awsome ideas man, really love the lily pads

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thanks so much! I appreciate it.

[@Fizban0101]

This is great for Bayou faction in Malifaux!

[@maxfreise5144]

Awesome video. Going to make something similar. This was so helpful.

[@parttimetabletopper]

I’m glad it was helpful! Hope your board turns out awesome 🍻

[@ChimeraWargaming]

I really appreciate your video 🙂

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thanks so much!

[@mattrichardson5597]

Man im already working on this, amazing work brother :)

[@parttimetabletopper]

I hope it turns out well!

[@brothercaptainmundo]

Excellent video. I bought a pint of sample satin finish paint from Home Depot. The beautiful thing is, you can select the color you want from the entire range. I got a dark brown for my bases and my battle board.

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thanks so much, and that’s a great idea! Definitely can get the exact color you want going that route.

[@NerdAdventurer85]

I would be tempted to create some creepy skeletons from wire and tissue paper mixed with pva. Just to create some narrative. Also, clear beads work well as bubbles, where air/gas is escaping from the bog. 😂 I recently created some swamp creatures ad my first miniatures army. My narrative is that a group of folk were exiled from the village for not paying taxes for the greedy mayor, so they formed a cult, and are bringing dead villagers back from the mire nearby, and creating....other things. I have this weird thing that looks like a polar bear, but with a really spiky long face and bulbous blind eyes. They would love 'living' in your swamp. 😂👍

[@DJJohnnyFi]

Thank you! I think you just gave me the missing link for my local Armies on Parade Skaven board I needed. I only have a week left and I wasn't going to proceed but this gives me some great Ideas. Thank you so much

[@parttimetabletopper]

I’m glad this did that for you! Best of luck with the submission 👍🤞

[@callum-solomonfrescomain9245]

Looks like Farron Keep from DS3 👍

[@drewbakka5265]

bro I love your channel. If you need more subscribers just put "warhammer" or "40k" in your titles. I know this feels like selling out but the algorithem demands it.

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thanks man! I do put Warhammer in the tags for the videos, but maybe I’ll start adding them to titles too. I’m not biased! As long as it’s bringing the TTRPG community value 👍

[@drewbakka5265]

@@parttimetabletopper to be honest, roleplayers don't build terrain nearly as much as wargamers. Most the time.they don't paint minis if they even use them at all. It's mainly because rping requires very specific and a far more diverse selection of monsters and places

[@aaronjecevius5969]

Looks badass

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thank you Aaron 🍻

[@FelixTheAnimator]

Cool.

[@eldraque4556]

nice

[@bigeye6606]

Amazing stuff. Me personally would make the little islets as single pieces so I can rearrange the board from game to game. It would take away a bit from the realism since they don't appear to really come out of the water but play-ability trumps looks imho.

[@parttimetabletopper]

That’s definitely a good idea. I went for something static with space to add scatter terrain if needed, but it would add to the replayability if those could be moved too.

[@EyeoftheRedKing]

Awesome board! Just a tip for the fake plants: you can take the gloss and the bright green down substantially by giving them just a dusting from a green camouflage spray primer before adding them to terrain.

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thanks so much, and that’s a good idea too!

[@ryankyle2467]

And, I would love to see the blackish sword behind you on the wall!?! I feel like I’ve seen that before (and no, not on a different video here! This is my first video from this guy)!?! I know there are many different ways you could make a sword like that (not saying that’s what you did) or you could just buy it……… I love swords! I’m also a old school Star Wars fan also so obviously I love lightsabers also!!! I have a collection of lightsabers. But I do not own a single realistic looking sword! Mainly because I feel like if I would start a collection like that I would “HAVE TO” start with the first realistic sword I ever fall in love with (like I did with my lightsaber collection! Actually I missed out on some good deals on lightsabers while I was trying to find The One to start with)! I don’t know if you have ever heard of this sword before (and a lot haven’t. Which is fine) but the first realistic sword I want to get first is “The Sword of Truth”!!! The hard part is the fact that there are very little amount of good and “accurate” pictures of the sword! I would say out of all the pictures I’ve seen of it on the internet (according to a good deal of the source material that describes the sword) there is only around 5-10% of the pictures are at best 80% accurate! And 0 pictures that is any higher than 80% accurate which is very unfortunate for me! And yes, I have been on a bunch of those websites that sell stuff people have created themselves and none of those are 100% accurate either! But those are the closest I’ve seen! Even the TV show that unfortunately only lasted 2 seasons sword wasn’t over 80% accurate to the books! And honestly, in my opinion the reason why the show never did much and didn’t last longer was because of how inaccurate the whole thing was to the books!!! Ok, I’m way off track now lol I’ll stop here because I could keep writing about this all day! But I doubt anyone wants to read even the amount I already did! Let alone a lot more!!!

[@parttimetabletopper]

Believe it or not, that sword you’re referring to is a foam sword from Spirit Halloween. I was looking for decor for my game room when Halloween rolled around. I saw that, as well as a cool looking hand axe, and got them!

[@BodyByBenSLC]

Very cool. What I would do is make a flat swamp water base 2x2 or 3x3 then make islands that can be moved around or pushed together. Then it can be arranged into any swamp lay out. Then do same for water and rock etc etc. In time you would have parts that could be rocky shores move pieces now in the ocean, move peices again a river.

[@parttimetabletopper]

That’s exactly how I made my ocean board 👍 A board with pure swamp water and modular islands is a good idea. I’d probably do the same if I were to do it again for strictly functionality purposes. At the time I liked (and still do) the more realistic look of the shore going down into the water. I also unintentionally ended up with 2 more swamp boards with different layouts, so I’m more than set there 😅

[@gettingpolitical]

I do all my encounter boards on 2x2 boards, yet I use the foundation board of 1/4" mdf board and use for the most part styrofoam (which is not as good as xps foam) because I have a never ending supply of styrofoam lol. In my work shop I have roughly 8lbs of it lol. I love the swamp, it looks great, I don't do swamps, just your basic deserts, Forrest in both winter and summer terrains yet love to see what others come up with. Great vid.

[@parttimetabletopper]

I love the 2’x2’ boards. They feel like they’re just the perfect size for encounters. Nothing wrong with some good MDF and regular styrofoam! I’ve made some fun stuff from regular styrofoam too. You should give the swamps a try! Lots of fun encounters you can play in a swamp.

[@jameszawislak436]

I'd love to know if there is an easy way to make hex tiles?

[@parttimetabletopper]

Hmm…your best bet might be to carve them into the foam before painting, including where the resin pour will go. Then instead of applying that ground texture, I might lay down some pure matte mod podge and sprinkle some sand around the ground areas to still give it that earthy look. Then paint it all brown when you’re done. Apply a wash if you want to as well. The hex tiles should come through then. If you want it on the water, I think you’re only solution is to wait until the resin is hard but not fully cured, and then either carve or imprint the hexes in before it dries. It has to be at that perfect spot where it’s not really sticky anymore, but can still be drawn in.

[@slothtastic689]

Where did you get your sand from? As someone who doesn't really live close to any beaches, I need to know

[@parttimetabletopper]

I’m pretty sure I got it from Home Depot? We had to buy a bunch of it to fill the base of our patio umbrella a while back, and I had a couple leftover bags I’ve held onto.

[@kacperszydo2347]

Hi, Is 5 mm thin foam enough to make terrain or shall I get 10mm instead?

[@parttimetabletopper]

It depends on what you’re making. There are good applications for both. What sort of terrain are you working on?

[@gardensbytheminute2668]

Great stuff. Why spread with a spoon and not just paint it on?

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thank you! You could probably use a paint brush. The only issue I’ve had with the paint brush in the past is that the brush wants to soak up the ground texture while you’re spreading it. The spoon is just a little simpler for me.

[@AndyPunisherbass]

How do you even get into this hobby? I am interested in making a diorama of a lake front village where my D&D game will be set. I would love to incorporate resin for the lake. Have any sites to check out?

[@parttimetabletopper]

For me personally, it started with a recommendation from my local gaming store to paint the figures from my Descent 2nd edition game. Then I thought it would be cool to have some little terrain pieces to go with it, which brought me to KZbin. That snowballed into where I am today. In my opinion, KZbin is the best site. Lots of fantastic tutorials on here from a lot of great crafters. Instagram is a great place of inspiration, but this is the place to go to learn. Best of luck with your lake front village! Happy to answer any questions you have about that specific project 👍

[@ryankyle2467]

That was kinda cool! I do have a few questions……. I use resin for 3D printing but I don’t know much about the version you need here. So doesn’t that resin get hot while curing? If so, wouldn’t that melt the foam a lot or even a bit? And then what is your plan for this board? Is it just part 1 of 2? The reason I’m asking is because with the limited amount of land on this it would be kinda hard to have a game on it!?! Unless you have the game very unrealistic!?! Where troopers are pulling a “walking on water” but it’s swamp water!?! Lmao I would make the actual swamp water difficult terrain or impassable terrain! But that might just be me! But also that would leave very little room left for anything else!!! Still very cool!

[@parttimetabletopper]

Hey there! Thanks so much. Happy to unpack all of that: 1. Regarding the epoxy resin, I’ve never had an issue with it melting the foam. I’ve made a dozen or so of these boards, as well as some other boards that had water effects, and no issues yet. The amount of resin being used doesn’t really get hot, And there’s always layers of paint or something similar between the resin and the foam. 2. The idea is to be able to place scatter terrain as you please, including docks, raised pathways, platforms, boats, rafts, etc. That way you can mix it up and reuse it. Also, having shallow water, like a marsh, and making it difficult terrain is totally doable too. I’ve been in swampy water that’s only knee or waist deep. It’s all up to you as the one running the game 🧙‍♂️

[@myerlinggames]

You really should be using gloves with 2 part epoxy… that stuff can have some serious adverse effects

[@parttimetabletopper]

I had to go back and check the video, because I’m surprised I didn’t. Yes, always use gloves, and use it in a well ventilated area 👍

[@keithpogue6080]

Great work. Just a heads up, you start nearly every sentence of your narration with the word “Now.”

[@parttimetabletopper]

Thanks! And I went back and watched the first few minutes and noticed. I’ll be ready with a few different transitions next time 😂📖