Terrain deployment ideas

[Conquistador]

I have multiple VSF "Venusian" plants/bushes/trees on 20 mm bases by Litko - since most of the board is to be dense jungle other than swampy wading (or drowning or being attacked by water creatures...) I plan on putting down symbolic (covering the table will cost my budget for the year) features.  I want the bases to blend in, which 3 mm deep 20 mm diameter circles with raised edges don't do.  I need something that accepts a 20 mm x 3 mm circular sabots that (more or less) blend/taper into a mat surface.

Ideas?  Suggestions?  inexpensive ways to convert the circular bases?

Gracias,

Glenn

[grant]

Get some mdf, cut it to large shape. Then, using a large drill bit, make holes for your sabot bases. Put a thin layer of card, plastic or paper, under your mega-base.

Solution! I did this with a forest once. It was fabulous.

[Conquistador]

Get some mdf, cut it to large shape. Then, using a large drill bit, make holes for your sabot bases. Put a thin layer of card, plastic or paper, under your mega-base.

Solution! I did this with a forest once. It was fabulous.

This sounds solid, thanks!

Any other ideas, anyone?

Gracias,

Glenn

[fastolfrus]

The only terrain bases we have are old CDs (lots of free AOL ones etc) with either expanded polystyrene or foam core glued on top and edges chamfered with a hot wire cutter.
They would be deep enough to take a 3mm sabot, but obviously still circular.
Maybe you could combine both approaches and make a big MDF base to take the CDs?

[Conquistador]

The only terrain bases we have are old CDs (lots of free AOL ones etc) with either expanded polystyrene or foam core glued on top and edges chamfered with a hot wire cutter.
They would be deep enough to take a 3mm sabot, but obviously still circular.
Maybe you could combine both approaches and make a big MDF base to take the CDs?

Maybe, I don't have a ton of CDs (we DVDs for photograph offline back up) but I guess I can price them.  Have not seen any AOL or other free CDs in a while but have not been looking TBH, will check this option out. 

Appreciated.

Gracias,

Glenn

[eilif]

The two options I would look at would be:

-Cut bases out of hardboard.  A 4'x8' sheet is about 9 bucks at your local Home Depot.  Then just drill or cut 20mm holes in it that will accept the trees you've made. You can make a bunch of bases of different sizes and shapes to represent different shaped areas of brush/forest.  These kind of bases are also nice for defining the edge of an area of greenery so there's no question among the players as who is in and out of cover.

-Buy a can of Bondo or other autobody filler from your local Auto parts store.  Mix up a batch and spread out a pice of wax paper on your workspace.  Set the bases on the wax paper and apply bondo irregularly to the edge of the bases (and the top too if you want). This will make the bases a bit bigger and more irregular. You can over-apply if you want and when you're done, you can carve or sand it to finalize the shape. Bodo is great for this b/c it's stronger and less brittle than other similar materials.   I've not done the exact specific project described above, but I've used it in the past to level out terrain bases that have warped (back when I used cardboard) and to shape the top of pre-cut bases.

[Johnno]

http://war-bases.co.uk/Terrain

They have terrain bases with slots to turn several stand alone pieces (ie. Trees) into one larger piece (ie.forest).

Haven't used these before. Am considering it for my own projects.

[Conquistador]

http://war-bases.co.uk/Terrain

They have terrain bases with slots to turn several stand alone pieces (ie. Trees) into one larger piece (ie.forest).

Haven't used these before. Am considering it for my own projects.

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You do not have permission to access this document.

Fricking Firewalls (yes, plural,)I suspect.

Will try from Library or home, later...

Gracias,

Glenn

[fred]

If you don't want to do the large sabot base with cutouts, then how about widening the bases a bit, and adding a tapered edge to help them blend in?

For example, cut some rough discs about 30-35mm in diameter from thin plastic or even card- they could have cut outs or notches round the edges.  Stick these to the bottoms of your current trees, then fill in the gap with some filler (poly filler / spackle / wood filler / PVA and sand ) to give a more uneven edge that slopes down from the top of the MDF base to the ground level.

Paint and flock this to blend in further.

If you are going for full table of terrain, then it is much easier to mark the edges of the open areas, rather than the edges of the over grown areas. We have used this idea with Muskets and Tomahawk games and its easy to get the idea that most of the table with a few scattered trees is woodland, and some bushes or fences mark the edge of the cleared area. You can even have areas of dense trees, within the wooded area,  by marking them with traditional forest bases.

[Conquistador]

If you don't want to do the large sabot base with cutouts, then how about widening the bases a bit, and adding a tapered edge to help them blend in?

<snip>

Now is when I can use a "Facepalm" icon - I use Litko bases and they make circular bases of 3, 1.5, and .8 mm thickness.

So I can take my current 20 mm x 3 mm bases, add a 25 mm x 1.5 mm and/or a 30 mm x .8 mm then sculpt in the RenInk Flocking Gels to fill in the "steps."  I have (Gels, some of those sized bases,) or can order those fairly quickly.  KISS, Glenn, KISS.

You are brilliant, Fred.

Gracias,

Glenn

[fred]

Glad to help!