Best material to base buildings on?

[BZ]

As I know, Foamboard is soft foam between two paper layers, Foamex (PVC foamboard, Hartschaumplatte) is hard foam between two plastic layers. Its basically a thick an light plastic card.

[flatpack]

Cork placemats, that’s the way forward.

[Luigi]

I haven't seen anyone mention it but cheap canvas sheets you get at dollar stores are perfect for basing small to medium pieces of terrain, they're designed to take paint and won't warp, they're also thin enough not to hinder model placement while still being stiff and quite sturdy.

[Mr. White]

I haven't seen anyone mention it but cheap canvas sheets you get at dollar stores are perfect for basing small to medium pieces of terrain, they're designed to take paint and won't warp, they're also thin enough not to hinder model placement while still being stiff and quite sturdy.

canvas sheets? I'm not familiar with these.

[Luigi]

canvas sheets? I'm not familiar with these.

I'm talking about these.

notice that the price is to buy the whole shipment, individually they're 1.25$ (canadian!) which is still ok-ish as far as basing materials go.

Edit: Here's a link to a piece of terrain based off of one of those, it says plywood in the blog but that's because back in the day I didn't know what I was using was actually called.

[Calimero]

I’ve made some research on the Internet to find a Canadian distributor of Foamex but didn’t find what I was looking for… Does anyone know of any? I prefer to order from Canada, but, if there aren’t any, a US seller could be fine too.

Cheers!

[Cubs]

I’ve made some research on the Internet to find a Canadian distributor of Foamex but didn’t find what I was looking for… Does anyone know of any? I prefer to order from Canada, but, if there aren’t any, a US seller could be fine too.

Cheers!

My advice would be to keep an eye out for any business - shops, wholesalers, car dealerships, banks - using signs to advertise promotions that have an expiry date on them. When the promotion is over, they will likely just throw away their signage! This is how I got mine. Obviously you're a bit more limited during lockdown, but New Year sales are likely to be a rich source of material.

[Calimero]

That’s a great Idea! I didn’t think of it, but I could ask around for pieces before they throw them away… I live in an area where’s there plenty of grocery stores, shops, banks, etc. I cannot really wait for them to just throw away stuff since, most of the bin they use in this commercial area are tall, covered ones which are hard to access to…

Still, I’m curious to know if there’s a Canadian seller of this kind of board (I suppose so, I just can’t find one).

Cheers!

[Braz]

I’ve made some research on the Internet to find a Canadian distributor of Foamex but didn’t find what I was looking for… Does anyone know of any? I prefer to order from Canada, but, if there aren’t any, a US seller could be fine too.

Cheers!

You'll want to search for PVC foam board, foamed pvc, expanded PVC or Sintra or Komatex (they are all the same thing).  I don't think the Foamex brand name is available here. Companies that make signs use it so you can check there or plastic supply companies; I found a few Canadian companies onine. FYI the prices on Amazon are ridiculous.
I bought my 3mm (1/8 inch) 4x8 boards from here a while back: http://www.signcraftersupply.com/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.browse&category_id=1372

Hope that helps.
Cheers

[Calimero]

Thanks for the info. One of the first place I looked was Amazon.ca… their prices where indeed ridiculous. The link you give and the different names for this product will help me find a place to get what I’m looking for.

Cheers!

[zemjw]

In the UK (and I think Europe wide), Amazon lost the right to force companies to charge the same on their own website as on Amazon.

Now, when I look for an item on Amazon and find it's a 3rd party seller, I'll check their website to see if it's cheaper. It pretty much always is

Don't know if that's the same your side of the pond, but it's worth checking

[SotF]

I've largely used the laser cut plywood shapes and from the craft and hobby stores to base buildings on, not perfectly tight around them most of the time, but they're cheap and sturdy and I can add things around it.

For smaller terrain pieces, I've also used the thin plastic bases that WizKids packs in with Nolzur's/Deep Cuts minis, I use the Reaper bases for most minis since I like them to match up with most of my collection anyway and for minis, they're to thin for people to pick them up by the bases, so I'd just stashed them away without a use.