Wargaming on a Budget: Homemade Terrain

Wargaming can be expensive, but with a bit of effort and creativity, you can keep the cost down by making your own terrain. This video has some practical suggestions and top tips for creating three basic types of terrain common to most wargames tables. Hills, fields and buildings feature in nearly every period and genre and if you can make them yourself rather than buying commercial products, you can keep the cost of your hobby down.

[@billd.iniowa2263]

Cheapest hills I've found: Cut corrugated cardboard boxes up into roundish pieces, each piece smaller than the one before. Stack them up and you got a hill. Tape them to the table and throw a big green felt sheet over them. Beautiful rolling hills for pennies. If your felt cloth is too boring just sprinkle flock around and spray PVA (white glue, like Elmers)/water mix to seal it. Be sure to add a drop or two of dish washing liquid to make it flow better. Mix should be consistency of milk to run thru the spray bottle. If you have trouble, cut 2" off the pick-up tube. The glue falls to the bottom and gets thick. Game On!

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Excellent suggestion. I'm playing a game now with a printed cloth sheet over my foam hills and it looks really nice.

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

Great idea with the cardboard hills. I’ve been making hills from expanded polystyrene covered in strips of newspaper soaked in PVA glue and then painted but it’s very laborious and unnecessarily ‘hi-tech’ when you’re using a cloth mat overlay. Meanwhile books and folded T-shirts just don’t produce nice rounded hill shapes that figures like to stand up on. Think I’ll give some of my cardboard a work-over today!

[@corvusboreus2072]

A few terrain materials can be fossicked for free directly from nature: Beachcombed sea sponges, cut/torn up and coloured for hedges, shrubs and foliage (sniff test recommended before collecting). Lichen, collected from old farm fenceposts, used as vines, shrubs and general foliage. Rocks of all types, especially ones with suitable flat faces so they look properly 'bedded in'. The stem and roots of some uprooted weedy shrubs (eg senna pendula), inverted and based for use as tree armatures. Nature provides.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Indeed. I have used things like twigs and bark collected while out walking (I always have a few small ziplock bags handy for stuff I collect). With twigs/bark I usually put them on a metal tray and bake them in the oven on a low heat to kill any critters that may be inside. Once sterilised like this your good to go, and all for free.

[@corvusboreus2072]

@@MiniatureAdventuresTV Very good point on the critter hygiene, one doesn't want to invite woodborers into one's home. I prefer using root systems rather than above-ground wood because I find they often have better tabletop durability and tend to have much finer branching. Luckily my work (weed control in natural areas) provides ample material for my hobby.

[@hankscorpio8928]

I’m new to the game. I Love the idea as fabric for fields. Especially the codouroy for the plowed fields. One of the things I’m liking about FoW, and maybe it 15mm in general, is the emphasis on building terrain.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Fabric Fields look great , conform to the underlying terrain and are much cheaper than commercial versions. Best of luck with your terrain making 👍

[@HethwillWargames]

Always good to pass info like this. Just a note I think it is important is - our tables do not have to look like the photo shoots in the magazines nor the displays at cons. That simple fact saves a lot of money. My own tip - felt paper + oil pastel sticks = roads, rives, ponds.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Absolutely, I just enjoy making my tables detailed. It's part of the fun for me.

[@billd.iniowa2263]

I think home-made is the best terrain you can play on. It has a charm to it. You go over to your buddy's house and see a part of him in his work. Let your inner artist out and try it! You just might be surprised. I built some things and when I look at them I say "Did "I" do THAT?!! That is really not too awful." lol So give it a shot folks. You might just discover a whole new hobby! -- BTW, I have NEVER seen somebody get dumped on about the quality of their terrain. And anybody that would do that you dont want to play with anyway.

[@lesliebeilby-tipping6854]

Home made terrain is great if you have the skills. You can build from scratch or start with some made components and finishing them into a setting of your choosing. Skips are one of the best places for the larger items.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Whenever I go to the local municipal dump I always have and eye out for insulation foam that has been disposed.

[@billd.iniowa2263]

You may not even need the skills. As you build more and more you will develop the skills. And once you get hooked on it, you'll start seeing terrain in every day common objects. Especially if you build for Sci-Fi. There is no limit to what you can make in that genre. You'll be pulling junk out of the garbage and getting yelled at by your room mate, wife or for you kids, your mom. "But this salad container will make a great greenhouse for my Mars table!"

[@rickparkhurst8687]

@@MiniatureAdventuresTV Wifey has informed me that I am no longer allowed to return from the dump with more than I took there!

[@rickparkhurst8687]

Just "discovered" you and have subscribed. Great suggestions! I have found that when you glue your cardboard together for hills, alternate the directions of the corrugation and it makes it incredibly rigid.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Thanks for the subscription, much appreciated. Excellent suggestion with the cardboard.

[@sandtable8091]

I'm no terrain expert but sand is about £3 a 20kg bag and covers a 6x5 surface to 15/20mm deep. Trenches, roads, hills, rivers, low walls a doddle. Flock it for colour and it vanishes once back in your tub or bucket. You just need a plastic sheet and an edge round the dinner table. More than half your terrain needs met with no more tools than a dustpan and brush...20mins to put up...10mins to take down. Keep it slightly damp to shape and to stop dust.

[@jpokeefe]

Not sure where I got the idea, but I use cut up short rugs as hills and then cover them with a cloth and put down your other terrain over that. You can also use silicon caulk combined in strips on parchment paper. Use a wet finger or putty knife to shape them. Wait for them to cure and paint them up as roads or rivers.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

I've used caulk on a cloth backing to make flexible features. Messy but very effective.

[@tamsinp7711]

With silicone caulk you need to check that it is paintable (a lot aren't); safer to go with acrylic caulk.

[@jpokeefe]

@@tamsinp7711 Really good point. Thanks!

[@martinmeltzer2696]

Hey Big Lee! Excellent topic and I will use some (all) of your suggestions. Here's two more that I have come across, over the years, that have served me well. The green ScotchBrite scrubs... when they are cut into suitably sized strips for your miniatures and mounted on a base make great hedgerows! Wooden matches... cut off the heads.... and you have the basics for fences, bridges, log cabins, corderoyed roads, timber fortifications, etc..

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Lol, I bought a big pack of these recently in a hardware store. I was ostensibly buying 'DIY supplies' but this pack landed in my basket and made their way directly to my painting desk. 😆

[@billd.iniowa2263]

Ok if I mention another KZbinr here? "The Terrain Tutor" must have over a hundred different videos on building terrain for wargaming. I'd just like to mention that since you brought up warping, its one of the biggest headaches you're gonna have. Check out his vid called Fight The Warp. He's very talented and entertaining as heck. Nice guy.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Good recommendation, I'm already a subscriber to his channel. He makes great videos and he's a jolly nice chap as well. 👍

[@mr.pavone9719]

XPS is great stuff, I make most of my large hills from the stuff and there are some spray paints that are safe for such materials. I've started designing my own mini-hex sized bits of terrain for board wargaming. I use my kids ToyBox 3d printer to create little hills, forests and castles. The finished product is extremely durable and perfect for playing games systems like Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame and Jay Ward's Simplicity In Hexes.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

3d printers are a game changer. Not one I plan to adopt, but that's more to do with space constraints than anything else.

[@tamsinp7711]

I enjoy making my own terrain. One of the big problems is that you often have steps with very long drying gaps before you can move onto the next step, which means if you are doing a lot you might not have room on the table to do anything else while you wait (my current problem!).

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

That's what held me back before I got my Operations Room. Making terrain on the dining room table was...problematic, shall we say!

[@samb2052]

One good fix for that is to use cheap decorator’s caulk as adhesive instead of PVA. This significantly reduces drying time. Pre mix tile adhesive is also a good filler or render which dries pretty quickly.

[@tamsinp7711]

@@samb2052 Acrylic caulk is definitely good as an adhesive for foam to foam or foam to MDF, but not so good for adding flock and scatter. I do use it for my "texturing gunk" mixes with sand, grit and other bits (dried herbs most recently, for some swamp bases) added in.

[@OW...]

Good info Lee..

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Thanks

[@martinradcliffe4798]

Some good tips- like many wargamers I resent spending money on anything that is'nt figures!

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Sometimes I'll buy pre painted, but more often than not I'll go for a cheaper option to stretch my gaming pound a little further.

[@vickyking3408]

I stick strictly to 15 mm that way my terrain fits most situations

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

Good idea

[@markjessop6629]

Hi Lee, where did you find your XPS foam for so cheap? I've been looking, but it always seems quite pricey.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

I got mine on Amazon, from a company called Bluefoam. I got a lower unit price because I bought a bigger pack. I used about half making the hills and I'll keep the rest for custom projects as and when I need it.

[@markjessop6629]

@@MiniatureAdventuresTV Thank you, I 've bought a pack. I want to try making some buildings with it.

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

It's a great material for carving and sculpting. I've made stone buildings and floors from this stuff, and the hills of course. Main advice I'd give is get yourself a cheap art acrylic from somewhere like The Works or a poundstore to prime the finished model with before painting properly.

[@richardbarker2928]

Hi,just found tour channel, watched this one and ewanted to know where you get your foamboard and XPS??? from. Ive seen other people use it but locally ive had no joy. I live in Suffolk England cheers

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

I got these from Amazon. Reasonable price and free(ish) delivery because I have Prime membership. Sadly having shopped around it would cost me more to visit an art or craft store selling the same.

[@richardbarker2928]

@@MiniatureAdventuresTV many thanks for your quick response, I've just ordered some from amazon, perhaps to make some hills but I've also seen someone on KZbin make concrete pillboxes out of this stuff. Never used it before so looking forward to seeing what I can achieve. I've got back into the hobby as my kids have grown up and have a little more time....the hobby of wargaming /model making has literally exploded with ideas and KZbin content compared to many years ago. I'm looking forward to viewing your channel, many thanks again

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

Often find offcuts of XPS and other useful modelling raw materials in skips round my way. But if you’re lucky enough to live in rural Suffolk there may not be too many skips around. 🤓

[@sumerandaccad]

I've started buying the cardboard ready made buildings which are much cheaper even than the MDF buildings. Tried using the boxes of the washing powder tablets but my skills are supremely lacking. I'll persevere

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

I used to make card/paper buildings decades ago for one off RPG's. A good cheap stopgap if storage isn't an issue.

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

Have an old pair of dark brown corduroy trousers waiting to be converted into ploughed fields. I’m just not sure how to stop the edges from fraying…

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

The corduroy I have used hasn't frayed, but I guess it depends on the material and how much you use it. In fact you remind me I have some spare material knocking about and I have a hankering to make some medieval ridge and furrow fields for my Bosworth game. I feel a project coming on!

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

@@MiniatureAdventuresTV - Ridge and furrow? Now, how are you planning to do that? The rows on corduroy will surely be too close together? An idea for a video, mayhap?

[@franklee3800]

Good Vid, mate. (From Australia)

[@hankscorpio8928]

When you say filler, what type of material are you using. Great vid. 👍

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

I often use Plumbers Caulk because it is flexible and relatively cheap.

[@hankscorpio8928]

@@MiniatureAdventuresTV thanks!

[@DarrenMalin]

I wife say she would rather I was spending money on wargaming than in the Pub :)

[@MiniatureAdventuresTV]

She knows which side her bread is buttered. 🤣

[@Rusty_Gold85]

You guys would not go to a Chinese car dealer and pay Bentley prices for one of their stock cars ..would you ? Well stop buying woodland scenics !! Plenty of Railway and other stockists you can find on a budget ie Noch

[@aaronjecevius5969]

Gimme a good cockney accent 🤣🤣 my buddy in Manchester does a good one 🤣🤣 careful sanding the XPS that shot is cancerous as all hell if ya breathe too much of it in