On a fb post I saw someone say (paraphrase) "I want to make a game table. What do I need? Where do I start? How do I make it realistic?"
While most of my terrain related posts cover what I did I thought it might be fun to summarise the process and reasoning.
[edit: Ok this is now a bloody long post. I needed to sprinkle some pics throughout as it was just a wall of text...]
Hobby
Terrain making is one of the parts of 'the hobby' I usually enjoy quite a lot.
There are many aspects to 'the hobby' which is why it's such a good one, including but not limited to;
- play mini war games with your games buddies or by yourself,
- make (build, paint, kit bash, customise, even sculpt) cool minis,
- make funky terrain and tables to play games on,
- write interesting army lists,
- write fiction is the mood takes you,
- find out about historic or real places, fantasy settings, equipment,
These are just 'broad strokes' aspects and really, if you have any shred of imagination there's something in there for just about everyone.
All of us tend to like one aspect more than others.
Some people are super competitive and want to play the games even with unpainted minis.
Some of us like seeing the painted settings and models and don't care much if we win or lose.
Some people are really into the lore of their chosen setting, others not so much.
It's all valid and amongst hobbyists I think we're usually pretty tolerant of other people's approach. We are, after all, a fairly limited, niche community and if you're intolerant then you limit the subset of people who will interact with you.
Barely a word about terrain yet hey...
Terrain
Terrain can be anything from fully decked out, historically accurate battlefield (what I'll refer to as 'true' terrain), through to a bare kitchen table with salt and pepper shakers as structures (what I'll refer to as 'impromptu' terrain).
[More or less everything put together, or one variation.]
Personally I lean toward the former, appreciating the work gone into constructing something that visually captivates and immerses me in the game experience. That said, I've had some incredibly satisfying games on tables that have been little more than a flat surface with wood blocks, or chopped up cardboard boxes and pine cones.
[Wood blocks. Nuf said.]
[Cardboard boxes, toilet rolls, pine codes.]
[Paper craft buildings and trees. Structures (sourced from internet) printed onto heavy gauge paper, cut out, glued together.]
In the current era there is a massive offering of stuff to buy to make a war gaming table. If you didn't want to you really don't have to paint or construct anything yourself.
Some of us like to though. Some of us don't.
So what do you actually need to make a true terrain table?
Well, as trite as this answer may feel, you need enough stuff to mimic or model actual terrain. I'd say the 'minimum' requirements would include;
- a board cover
- structures
- terrain features
- vegetation
- scatter features
And that's pretty much it. Some of these things may be an either/or case, for example if you are playing on a desert or a barren moon scape then you don't need vegetation (or maybe you need alien plants), and if you are playing in a jungle then you might need less or no structures.
It comes down to where your table is meant to represent. Which brings up another important/obvious thing you need; to know what/where your setting is representing.
Human historical battles tend toward european-esque settings, so you have open fields, forests, roads, small structures or shacks or farmhouses.
Cybrepunk battles tend toward urban areas with lots of roads, possibly blocky skyrises structures.
Your grimdark settings are 'traditionally' ruined 'gothic' or industrial structures with rubble and craters and scatter.
So you need to have an idea as to what you're building.
That said, it is possible for terrain to cross over and mix between settings. There are no hard and fast rules, other than in my opinion - is your terrain satisfying for you to look at and/or play on. Does it fit your mind cannon of what the setting would be like.
If you envisage a cyberpunk setting with structures covered in foliage and parks then great, aim at that.
Making Terrain
While there are a plethora of places to buy complete terrain, the amount of 'how to' videos on the interwebs is exponentially, exponentially more (not a typo... there's that much).
I'm not going to be covering buying stuff as I'm more interested in the making stuff, so I thought I'd put out my ideas of the 'what do I need?' that I listed before.
IMPORTANT - Steal Ideas
An aside 'tip', here is to look at what people have already done. Take inspiration from that, steal the ideas, try to replicate what they've done, adjust to your own tastes if appropriate.
If you think it would be fun to make an 'xyz something', you're probably right, and by this stage someone else has probably had the same or similar thought. Even if you don't find a full on tutorial you'll probably find some pictures for inspiration and something to aim at. It often helps.
Many times I just see someone else's projects or something on a table in a battle report and think to myself, "That's cool, I should make one of those."
Ok, to the details...
Board Cover
There's no reason you can't play on the kitchen tables, but a super quick way of dropping a huge amount of immersive experience in a very simple step is to use a board cover or a 'battle mat'.
For the older, more euro-traditional of us you're basically putting a tablecloth on the table before setting the table for dinner.
A board cover is essentially just a piece of material of some type, usually 6x4' or 3x3' or whatever size battle area you're aiming for.
Ideally you want something with a pattern on the material such as grass or rubble or sandy landscape. While you can buy pre-made board covers which have the patterns already printed on, your can also make your own and paint it yourself. It's just more work.
This is one area where I prefer the store bought. Partially due to laziness, but to be honest I like the patterns, and the materials used, and I don't have confidence in being able to make decent ones myself.
I have about half a dozen board covers with various patterns and materials.
Common options here include;
Fleece Mats - literally a 6x4' section of fleece with a terrain pattern printed, such as though made by 'cigar box battle mat'. These are light, strong, and if you're cold they double as a toasty cloak.
[Pic not mine (of course): straight from cigar box web site.]
Neoprene Mats - a 6x4' section of neoprene with the terrain printed, such as though made by 'deep cut studios'.
[Pic not mine: from Deep Cut Studios web site.]
Tiles Segments - these are usually 1x1' tiles that fit side by side together. You can get these in plastic sections with features cast in, and also mdf versions. I don't use either of these but they're both valid options.
[Pic not mine: This is a mdf tile, painted, they normally come as raw mdf. This is from Battle Kiwi web site.]
I have noticed that although the mdf version have less features on the surface they sometimes have more options in terms of variable heights, so you might have raised sections that can be used as hills or lower sections for riverbeds etc.
[Pic not mine: These are commercial plastic cast board segments.]
A side note on mdf... If you have mdf stuff you will probably want to be modelling the basic product to some extent to avoid it looking 'stark'. You'll be wanting to paint it anyway but hills don't have sharp edges so you might want to be rounding or filling in vertical surfaces with plaster or similar before painting.
Canvas - An option if you want to go a homemade route is to use canvas, as in painting drop cloths. These can be painted and/or if you want to add some intrinsic texture to it then you can apply silicon sealant to the top surface and swish it around to taste. I did this to make a section of 'river' with decent enough results.
[The river segment. Also featuring two types of roads. A homemade 'dock' made from paddle pop sticks and mdf. And obviously my ship (99% mdf). Re the river, you can see the silicon texture reflecting the light. Which demonstrates why it's not my favourite option for 'regular ground' as a rubbly or grass mat probably shouldn't be too shiny.]
Carpet - various carpets can be used to create high grass with very good results. You may or may not need to paint or dye the carpet to a suitable colour.
[Pic not mine: This shows a fairly large section of carpet that has been painted and/or dyed. Looks awesome.]
[Pic not mine: You can see a couple of different variants here. There's 'wheat fields' in the middle and to the right, and 'long grass' (carpet) toward the left.]
Printed Paper - Kind of a budget option but you can find grass patterns and print them on to regular a4 sheets and tape them together.
These all work just fine.
There are shades of nuance that might can be applicable, such as flocking the bases and modelling undulating surfaces with plaster - mainly applicable to mdf. But most of these options above are just a matter of putting the cover down and you're done.
Another consideration is with various elevation terrain. You might want to put i.e. a book or block of wood under the cover in order to create hills and elevation in the terrain (my local scene tends not to do this). If you do choose to do this then having flexible table covers such as fleece or neoprene or canvas may be a better option as the material is more flexible than say paper or tiles.
One last consideration for board covers is... dice bounce. Yep, I'm (semi-)serious. If you're rolling dice directly on the board cover then there's something satisfying about having the dice bounce nicely, rather than skidding off a flat, smooth surface. Neoprene is my preferred option, then fleece, then others. Very picky I know :)
Structures
Again there are a plethora of options, and I'll try to summarise;
- Mdf kits: Almost any architectural style you'd want is available in mdf somewhere. Mdf kits are usually easy to assemble, requiring a bit of clean up and gluing to get your basic structure together. You can then kit bash on gubbins and widgets if you so choose.
[Early mdf kits I assembled. Note also the shrubs at the front made from kitchen scourer pads hot glued together. Note also the solid 'fences' behind them made from off cuts from the mdf sprue. Not also some crates in the background which were also mdf kits.]
[A couple of industrial/factory kits. Fills space, adds elevation, blocks line of site and adds 'zones' to the board space. Can also play 'inside' and 'outside'.]
[Some apartments n other stuff.]
- Plastic terrain kits: There are many commercial kits available. They tend toward the expensive size of things, but they will usually have more detail than i.e. basic mdf kits. There are usually less options available in plastic due to it being easy to laser cut mdf, and far harder to mould plastic.
[A modal kit I found in a FLGS and picked up for very cheap, wouldn't have got it otherwise.]
- Homemade - mdf, carboard, junk: If you can cut a straight line with a box cutter then there's usually no reason you can get a sheet of 3mm mdf and make your own structures, based on existing products as a guild line perhaps. Even easier to doing this with suitable cardboard and/or plasticard if you have access to it.
[Some small mdf residences I made relatively recently. Just mdf and glue.]
Traditionally gamers didn't have access to plastic or mdf kits like we do today, and all the really old terrain often had drink cans, plastic bottles, paddlepop sticks and junk mixed into the structure.
[Pic not mine: drink cans used as terrain. Interestingly this combines junk with an mdf kit specifically designed to make adding the details and converting it into 'real' terrain easy.]
You can get really good results from junk, even if it's just at the 'add gubbins' stage.
And once you apply a base coat over everything you start not noticing the bottle caps and bamboo skewers as what they really are.
- Homemade - 3d Printing: If you have one, especially one that can make larger pieces, especially filament (though you could do resin if you wanted to), then you can 3d print terrain pieces in whole or in parts.
[This is 6mm prints, assembled from standard sized segments.]
[Ruins made from the same segments, then chopped up.]
[A combination of printed segments and bottle caps/junk.]
[Requires some arts and crafts and mdf rooves though you could print those too.]
An aside...
Although I said I wasn't going in to premade terrain a lot of my recommendations and preference are toward kits and premade board covers. This is again, partially due to laziness and partially having difficulty cutting a straight line enough to my own standards. I have historically based much of my structures on mdf kits and then added extras or modified those to my own tastes. I just find them easier, and they get me toward the terrain concepts I have in my head. They're not the only option, and I tend to do use various options depending on availability and how much effort I feel like putting in.
Terrain Features
Hills, cliffs, rivers, craters, roads...
This tends toward true modelling and arts and crafts. It's easy to make hills, cliffs and craters from a big enough piece of styrofoam, and then use plaster to hide and smooth the shape.
Rivers and water features are easy to kit bash from linoleum or flexible floor tiles. Use washes to make it water themed.
[A lino lake. Note also the plain lino 'rock' sections. Also the scatter rocks and lichen (over on the left is the lichen bag... lots of it.]
You can buy river segments but they tend to have 'raised banks' at the edges, which is ok as a thing, but it's also nice to have just 'flat' pieces that can sit directly on the board. You can always put rubble or rocks or lichen around the edges if required.
[Pic not mine: A fairly typical 'bought' river segment.]
Roads I've made with just segments of 3mm mdf, which is super easy. cut some rectangles (or to taste), paint on some pva glu, sprinkly on some sand, paint, done.
You can also use rubber mats to create roads, though finding the materials is slightly trickier. Flexible roads are nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wcGD_G6xpg
Vegetation
Might of this is easier to buy and convert than start from scratch to be honest.
- Found plants: Generally this is 'fake plants', which can be sourced from aquariums, fake plastic plants from 2 dollar shops or some hardware or homewares place. You can get larger pieces and then make multiple smaller pieces from it. Usually regular pieces are too large for gaming tables anyway. Like if you get a fake plant in a pot you'll want to ditch the pot and then make a more suitably sized/themed piece for your table.
[Pic not mine: I think these are aquarium plants, or variations thereof. Not sure if the owner rebased them or if they're embedded in original plastic aquarium rocks.]
There are of course pieces you can buy for gaming, and these are the correct size, but tbh they're probably made from the same/similar parts by a company anyway.
You can also sometimes find 'premade' trees in other places. Our aldi shops have model trees for xmas decorations. They're a 'bottlebrush' center with plastic 'wire' foliage. They work a treat.
[Xmas model trees, these come in a 'snow' theme, but you can dry brush some regular green to reduce that effect.]
- Wire plants / Homemade: Plants and trees can be made from wire. This is a fairly intense process but the results can be nice. You get a bunch of wire strands, then twist them into a trunk and branches, attach them to a base of some type (mdf), cover in plaster, paint and then add flock or lichen for foliage.
[Some of my favourite, homemade wire trees. At 6mm scale but you can make them whatever size you want.]
You can again buy made pieces, stereotypically from model railway stores. More expensive option but far easier, and the range is... somewhat limited. More limited than being able to make what you want specifically of course. An option is to get armatures which is the trunk and branches in plastic and then add flock/foliage to taste.
I also discovered these while looking through pics, which I made an eon ago. Just little pieces of styrofoam painted and on a bamboo skewer for a trunk. Not as pretty as my other pieces but I still like them.
- Lichen: This is more in the 'scatter' terrain territory. Sourced generally from 'railway' shops (online), these are bags of dyed lichen pieces. Usually it's spongy rather than stiff and can be used to represent shrubbery just by plopping a lump of it on the table. Super easy. Along roads, around or next to buildings, around the bases of trees, just clumps by itself, it's a quick and easy gap filler.
It can also be used as mentioned for creating foliage in trees.
- Brushes and Brooms: These are more niche pieces but broom bristles can be used to make 'swamp grass' vegetation. Hot glue and Bristles cut to interesting sizes/clumps.
You can also use 'welcome mats' (yep, the ones you use to wipe mud off your feet at the door). to create section of long grass or 'wheat fields'. Better for historical settings, so it's a bit more situational. And might also suit certain scales better than others.
Scatter Features
This is... well... everything else. Crates, sandbags, rubble or ruins, boxes, fences, barricades, gates, consoles, cars n vehicles, barrels, dumpsters/bins, furniture... everything else.
Obviously you can buy lots of these things, people/companies make them. You also sometimes get these kinds of things in starter boxes for games.
But they're also easy to arts and crafts again. Bottle caps, matchsticks, bamboo skewers, paddle pop sticks, mdf, cardboard etc etc.
Oh, and of course 3d printing this size stuff is an option too.
Fairly generic description I know, but it's a far sweeping category.
[Some bought kit for shipping containers. These were actually 'pre-coloured'.]
[Another kit. Also pre-painted.]
[Yet another kit, this time for fences. Not painted but an easy addition.]
My collection has a wide enough range of all of the above. On the arts and crafts side of things I usually see something someone else has done and go, "I could do that." Many cases documented within these posts.
[Pallets and industrial cable spools made from paddle pop stick.]
[Barricades made from plastic mesh filled with pebbles.]
[Sandbag stacks made from epoxy putty.]
[Scatter rocks made from pine bark.]
As per the 'Lichen' commentary above, scatter terrain fills gaps and adds interest between structures. A board with a road and a number of large, monolithic structures can feel very bare. This feels (often) unnatural and distracts from an otherwise good attempt at making an immersive environment. So yeah, scatter terrain is good.
How to Make it Better?
Patience, experience, develop skills.
Using my 6mm trees as example...
I started out with styrofoam chunks that were painted a single colour. These were very basic but I could at least use something for tree terrain.
After that I put in a lot more effort making the wire trees, using sprinkled flock (more or less) for the foliage. It took a lot more effort and time to make them but the results are much better.
I didn't know what I was doing going into the project. I did some research and then just tried it. If I didn't like the results I could have binned it and tried again... there's no requirement for the result aside from whatever goals I have with these little projects.
Generally I didn't bin stuff outright (except when I replaced pieces with other pieces- i.e. the trees) and instead kept modifying and adjusting the project until it was 'good enough'. It takes a bit of patience, a bit of creative thinking, sticking with it, and a willingness to try.
The more effort you put in, the finer the level of detail you aim for in your modelling, the better your terrain will be.
Conclusion
Terrain is good. It doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have to be tricky. You don't need to have all of it (yes, I'm trying to convince myself). You really just need some patience, minimal talent and creativity, and to do some research to find out what you like and what you want to make.
[yeah, this is an old picture... it has grown since then. And yes, this doesn't take into account my grimdark (killteam) stuff or Epic scale (6mm) stuff. ... but, I do know I have enough terrain now :) ]
I've collect a number of different structures (mdf) sizes and styles which does make creating the basis of different environments easier, then scatter terrain to taste. But the scatter will usually stand in well across a number of different settings and if you don't have the perfect structure as per what's in your head you can usually get close enough.
Anyways, I personally enjoy the arts and crafts aspect. It's cheap, fun to make something and get a piece of whatever at the end, and it keeps me occupied.
Terrain. It's good. Go get some.
And I'll get around to fixing typos etc later.
Until next time...
