Building war gaming terrain.

So for the last week or so my eldest daughter and I have been building a 2ft x 2ft gaming board with multi leveled terrain.

I think we got to about 97% of what I was hoping to achieve on our first attempt at a large scale terrain build not from a kit or that was store bought.

A few things we learned along the way were : mdf bases warp like hell. Paper mache based mainly on flour shrinks a tonne. Hot knifing to cut foam smells dreadful (glad we did so outside) and takes a while if you don’t own a heated wire cutter. Static flock applicators will get your grass to stand on end, where as shaking from height out of the container does not yield such results. Tin foil rock moulds are handy but not as good a actual rock moulds used with plaster of paris. Paper mache takes a lot longer than you think it will. It also is a lot messier with a six year old helper. Dry brushing doesn’t take very long at all to achieve decent results. Exploded styrofoam slabs are great for flat surfaces but the extruded xps foam is where it’s at for topographical elements and carving. Sculptamold knock offs are good but not great. Use a fan to speed up drying times by an exceedingly wide margin.

I look forward to building more terrain in the years to come with my daughters. Campaigns await!