Terrain can seem a bit double edged at times. The better it looks, generally, the worse it is to play a game on. A fully modelled forest, full of trees, bushes, logs and all other details that bring it to life might be visually stunning, but it’s impossible to play a game on. Even with … Continue reading Visuals vs gameplay – cutting that fine line with terrain
Wargamers will spend days, weeks and months lovingly crafting an army for their game of choice. They will spend hours researching colour schemes, painting techniques, fluff and seek to get the best deal on miniatures they can. They will then spend many evenings stooped in front of the television applying layer after layer of paint … Continue reading Terrain is the third army on the table, so why is it neglected?
Terrain tutorials are a fantastic thing. There are many excellent written tutorials and youtube tutorials for any subject, such as those made by The Terrain Tutor or Luke's APS. These guys put out some incredible content covering a wide range of skills and they make some excellent terrain. I find the problem with terrain tutorials in general is … Continue reading Introduction
Let's dive straight in. You will need MDF, polyfilla and sandpaper. I'm making 3 water features - 2 ponds and 1 swamp. 1. Make bases You know what to do. What I didn't do is take a photo of all three bases together, but you'll see them in a second. Each of them measures 4-6" … Continue reading Ponds & swamps
Next up we have a modular hill - one that can be split in half, so that it butt up against the edge of the table. You of course don't have to make the hill modular if you don't want and could simply make a second non-modular hill for this set. 1. Make a hill … Continue reading Modular hill
There are two basic types of hills in wargaming, flat or stepped hills and tapered hills. Flat hills are simply flat raised areas while tapered hills are sloped. There are positives and negatives to both varieties. Flat hills clearly mark where a hill starts and stops in-game and models on top aren't in danger of … Continue reading Flat hill
This is going to be another very quick build. Like with the previous rocky terrain, these forests each consist of two parts - a reference base and a decorative base. The reference base is entirely flat and marks the actual in-game location of the terrain piece, while the decorative base sits on top. If a … Continue reading Forests
We're going to be making a simple piece of difficult terrain; a rocky patch. This is easy to make but gives you a good foundation in the core skills. All we're going to be using is some 25mm styrofoam, MDF for the base and your basing texture. Let's get started! 1. The initial base Make … Continue reading Rocky patches
Well at the start of any major project, you need a shopping list. Here's a view of all the materials we're going to be using, minus paints (click for big):
Adding texture to a miniatures base is pretty simple - coat the base with PVA, dip it in some sand, done. This is fine for such a small surface area, but the larger the surface you want to texture, the more bland this becomes. This is especially a problem with terrain where you can often … Continue reading Texturing terrain bases
Nick Williams 