I decided to create a set of terrain boards specifically with the Goblins in mind, though it will no doubt see plenty of general use in all sorts of games. I am running a Crucible game at our group's "Game Fest" and thought I'd try to do this in time to bring with me. More than anything, it's the 'cool factor' of having the home field for my own army that made me do this.

Previously, I had made small 2' x 2' terrain boards for DBA using 1" foam insulation, using blended flock, and some cut out features like rivers and lakes. The next project was eight 2' x 2' modular terrain boards that a friend and I made using a blackened look, for Mordheim and to fit in theme with our chaos armies for WFB and 40k. These were on 2" foam, coverd with sand and glue, painted black and drybrushed a bit. There were a few lava flow features cut out.

The swamp will be another step up. It will be four 2' x 4' boards, with identical water elements touching the long ends, so that they cam be placed in any order, and reversed as well. They can also be turned the other way (in a 2 x 2 pattern), though two of the edges will either have to be adjecent (due to mirrored water features), or on the edges. The solid ground will be raised a bit from the swampy watery parts. I also plan on making at least a few HUGE deaad trees, with enormous roots being the only "base". I will also probably make a few other removable terrain items as well. The boards themselves will be textured with sand and glue, as before, then painted brown and drybrushed. The water areas will be painted, and glazed, with scattered groupings of reeds. Flock will be scattered in patches on all areas. Maybe some rocky spots, maybe some other details will be added as I go...
 

Buying the Supplies

I make my shopping list and head to a friends house to pick up left over supplies from our last project. I'm in luck, we have almost a quart of brown paint, half a gallon of glue, some spackle (aka joint compound), and two almost full 50lb bags of sand (one playground sand, the other construction type sand). Now on to the hardware store...

And that's where things go wrong. I had always had them cut the foam for me, since their saw gets nice straight cuts, and I can't fit full 4' x 8' sheets in my car. But they no longer cut anything except for plywood becuase it dulls thier saw blade (?!?!?).

So, I leave, mope, then go back and pick up some 4-ply, 5/8" plywood (actually a little smaller, 19/32 or some such thing they call it...). I decide I will just have to use plywood and raise the "dry" areas, rather than cut into foam for the "water" areas. I also nab a dropcloth for the floor, and some cheap paint brushes to cut up for reeds.

Next stop is the craft store where I grab some 20 guage florist wire, and some Crayola Model Magic air curing clay (which is on sale for $.97 a bag!)
 

Day 1
The first thing I do is lay out the boards and measure out the distances for the conntecting features along the long sides of each 2 ' x 4' section. Two of the pieces immidiately appear bowed, so I set the bags of sand on them for a while, as I work. I roughly draw out all of the lines marking the edges of the water/earth features.
 
 
 
 

I cut out corrigated cardboard to match the raised portions of the boards. It was very important to get the edged as close to perfection as I could, so that the seams between boards will be at a minimum when they are finished. You may notice that I ran out of cardboard. I will have to hunt some more down tomorrow, since it's late at this point.

I had debated using 2 layers for the raised portions, but after testing some figures on the edges, I decide against it, in the name of playability.
 

I started the first 2 trees at this point. The frames were made by twisting a batch of florist wire together. You can see how large these will be from the photo.
 
 
 

OK, now that I glued all the cardboard I need it absolutely flat, and I'm still having that bowing problem. Time to weigh it down. The end table wasn't enough, so I had to stack a monitor on top of that! I always seem to have bowing/warping problems with my architecture models, this is just the same thing again on a larger scale!
 

Well, that was it for Day 1. I figure I will let the glue dry, and run out and pick up the last bit of corrugated cardboard tomorrow. I have to run around and scour the not-so-local stores for whatever Crucible figures I can get my hands on, and will pick it up then.
 

Day 2

Woke up, drank some coffee, checked my email, and got right to work on the trees. I covered most of the wire frames with black "model magic" clay. That's a Goblin King miniature in the photo for scale. I told you they were huge. I also started work on some smaller wire frames.
 
 
 

I covered all of the "water" areas with a thin layer of spackle to hide the wood grain and imperfections. Along the narrow spots, I tried to go along the "flow", but in the wide spots, and in the pools I tried to avoid any directional texture. I also built up the edges, along the cardboard. There was one joint between two pieces of cardboard I also filled.

Careful observers may notice that there are only 3 boards here. I spent most of the daytime hours today with my girlfriend, and never made it back to pick up more cardboard in time. I would have just hit the dumpsters for free cardboard (check behind appliance and furniture stores), but it's been raining for the past few days, so I figure I'd wait.
 
 
 

The reeds are made with cheap paint brush hairs slightly tinted. I bought two, but ended up using an entire 3" brush on the first board. Previously I had figured that I will have problems transporting and storing these, but the reeds are the first thing to remind me of this so far. I am thinking about making two end frames in the shape of a ladder, with about 2" of space between "rungs", so that they will keep the boards separated, yet allow them to be stacked (and hopefully still fit inside my car!).
 
 
 

Here's the two brushes. The one on the right has been stained by brushing a little bit of green paint around on some newspaper, then rinsing the brush. The color is very faint, but makes them look a bit more alive (and less like a paintbrush).
 
 
 
 

I also went back and worked on the trees a bit more. I finished the roots, ading a bit more bulk to the trunks. I also got most two smaller trees fleshed out.
 
 
 

That's about it for day 2. I had planned on getting the sand on the boards tonight, but I am tired, still need more cardboard, and should probably get some more paint brushes for reeds. Perhaps I should start on the end frames/ladders as well.

I have acually had a few other ideas that don't involve any real construction. First, I had planned on thowing some lichen on the table, for small bushed or other plant life. I am thinking about taking some moss from the floral department of the craft store and simply scattering it all over the table. It will get shoved around as the game plays, but it will keep the boards looking overgrown. Not all terrain has to have a function in the rules. I am also thiking about using some stretched out cotton scattered about as a low mist/fog. I guess I will have to wait and see how that looks when it's finished.
 

Day 3
 

I covered all of the raised, earthy areas of the boards with a thinned out glue made of PVC (white) glue, water, and dishsoap. I let glue overlap into the edges of the "water" parts of the boards, so it would look like sloped banks. Then I liberally covered the whole thing with sand.

That was it, for a while. I had to run a bunch of errands, so I was gone most of the day, and when I got back home in the evening, the glue was dry. So then I used an even thinner version of the above glue mixture to coat the entire board. This will help seal the sand onto the board, and also give a hard, smooth (but still with texture) shell to the spackle that was used to cover the "water" areas.
 

I covered the trees with a mix of glue water and spackle. I discovered this at two web pages: http://homes.acmecity.com/animation/comp/138/index.html and http://www2.famvid.com/kilroy07/how2/Vor/purgertree.htm

Well, that was about it for today. That may be the last I work in these until after the wekend. Not sure, I may get the first coat of paint on them tomorrow.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank the Live365.com radio channel "Afternoon Nap 2.1" for providing the sound-track for this project. It's almost all I've been listening to while I've worked. Good stuff if you like ambient and trance. Normally I'm I like something a bit heavier and more upbeat, but for some reason this channel has really caught my fancy.
 
 

DAY 4

Finally, progress is really starting to show! First I painted the land areas with 'Nutmeg' latex paint. Then I drybrushed it with a lighter brown, mixed up from a couple colors of craft paint. This is just like doing a figure's base, but larger. In fact, the idea is to get a similar look to the bases on the figuers in my gallery. The next step was to paint over all of the water areas using a very deep blue and deep green. I mixed and blended these right on the terrain, to get a very uneven, and varying look. After that, I mixed in a little bit of white and drybrushed the water areas, which had some texture (ripples & swirls) from the spackle and glue that was applied earlier. When all of that was dry, I covered the water areas with two coats of gloss varnish.
 

As I was painting the brown, I noticed how bad the bowing had gotten on one of the three boards. This is a close up of the mid-point of the board at the top of the above photos. It's almost 1/2" off the ground! The other two aren't as bad, but at least if they were ALL bowed like this, they would fit together. I may end up having to attach some "ribs" on the underside of all of the boards to stiffen them.
 
 

When everything was totally dry, I used a mix of glue, water and dishsoap to glue down patches of Woodland Scenics 'blended" green flock. I used a little less than a full 50 cu. in. bag on these boards. I was very disappointed with the results. I think there are two problems with the boards in this photo. One is that the green is too patchy. Definitely needs to be thicker. The other is the color of the brown paint. I'd really like to darken it a bit. I think I would have preferred more water areas as well. When I finally get around to doing the fourth board (after the weekend), I may do it almost entirely as a water board. I definitely want a more dark and lush look.

(large image, 112k) I just couldn't resist grabbing a few figures, and throwing the now basecoated (black) trees and some lichen and setting up a mock battle scene to see how it would look so far. I still have to finish the trees, I have more trees elsewhere, plan on doing some mushrooms, and maybe more ground clutter. Probably a few small bridges too. Not too bad so far. Definitely not as good as I had imagined though.
 
 
 

OK, that's about it for the how-too, since alot of the remaining work will be tweaking and repairing the boards. I was in a rush to get the 4th piece done for a game, so no individual pics, but you get the idea, right?

The terrain can be seen in action in the 6-Way Battle Photos gallery.