scavenging for terrain

[Aethelwulf]

How many of you get your terrain from thing you find lying around?
The only terrain items I have ever bought was glue (lots and lots of glue), paint and a water tower, some signs and that's it. Everything else I have scavenged from sticks for trees to lumps of moss for bushes. Polystyrene I get from either pizza bases some big chunks I found lying around at a picnic sight. And I have 3 large crates of terrain.

[Onebigriver]

I will buy things like balsa, coffee stirrers, plaster, bbq skewers, wire etc, but yes I try to keep material costs down as much as possible, using scavenged polystyrene, double corrugated cardboard, cereal packet card etc. as well as interesting bits, charity shop finds etc. There is much eye rolling from my wife but she's an understanding lady.

[has.been]

but she's an understanding lady.

I have one of them too.
My wife puts things on my work table instead of throwing them straight into the bin.

[FramFramson]

In before Tin Shed rumbles into the thread with his nine real-size city blocks worth of terrain made entirely from cereal packet card. 

[carlos marighela]

In before Tin Shed rumbles into the thread with his nine real-size city blocks worth of terrain made entirely from cereal packet card. 

Which, depending on when he started amassing cereal packets, makes you wonder just how many plastic spacemen, Dr Who badges and assorted Joe 90 bits of plastic giveaway shite he has stored away.   

Oddly enough, I found some years ago a soft plastic archer, that must have been about 54mm, whose provenance was a Kellog's packet. Would have been a struggle for the average child to have choked upon, although small children can be determined little buggers.

I often utilise packing polystyrene for stuff. Combined with sand and model bricks and covered in plaster or gesso it makes great filler for urban rubble.  Shirt boxes and blister packs invariably get recycled for glazing. The local Kmart was selling off 'butterfly houses' as a clearance sale and that gave me the shells/for half a dozen houses for a future project.

[eilif]

I don't primarily use refuse for terrain as much, but I'm still open to the idea when the right stuff comes along. I've got a batch of grocery store spice racks awaiting transformation into walls.
However,  these days I build nearly all my terrain projects from broken and cast off toys that I find for ridiculously cheap at thrift stores. 

You can't beat toys for having great detail already cast on and with a Dremel 543 cutter you can chop up and reassemble at will.  Since I mostly use toys made of polystyrene it also saves allot of time over scratch built stuff and is often sturdier.

[has.been]

I've had a Dremel for over a year, but the (supposed) work area
is still cluttered & I've not yet gotten around to using it.
 

[eilif]

I've had a Dremel for over a year, but the (supposed) work area
is still cluttered & I've not yet gotten around to using it.
 

I highly recommend picking up one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-543-Cutting-Shaping-Wheel/dp/B000HI5WUS
Costs half as much as some Dremels, but it lasts dang near forever and the ability to chop through plastic (or wood) and then shape with the same bit is unmatched.  I'll still use a thin cutoff wheel if I've got a cut where I want to preserve as much as possible on each side of the cut, but that's the exception. I have a Dremel with 543 installed hanging in my workspace and ready to go at all times.

[has.been]

I highly recommend picking up one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-543-Cutting-Shaping-Wheel/dp/B000HI5WUS

When I do get around to clearing the work table (currently working on about
one square foot of an 8' x 4' supposedly wargames table, which is also covered
in crap) I'll have to get me one of those.

[Aethelwulf]

I even uses bits from real bugs that I find dead (well most of the time they're dead) lying around.

[Spinal Tap]

I do like to collect stuff for making terrain, and have started using some bits in miniature builds as well.

Especially like to collect natural stuff when on holiday as each time I use the piece it reminds me of my trips away.