Making CHEAP and SIMPLE Gaming Terrain, with Wooden Blocks!

In this video im going to make an entire scenery set using kids wooden blocks, though this project cost me very little, i do discuss the budget if your starting something like this from scratch.
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00:00 Intro.
09:59 Building the Blocks
12:39 Filling the Gaps
16:22 Painting Time!
23:23 Thoughts n Stuff

[@BillMakingStuff]

his eyes have been opened...

[@NewSquallor]

He's one small shove away from the Gutterlands.

[@redcoat259]

Once you go scrap, you never go back…

[@trollpaintingminis4496]

He even stole them from his son. Can't get more Bill than that.

[@PeachyTips]

Hahaha! its like ive revisited my past lol

[@Fox01313]

Always glad to see this. After watching a lot of terrain crafters on KZbin with Bill making stuff, Eric's hobby workshop, Black magic craft, Wyloch's Armory, MS paints, Scratch Bashing, DM Scotty , Wulvenkraft, Summon lesser maker, Miniature Hobbyist & many others, it's a part of the hobby I always find interesting. The US craft stores (Michael's, hobby lobby and the underrated craft section at Dollar tree) have been a big help too.

[@jhnBxter]

This will cause a spike in Amazon traffic for kids wooden blocks, good job , well done

[@davidechiuchiu84]

This video will be soon known as the starting point of the wooden block black market

[@lukevassh7740]

You mad creative lil smelter, you!! ✊️

[@PeachyTips]

Hahaha! I’ve upgraded from lead to wood now

[@CygnusMaximusXIII]

Awesome video, as ever, Mr. Peach! One other tip if people want their blocks to look more like weathered stone: before assembly and painting, put them in a plastic bin with some actual rocks from the garden and shake them up really well. That will put rock-textured dents and dings into them, then just follow your tutorial from there! :)

[@TheGreatWyrdling]

What I really like about this terrain is that it's not fragile. You can just move it around and and it'll get bumped and such. Plastic kits eventually break...

[@alltat]

You can even throw it at people, and those people will break before the terrain does. You shouldn't, but you can!

[@thesoothsayer9223]

The people's Peach, thanks for the Poorhammer content!

[@PeachyTips]

You are most welcome 😍👍

[@Ging3rDw4rf]

scratch building terrain is one of my favorite bits of the hobby....pringles cans and carboard boxes have been so many of my gaming boards over the years.....loving MDF terrain at the min though this idea is perfect for a cheap addition to the box of world building kit!!

[@edwardclay7551]

This is very much giving me old 2nd Edition 40k vibes. Where all of the rulebooks actually told us to use books as hills, blocks, etc.

[@PeachyTips]

Ahhh the good old days 😂😂😂

[@edwardclay7551]

@@PeachyTips Truly so. But your video is inspiring. I'm going to try my own approach to this and see what I can come up with.

[@PeachyTips]

@@edwardclay7551 id lve to see how you get on, so please do feel like you can share pics on my social media accounts

[@imnotgeoff]

Ok this is genius.the blocks would work really well for using as monumental ancient Egypt buildings

[@karstedt9987]

As a big fan of Black Magic Craft, was really looking forward to this one. Time and budget friendly scenery is awesome. I bet some caulking mixed with sand would be a good filler/texture material. I think you could use a wood carving veiner (aka a little v shaped blade for making grooves) or just a scratch awl to create stonework texture (or other features) pretty nicely.

[@JD-wm2rd]

Nice job Peach! I’d probably call it “Great looking, Easy, fun terrain anyone can make”. Everyone’s on a budget of some type and I appreciate you thinking about that. This looked great. I’m going to make some for my Tomb Kings of Khemri. I think you’re “The people’s champion” When you paint armies and do terrain or talk about games it’s all very relatable and I don’t feel intimidated. You make it look fun and you explain it in an approachable way. Thanks for keeping it real. 😊

[@PeachyTips]

Using this for Tomb Kings is a top notch idea, and thank you for the kind and supportive words, I’m just pleased folks find the content helpful.

[@Brickerbrack]

13:00 If you separate some of the filler into another container, you can also mix a bit of PVA glue into it to give it that extra bit of durability when it dries.

[@skinniestfatman5641]

Such a great idea, im now thinking of getting some and making scenery for Tomb Kings

[@Axiie]

Instant like, instant subscribe. When I started playing wargames, I used 10mm wooden cubes as my miniatures, and used 1inch square blocks and old Jenga sets for terrain. Since I've moved to 15mm proper miniatures, I still use those basic wood shapes for some terrain, or I grab some cardstock and make my own. I have been eyeing up the old cubes and jenga blocks and wondering about hot gluing them together in different shapes, and I think you've just given me the push to get it done :D

[@DarrylAdams]

One thing that may work for this is Jenga blocks. Wyloch did his modular dungeons with it for the walls. Also both "I can't believe it is not Jenga" blocks and rare earth magnets are cheap to buy on the Chinese drop shipping sites like Temu for extra modularity

[@PeachyTips]

Oooh very useful! Cheers Darryl

[@adamgilbert4318]

Love the idea of upcycling random stuff into wargaming. Would love to see more stuff in the future on affordable wargaming

[@ovan2190]

It's always cool to see kids toys used in different ways, I've seen some magnetic shapes to make modular terrain which is cool too, love the variety of vids and they're a lot if fun

[@PeachyTips]

Cheers, I’m chuffed you’re enjoying the content, and a top notch suggestion on the magnetic shapes

[@PACEUK22]

More vids like this plz. Thanks for uploading

[@TheHobbyCorner]

When I was a kid I used to use the polystyrene packaging from electrical goods family members bought as they looked like cool fortifications or buildings. And when I accidentally found out what super glue did to it the fun really began! Great video mate, keep on smelting!🤘😎🔥

[@PeachyTips]

Yeah the magic mistakes of super glue and solvent spray on polystyrene lol. Cheers bud 😍🙏😍

[@mikoajkeler1042]

the end result is that your work is turning out exceptionally well, I personally like to use old packaging from electrical equipment, these Styrofoam elements sometimes have amazing shapes

[@AnominousRex]

looks great. I've always been tempted to repurpose the old fisher price castles for fantasy terrain. You always see them going cheap and they are huge playable terrain pieces just need some texturing and repainting.

[@John_is_Ogre]

Thanks for making this video! It's cool to see things be repurposed with a little elbow grease into fun modular terrain!

[@wanderingjack42]

Another cheap source of wood blocks is old Jenga sets. Charity shops always have those. Great for chopping up and building castles

[@hairysticks74]

Peachy mentions Play School and my brain is like: Let's have a look through... The arched window!!! Who is it? Sh!t it's Darth Vader, run away, run away!!!

[@SolinOutlander]

The mental image from this comment alone made my day.

[@abzhasan8322]

I had the same idea a few years back. Thanks for visualising it and offering a direction. Nice work!

[@theycallmepiccolo9985]

This with a few hand crafted bits from foam and bulsa wood would look amazing

[@erikbraun473]

Scenery definitely makes the game for me. This was a great vid thanks peach! You could easily add some cut up cereal boxes into the mix and add some thinner sections or some roof portions. Great build!

[@homicidalbanana]

This is great idea as someone with limited space and storage at the moment a terrain set like this would be perfect for me. It's probably been said already but a few changes I would make would be to use dowels to make the blocks more modular and moveable. Choose which pieces I would use as barricades and buttresses, fix the dowels into the one side and drill a connection spot into the other. Also before the base coating step chip and rough the blocks up on brick or concrete to give them a more textured or used look

[@PedroBaele]

Great idea or work with magnets

[@Bood_mun67]

Got some Silver Bayonet - Egypt coming up down the track and this would make some good terrain for that painted the right way! Great video!

[@davidsmillie1987]

This is awesome. I'm going to give this a try for Frostgrave. You've inspired me.

[@PeachyTips]

Yaaay I helped 😍👍

[@aztecjaguar6571]

Awesome hobby project - making scenery is so much fun. Rusty metal sheeting from corrugated hobby card is so easy and home sweet home for your Orks and post-apocalypse landscape

[@rickyl3136]

I cast engagement for the algorithm. Great video always love getting ideas for future projects. Thxs

[@WorldBleeder]

That brings me back to the old days. My friends and I used to do this back in the 80's & 90's and we had no money and plastic scenery didn't exist.

[@PeachyTips]

I think it was a far more creative time for scenery

[@Zejety]

I'll say that I was really impressed with the look of smaller sections of stacked blocks, especially at 24:31. With larger structures in view, the terrain still looks great for the cost, but the zoomed in view on square blocks with grass growing from the gaps really stood out to me as punching above their weight class. I have a lot of expensive terrain to paint first, but I think if I were to try this, I'd use it for more scatter terrain-type elements. Lose blocks and small walls. Really dig those!

[@PeachyTips]

Cheers for the comment 😍🙏😍 and yes adding in those tufts really helped sell the look I feel

[@alm8113]

Something I've done in the past is use textured sprays (they're meant to be used for plant pots and stuff). Then just dry brush and it looks great!

[@yellowbellytabletop]

Surprisingly good effect at the end. Great job.

[@burfscape1]

VERY inspiring!!! Possibly my favorite part is this was like a miniature's "ugly phase" times 5, then at the end, looks better than a lot of the scenery I see at gaming stores. (And it is super 'modular" ! Great video, Peachy - I always love scenery videos. Thanks!

[@PeachyTips]

There was definitely a fair few ugly stages for sure 🤣

[@the_arcanum]

Very convincing result Peachy, it rocks ! And I love seeing how excited you are with that revelation. Next time you use wooden blocks, remember... it's wood. There's no glue that bonds it better than plain cheap wood glue. Just stick sanding paper on a board, have a few passes on it with the block side you want to glue to remove the paint and varnish for a better grip, coat it with glue, press it with the other block. I can guarantee you it won't break if you drop it from a table or a shelf. The hot melt glue ? I would not bet on it.

[@robclarke1098]

Fantastic work! There is so much more satisfaction in making stuff from scratch, rather than just buying a kit. Very much like kitbashing models; they are unique and they are yours.

[@jamesperrin3762]

Full Blue Peter mode! 👏

[@clockmonkey]

My first war gaming terrain was little piles of books covered in a grey green Army Blanket. Nowadays am a board gamer so its a map with card board counters on it. Its all war gaming, something I do for giggles.

[@MedicMarc22]

This is great! I’ve recently been posted to a rural community, and I’m starting up an after school warhammer club. This is a great way to get terrain on the table quickly.

[@Gryndir]

I'm doing something similar but with Jenga blocks. I found them from a dollar store and was able to make a few walls by stacking them up and gluing them together. I also left a gap using popsicle sticks so I can slide some platforms into them and make some height in my board

[@jonathanstraw6543]

For the longest time I was wondering how I was going to make Lizardmen/Seraphon temples and spawning pools without hacking into foamboard, I now know how I am going to make Seraphon Temples and spawning pools, Thanks Mr Peach!

[@PeachyTips]

Whop whoop!!! Also that’s a very cool idea too 😍🙌😍

[@papaaaaaaa2625]

Hey mate. I did something, roughly, similar with Lego Bricks. We have a ton of Lego, and after my son moved on into puberty ("bläh, lego is so uncool🙄") i sold most of it. BUT i had a big box of those loose briggs...so i used them for simple structures, put some thinned plaster on it and painted it. Theoretically i can nibble off that stuff... theoretically

[@stephenrenwick8781]

Awesome work on these. I never thought about glueing the blocks together...cunning!

[@PeachyTips]

cheers Stephen glad it was helpful!

[@BigBlueLuke85]

9:48 “well hold on to your butts…because you’re going to be in for a ride” 😂😂😂 never change Mr Peach!!

[@davidgreen1234]

My friend has a bag of foam blocks similar to these from when he was a kid and we often use them for games of Kill Team or smaller games of 40k. Underrated hobby hack!

[@SpicyPetePaints]

I bloody love creating a setting for miniatures. I don’t really play, but if I can make a diorama that suits, I will. I always take my bases a bit far for that very reason 😂

[@Panttz12]

I think you nailed it mate. Looks amazing!

[@peterplayingwithleadbrian5464]

My favourite piece of terrain I made is a menhir stone circle made of air dry clay with some flocks and tufts stuck in the little cracks to make them look like they are super old.

[@MatchaMakesThings]

Necron aesthetic would look super look good.

[@jamesn2830]

this is SUCH A COOL IDEA!!! I would love to see any more cool ideas you can come up with because I love this

[@iand3lond]

Great content. Makes me think of people using cheap plastic magnetic tiles from off brand construction game for young children but painted in a similar manner as terrain for sci fi terrain.

[@matthewl6158]

Hi Peachy I have been collecting and painting minis for a short while now and your videos have been great. I came into the hobby as a lorehead and have really enjoyed both the history and painting sides of your videos. Atm a mate and I are just painting the minis who interest us (not even that dedicated to an army although we have favourites) and are cheap. I only own one terrain piece so I will be using this to make my scenery for games. Maybe a video on what to expect playing your first tabletop game?

[@aroncheek5092]

I've started building scale scenery for my mini's , I've built a short course for my 1/24 RC crawler, made from polystyrene wire mesh and cement, the odd bits and bobs

[@jacobmeader9704]

Love it Peach, keep up these fun and cheap terrain builds.would love to have more ideas.

[@G_Threepwood]

They turned out great. Before having kids i would scratch build, but i just dont have the time now. I'll give this a try with the blocks we have rammed at the back of the cupboard, cheers Peachy!

[@jesterprince4949]

I appreciate home made scenery. It has a charm to it. Making scenery is my favourite part of the hobby. I've also seen other kids toys used to make very effective scenery. Magnet tiles make some outstandingly effective modular walls for dungeons or space ships. They aren't as cheap as wooden blocks, but they are endlessly modular and you could dress them up as ship interiors for star grave / Kill Team.

[@PeachyTips]

Ooh the magnet tiles is a smart idea, I’ll look into this 😍🙏😍

[@wokehammer40k]

Fantastic video! Amazing what you were able to achieve! Really screams Star Wars to me but great for many settings like you said! I could see a great tomb world board made from these with different colors.

[@sarcastrophe9090]

When you say to paint quicker just move your hand faster, I didn’t realise it was that fast Peachy! 18:37

[@PeachyTips]

🤣🤣🤣 yeah it’s just as easy as that lol

[@alistairbuckle3450]

There are often really interesting shapes in polystyrene packing in most boxed items. You can’t use most rattle can spray paints because they contain solvents so people use emulsion house paint e.g. colour tester pots or a mix of PVA glue and cheap acrylic paint and sometimes sand mixed in for texture. Super cheap and easy to modify or weather with any sharp knife. If you want to get fancy, you can buy a hot wire tool and make practically anything with a hot glue gun. I remember making entire castles from sheets of polystyrene and if it gets broken or a mistake is made then it’s an historic ruin. Cheers!

[@microforgeminis]

This is awesome! I really loved the red detailing at the end. That really helped to take it from wooden blocks to a more believable set of terrain

[@RabtasticPaints]

Could definitely use these as Haradrim ruins for MESBG!

[@ellesse3862]

Oh.. initially those primary bricks are not convincing me but as they say "scrubs up nicely", what a transformation, I see historical ruins, fantasy, science fiction.. most of all, I like what I see. I think wooden blocks might be in my future, quite like the idea of robust ruins daubed with Ork patterns, something that can take a few knocks and easilly fixed. Cracking vid.. excited to see them in you beauty shots, battle reports and most of all, future expansion vids. Some cheap experiments I've done - Cocrete bunkers from packing styrofoam shapes. Columns from plastic tubes that contained water-soluble vitamins. Clad in rectangles of cereal box card over a layer of PVA'd kitchen roll. Piles of ammunition, stacked cannon balls from little airgun bb pellet balls I've found around outside, filled a couple of old agrax bottles over a summer. Washed, glued into stacks, painted, perfect scale for scatter terrain. A larger pyramid stack painted like stone might go nice with wood block ruins too.

[@PeachyTips]

Thank you for watching the transformation of primary coloured blocks to ancient magical ruins 🙌 Also loving the suggestions and experiments you’ve done too 😍👍

[@ellesse3862]

@@PeachyTips I really enjoyed it. My favourite build I've done so far has been Crates, layers of squares and rectangles from cat food box card stuck together into cubes / rectangles / chests, then covered in slices of vaneer I had (stir sticks would be great alternative), like tiny planks. Easy fun build makes a tub of scatter terrain for any game.

[@Slothminiatures]

Such a great idea Peachy, looks so good at the end and reminded me of playing 40K on the floor using a play car mat as a board when I was younger. Have you thought about using the plastic trays you get from biscuit selection boxes? Some of those could make some interesting designs.

[@JoshuaNairn]

Went in to this quite skeptical, thinking it'd be more of a last resort, low budget option for scenery, but damn, yeah, that came out proper nice. I was still doubtful until you started adding the extra painted markings, and then the grass tufts really did just bring it home in a way I didn't expect. And then arranged on the grass mat with the trees around the outside as a natural boundary, has a sort of nostalgic vibe to it, like the random structures you'd see in games like Halo where you don't even think about what it's supposed to be or why it was built, once you see the enemy is there it just makes sense to fight over it. Great video, really gets the neurons firing

[@charliekirkpatrick695]

So effective, and the simple markings really fit with the simple shapes.

[@AshandStoneNZ]

Good stuff! These look absolutely fantastic! Very simple, but incredible versatile. Might have to pick up some wooden blocks now...

[@hrzhrz1]

Coolest thing eher. (I think Joseph McCollough did a similar thing with jenga blocks)

[@PeachyTips]

Oh cool! He’s a smart guy

[@darkhorsedan]

The finished product turned out so much better than you'd expect for something built out of kids blocks. My friends and I want to get into Necromunda, particular the Ash Wastes content. In addition to some terrain ideas, this vid got me thinking about taking some toy cars and kitbashing Mad Max style vehicles out of them.

[@PeachyTips]

There’s so much scope with it, Necromunda is also a brilliant suggestion too, and if you get the larger kids cars, they’ll be perfect for mad max style vehicles 😘👌

[@73ebb]

Definitely going to do this for 5 parsecs from home and other things. Nice

[@beardgoblin1090]

Crackin' stuff Peachy - I've been getting into The Doomed (which I see is also on your radar - it plays real nicely, but is pretty brutal!) and I'm gonna have to get a couple of sets of these to make up some ruins for that! As for your 'plastic half domes' idea, transparent diy christmas bauble clamshells in various sizes (esp 5cm and 8cm diameter) are readily available at various well known online shopping sites. Obligatory orphan smelter in joke goes here 😉

[@paulofreire7520]

It takes real talent to make a cool scenery out of those wooden blocks 👍🏻

[@PeachyTips]

Cheers bud, that’s very kind of you to say 😍👍

[@anthopea]

Another fantastic video Peachy, really loving your tips on various things 👍🏻👍🏻

[@PeachyTips]

Thanks 🙌🙌🙌 I appreciate you for saying that

[@Grim-Crusader]

I love modeling terrain, maybe more than painting models...maybe

[@hobbyjobbers]

Solid idea! I’m about to pilfer my kids stash, now.

[@davidechiuchiu84]

So the very cool scenery from your Instagram shots is made of... Wooden blocks?!? This is mind blowing

[@Ed-xo9pc]

I remember the days when white dwarf would show you stuff like this. Absolutely cracking vid peachy, bring back the old school hobby vibes

[@PeachyTips]

I still have my classic hue to make Wargames terrain book, so I should look at using that for future projects too

[@nongratias]

A+, Cheers! Loving the accessible and fun McCulloughverse hobby content of late. Don't let anyone convince you terrain it in!

[@PeachyTips]

That’s some top tier punnage 🤣👍

[@bryandennis1917]

Brilliant, I’m going to do this in the future! Thanks

[@aroncheek5092]

Thank you for including us coffee drinkers, I have also started drinking tea though so I'm a tea and coffee man now😂

[@PeachyTips]

It’s easy to forget they’re other beverages available 🤣🤣🤣

[@frostee6162]

also some random carving with a knife on the edges and the corners and maybe a few hits with a hammer on the flat surfaces could make the blocks more weathered and natural

[@brandonloves40k]

I love this idea and I would love to see more videos like this! 💪

[@coolclam98]

You had me at "hold onto your butts". I'm surprised at how well they turned out. It reminds me of the OLD White Dwarfs where you were encouraged to make your own things, such as the Ork Gobsmasha made from coffee pot lids for wheels. Thought this video would be called Peachy gets wood 😂

[@PeachyTips]

🤣🤣🤣

[@robertvincent7385]

For silver bayonet you need to build a full blown aztec or Egyptian pyramid and Sumerian ruins.

[@blackguardunlimeted]

wow I just completed two weeks ago something very similar to this : a mesoamerican pyramid with wooden cubes ! love it keep it up !

[@garyknight3018]

Great video, love the idea of you expanding this scenery project with narrative buildings, scattering terrain using cheap materials.

[@PeachyTips]

I have so many ideas now lol, and a lot of recycling to pilfer 😂

[@taintedmess9546]

Making scenery is probably one of my favourite parts of the hobby so thank you for another source of parts

[@brenthartman502]

Like the old White Dwarf ... 2nd Ed home done scenery. Coke cans for 40k and Necromunda were a crowd fave. Great job .. bring back the Halcyon days mate 😆👍👍

[@PeckLoveMedia]

Inspiring! A few weeks ago I actually used some wooden blocks to build terrain for a little micro game called Kuroi. It’s not as quick, but I stuck mine together with wood glue plus a few dabs of gel super glue. The super glue holds things together while the wood glue forms a strong bond, so the pieces are less prone to breaking apart.

[@_tensketch]

Not sure if it's been mentioned but another money saver is to use a colour matching service of your local hardware store to match up whatever colours you're using for drybrushing and some of those markings and then buying a tester pot of the matched colour. Its about £4 for a 400ml tester pot and it can be thinned with water just fine. I wouldn't paint my minis with it but all my bases are done using Valspar from B&Q because I was burning through my earth and green vallejo paints far too quickly.

[@joshcoward437]

This is very quickly becoming my favorite miniature hobby channel. Great stuff Peachy!

[@PeachyTips]

Aww thanks Josh 😘😘😘

[@GordonPryra]

Some of the most engaging content I've seen in a while, really took my attention rather than being a backdrop to me painting. Pity I missed any reference to Sharpe, maybe it was when i had to leave the room after you drank some of that horrible devil water

[@PeachyTips]

🤣👍

[@Dartharus]

Great Job! I am now quite looking forward to when my little one grows out of her building blocks so I can steal them off her. i thinking about what it would look like after taking a chisel to some of the corners and adding some mossy/viney bits

[@PeachyTips]

I think if I do a second set I will add more chips and scuffs etc to the blocks. It’s funny that we all covet our kids toys hoping that when they’re done with them we can steal them away and make some cool terrain 🤣

[@gregtheintense]

It really does fit so many scenarios. Well done sir. Would definitely enjoy seeing more scenery builds from ya!

[@tremolo_painter]

Been waiting for this since you mentioned it in Juggz. Such a great idea!!

[@armholeeio]

On a spray can front you can also look at something like b&q , fairly cheap and reliable as a base coat

[@OldManRogers]

They look great. The strips really make them pop.

[@andymarshallart9505]

Great video! This less is more approach is so good and really versatile