Terrain Board Help Needed - New Project Starting

[xpalpatinex]

Howdy,

I have an event upcoming where we'll be doing some skirmish gaming. So i'm of course choosing to ignore how low maintenance this could be and taking the plunge and committing to doing some custom terrain boards and need some pretty specific help and advice on a few topics.

Bricks / Blocks: Yeah, I'm interested in going deep into the madness that is individual foam blocks. I blame LAF entirely. I'm sure I'll be cursing certain forumers names soon but until then it seems perfect for what I want need. That being said, I have no idea what specific product folks are using. What foam (preferably with a link) are people cutting up? Size etc...

Cork Bark: Want to do rocky outcrops and cliffs with bark but when I search for it I either get the small pieces (which could work) or just singular and expensive versions of the bigger kind. Any help pointing me towards a good source for bark.

Words of advice or words of warning: Any last words before I descend into project madness?

Thanks!

-Brinton

 

[oldskoolrebel]

I'm not sure where in the world you are based.

But I'd recommend 4D Model Shop for the cork bark. They sell the stuff by the kilo.

Words of advice? Plan. Decide if you want modular boards or not. Then plan some more. Have a look at some of the amazing threads on here. Captain Blood, Silent Invader and AndyM have all made amazing boards in their time. They also produce some very nice threads on the builds.

As for foam bricks, most people use 5mm or 10mm thick blue foam and cut out the bricks individually. A4 sheets are available on ebay or http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com.

Good luck and enjoy!

[tomrommel1]

will follow this closely , I got the big bark pieces and cut them up with a electric saw.

[Silent Invader]

Thanks for the reference OSR Andy  

There are a lot of different techniques to achieve similar ends and even more techniques to achieve different ends. You don't mention the type of terrain you want to create (summer or winter? temperate or arid? forest or beach? etc), which is obviously a major consideration. The other thing that needs an early decision is how big your tiles are going to be, what they are going to be made of, and how they're going to be stored, etc. All of these things can influence the materials and techniques used.

One slight digression with regard to tile size. If you want to take big scenic photos go for large tiles. If you want maximum flexibility of layout and potentially easier storage, go for smaller. I use 30cm sq tiles but I sense that most go twice or even four times as big. Smaller tiles of course means more joins but I tend to take close up photos rather than sweeping images, with my distance shots tending to be at a low angle, so the tile edges disappear. But if you're a fan of the big overhead shots showing all the action then edges that show might spoil the effect for you.

As I seem to be replying to your specific concerns in reverse order ( ), a word on cork. Personally I rarely, if ever, use the larger pieces of cork, or the smaller but more regular-shaped nuggets. I use bottle corks that I tear apart: it takes longer but it creates an effect I like and I find the cliff building to be a veryenjoyable process.

WRT brick-by-brick construction. I don't use foam but simple DIY ready mixed repair plaster. Again, I like the result and I enjoy the process.  

I have a lot of build threads on LAF including some on the go at the mo. I use them to think aloud and then summarise them on my PLog. I can't overstate the importance of recording what you do, as you'll no doubt want to add to the board at some later stage.

For example, these two PLog pages summarise my finished Temperate tiles....

https://www.silentinvader.uk/index_w_gtn_index_terrain.html

https://www.silentinvader.uk/index_w_gtn_index_terrain-making.html

....but I'm also working on 4 more tiles here, which when finished will be added to the PLog

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=96422.15

These two deal with Arid:

https://www.silentinvader.uk/index_w_saw_index_terrain.html

https://www.silentinvader.uk/index_w_saw_index_terrain-making.html

I also have Winter and Urban boards.

Have fun!  

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Cork bark is often much cheaper if you buy big pieces in pet shops ranther than small pieces in model shops.

[Silent Invader]

Cork bark is often much cheaper if you buy big pieces in pet shops ranther than small pieces in model shops.

I'd echo that.  In fact, the cheapest I've ever seen it was in the pet section of an out-of-town garden centre.

[xpalpatinex]

Thanks so much for the advice so far. I hadn't given details on the setting of the board because that is actually still a bit in the air. Its either going to be a Frostgrave game set in a dead (but not frozen) fantasy city of ruins...or Broken Legions set in a mediterranean environment.

Here is my current Greek / Italian / Spanish setup sitting on a plain mat and desperately calling out for some terrain board love.



I'll be doing 24" by 24" boards most likely as I should have a good amount of room to store them in my garage. Was looking to build them out of xps (pink or blue) foam possibly with a base layer or some wood product (MDF or something) to help prevent warping. Any other advice on preventing warping on foam terrain boards would be great.

Thanks,

Brinton

[Silent Invader]

The sort of set up you mention has recently been done by

OldSkoolRebel
Charlie_
Jeff965

Each has a build thread.
 

[Charlie_]

[quote author=xpalpatinex link=topic=97211.msg1204282#msg1204282 date=1484849738

I'll be doing 24" by 24" boards most likely as I should have a good amount of room to store them in my garage. Was looking to build them out of xps (pink or blue) foam possibly with a base layer or some wood product (MDF or something) to help prevent warping. Any other advice on preventing warping on foam terrain boards would be great.
[/quote]

As Im doing similar sized terrain boards right now, the one thing I'll point out is 24" by 24" boards are (perhaps obviously) much less likely to warp or twist compared to rectangular ones (24" by 48"). I've done some of both.... the two larger ones have warped slightly, so I'm not sure If I'm going to do anymore that size. The smaller square ones are all perfect. So it's definitely tempting just to stick with square ones (though one of the good things about having some larger 24 by 48 ones in the mix is less  unsightly gaps and 'gridlines').
I am using 20mm blue foam mounted on 9mm MDF, with wooden 'battens' around the edges (though the last two I built, I just put them on two edges rather than all four - enough to make the corners durable wood rather than fragile foam).

[oldskoolrebel]

My main switch to 24"x24" boards was availability. However, it is a lot more flexible when generating a modular layout.

I use 25mm foam on 18mm mdf, with 6mm wood battens. I seriously doubt that I need to worry about warping 

[SotF]

For Cork bark, if you look at pet stores, there are a lot of good options if you look at petstores in the section for reptiles and other small critters.

[Mad Guru]

Using 2'x2' boards and framing them all around with wood is a foolproof way to prevent warping.  I've built 6'x2', 4'x2', and 2'x2' boards, with and without wood frames, and though wooden frames do a very good job preventing warping and greatly improve durability, combining them with the small size of 2'x2' boards pretty much keeps them from ever warping at all, at least in my experience.

My terrain boards are built with 2" thick blue Dow styrofoam, and I use 3/4" thick lumber for frames.

Here's a link to a post on my blog featuring a tutorial on building a foam terrain board for a river.  It doesn't include adding the ground cover, rocks, reeds, or pouring the resin river itself, just the first structural phase of the build.  Hope it will be of some use...

http://maiwandday.blogspot.com/2014/11/form-of-kabul-river.html

Here's a couple of sample pics: