Modular terrain used in a 2e BattleSystem Skirmish game

[SgtSlag]

I made up some modular cavern wall sections using pink insulation foam cut into long ovals, on a band saw.  I crumpled brown grocery bag paper, wearing pig-skin leather work gloves (the crumpling of the paper is very hard on the hands -- even with the pigskin leather gloves on!), to create chiseled textures in the paper.  I cut this into strips, Hot Gluing it to the wall surface of the carved pink foam.  I used more Hot Glue to fill in the seams at the tops and bottoms.  Then I applied Hot Glue to the tops and bottoms, to create patterns.  When finished, I painted these a light tan, using house latex paint, in small cans mixed to my preferred color.  Once that dried, I brushed on a coating of Minwax Polyshades Urethane Stain (aka, The Dip Technique), to shade them.  I did this with around 60 pieces of carved up foam insulation pieces.

I experimented with a couple of different paint schemes, and ground covers:  dark paint scheme, with a mottled fabric ground cloth; a gray drybrush on the wall sections; a rusty brown drybrush; and, finally, I opted to use EVA Foam Floor Mats, from Harbor Freight, as my ground surface, with a lighter tan, base color on the wall sections, with a dark brown, Minwax Polyshades urethane-stain over the lighter tan paint.

I used EVA Foam floor mats, from Harbor Freight, as my ground surface; I use the smooth, bottom side of the mats for my gaming surface.  I painted these using several different colors of craft paints, applied with natural sponges, to give mottled patterns, applying them all while the first colors were still wet, so that they would wet-blend, easily, on the foam mat surfaces.  For another project, I had cut a 1-inch grid pattern, 1/4-inch deep.  Not all of the foam mats were given a grid pattern, however.

I then placed the foam wall sections, end-to-end, atop the foam mats, to create hallways and cave chambers.  I believe I used crumpled aluminum foil, Hot Glued to the top of the entrance way cavern piece's top/bottom.  I decided to play out a scenario using high level PC's against a BBEG Red Dragon, and his Drow/Drider minions, Trolls, and Fire Giant allies.

The PC's were victorious, eventually.  LOL!  This was one of two 2e BS Skirmishes games I've played with full 3D terrain, and mini's.  I really like the speed of combat in 2e BS Skirmishes!  Combat is fast -- and deadly!  It still retains the RPG game play, but the speed of combat is lightning fast compared to RPG combat play.

I need to set up and run more 2e BS Skirmishes games, with full 3D terrain, and miniatures.  This game was too many years ago, but it was such a good time...  Cheers!

[Frugalmax]

Nice work on the cavern walls, it looks like fun games!

[SgtSlag]

All of those modular rock walls got painted white, and dry-brushed blue, for my G2: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl adventure.  It really kind of disappoints me that I painted all of them white, but I needed that many to build out the entire Glacial Rift dungeon crawl.

I can make more, if I need to, and I might.  I don't have any photos of the production process for the stone wall sections, but if I do make more, I will document the process photographically, publishing how I made them.  The crumpled brown paper sack material, for chiseled wall surface texture, was amazingly effective, and it was actually easy to attach and paint up.  The really challenging portion of the construction is the crumpling of the heavy paper bags -- it is surprisingly rough on even pig-skin leather glove covered hands!  And I had to crumple a lot of brown paper sacks to cover them...  I cut the bags into long strips, then I crumpled them, flattened them, setting them aside, in an assembly line fashion.

I learned, the hard way, that pink foam insulation cannot tolerate temperatures of 175 F!  I painted them tan latex house paint, first.  After that cured for a couple of days, I brushed on Minwax Polyshades urethane stain (aka, The Dip Technique -- it is not just for figures!), to color them.  I had a slow cooker I use solely for curing Dip'ed miniatures:  30 minutes on Low Heat (175 F), and they are fully cured, and ready to matte clear coat for the tabletop.  I placed two modular cavern pieces into my Slow Cooker, and came back 30 minutes later, to find the foam insulation mostly melted, and pulled away from the paper skins!

Next time, I will use only the water-based Minwax Polyshades formula.  This stuff air dries, w/o heat, in 30 minutes.  It also has virtually no odor, where the solvent-based Minwax has a terrible odor, for several years after it cures.  Cheers!