Needed materials

• 1/16" compressed fiber board
• 1 1/2"High density insulation foam
• Wood glue
• Sand, ballast and/or kitty litter
• various acrylic paints (mid grey, deep red brown, deep wood green and a light grey, or white)
• Static grass

Getting started

This project is a very easy one to complete and even on your own, can create more than enough to cover one or two tables. While a small terrain making party will allow you to make more than enough for everyone with it being a nice assembly line type of project. Just take into account drying time.

Start by creating various sized blanks for your rough terrain templates.  Taking 1/16" high density board that can be found at any major home improvement store in 2' x 2' square for about 2.00 USD. and cutting them out with a roto-zip tool. I personally didn't want to go spend money on a brand new roto-zip tool for just this project, so I instead bought a 15.00 USD roto-zip tool attachment for my trusty Dremel tool. Use eye protection and make sure you brace the board solid while taking smooth steady strokes, the bit on this tool can do some serious damage if not used correctly. A coping saw can also be used for this step with just as much effectiveness, will just take a bit longer.

Alternative template blanks can be made out of unused CDs or dense cardboard and mat-board. The CDs are more than rigid enough to handle this job, but will quickly find yourself with templates that are very uniform and often less flavorful in appearance. While on the other side of the coin, card board and mat-board card easily be made into various shapes with ease, but lack some rigidity. Because of this, keep templates with this material within a reasonable size and a light coating of wood glue may help to increase its strength.

The rough stuff

There are many different things one can add to a rough terrain template for a good visual effect. Actual rocks, tree bark, various modeling debris. But for this go around, I'll use High density foam. Its a very light, easy to use material and perfect for our needs.

Personally for good clean cuts and an edge that is long enough to get the job done, I use a razor blade. Hobby knifes and other razor edged tools will also do the job nicely. This is another case where using a sharp blade uses less pressure for your cuts, and allows you better control. But what ever you do, take your time, and cut away from your body and fingers, they will be needed intact for the following steps.

There is no serious science to cutting up rocks and boulders for your terrain. In fact is more of an artistic creation time and seeing how far you can push your vision of what rocks can be. I personally rip chunks of the dense foam off and use some of the rough edges created by doing this as part of my texture. Because of WARMACHINE terrain rules, I do tend to create rocks about 1.5" tall or .25" - .5" inches tall. This way there is no confusion what so ever about them being obstacles or obstructions.

Applying your rocks and making them stay

A fairly straight forwards and simple step. Using wood glue (much better adhesion and durability than any white glue), simply take a finger load, smear it on the bottom of your boulders and attach them to your templates. No reason to be super clean with glue placement, as I then take glue and place it in a few random locations on the template and sprinkle a mixture of kitty litter and sand on the template. The few random areas will will keep the feel of a "rough terrain" template in everyones head and the small touches of glue around the larger boulders will catch some of the extra sand and add to its look.

Let your templates dry fully, then find a large inexpensive beater brush  and proceed to completely cover all the foam, kitty litter and sand with a solid layer of wood glue. This will assure all of your "rough" terrain will stay put while you paint and add an extra layer of protection again damage to your foam boulders that comes over time with usage.

Adding color

I personally use an inexpensive disposable brush for the adding of color to our templates, as precision is not really a major factor with terrain. Though any flat 1" brush or similar will easily do the trick.

First take a mid neutral toned grey and completely cover all of your boulders and rough areas. If you plan on doing more than a few templates, do yourself a favor and go to a local hardware store for a pint of a flat interior paint in this color. It will last you a long while, be inexpensive compared to your precious modeling paints and will definitely be used for other terrain making projects. I tend to thin it down a little with with tap water for a smooth application. Though it will require two coats for an opaque coverage.

After the grey has fully dried, Do a wash of a warm red brown (burnt sienna) over everything that was painted grey. It will give a look of dirt on the terrain and add a slight aged feel to our terrain. If you have any sort of flow release easily available, it can ease this step, but is by no means needed. This step's color can also lean more towards a deep yellow brown or made to match up with any dirt color you are already using in your terrain.

Next we will do another thin wash of a deep green (hunter green) to all of the kitty litter and sand, and only the bottom half of our larger boulders. This will help to give a slight overgrow by moss feel to our terrain templates. Again no hard set color needed, just use what you have easily available.

Next, take a light grey, or a 50/50 mix of white and the grey we started off with and drybrush the tops of all boulders, rocks and rough debris on your template. This will give that little bit of pop needed to define the shape of your terrain.

Time to mow the lawn

Our final step is to add static grass to the remaining template. A simple solution of white and/or wood glue, thinned down slightly with water applied to the template with an inexpensive brush. Remember to hit the edges of your template as this area can be seen when on your gaming table and hit a few drops in the middle of your sand/kitty litter as it helps give some randomness to your template.

Alternatives to static grass are as simple as commonly found hobby flock and turf. Which ever you use, do yourself a small favor and use a small mixture of colors in your flocking mix, as this will add a more natural feel to the template.

Gaming with

I have used this sort of rough terrain template in many of the tournaments that I run with great success and use. With half movement while on the template is obvious, we tend to give cover (+4 DEF) if a targeted model has a boulder in the LOS of the attacker and is within 1" of. You may or may not allow models to travel over the larger boulders with a 1" MOV penalty or be forced to move around. What ever you do, just make sure you figure this out before a game with your opponent, and most of all, happy gaming.

Until next time

DD