Terrain Journal: Part the First

This will be the first in a significant series of what I'm calling my terrain journal. I had for years used terrain boards on 18mm thick particle board (chip-board) 600mm x 600mm (or 2' square for the old world). I won't go into how I textured and painted them but they were very effective but also very, very heavy. In a clean out a few years back I determined to dump the lot and start over. Now is that start.

Sticking to the 600 x 600 approach, I bought a stack of 30mm thick XPS foam (insulation foam), cut half of it up (so far) and mounted them on 3mm interior quality plywood bases. Let me just say now, the glue to use for XPS foam (any foam) is Original Gorilla Glue. I then spent a fair time hand sanding the edges to ensure sheer, flat sides which significantly aids closing the gaps when they sit together.

I'm starting with a set of 12 tiles but anticipate in the fullness of time created a basic set of 38 (from my calculations). I created a model set (10 mm squares) to mix and match my modular pieces to see if the combinations and geometric theory I developed would work. I think it will.

I intend to cover the surfaces mostly with synthetic fur (teddy-bear fur) but leave sufficient gaps for crops and building sections. I will even have spots of flatness for scatter terrain like trees.

SYNTHETIC FUR

This is not my first use of synthetic fur and I own a 200 litre air-compressor with spray gun - essential for this scale of project. In my opinion the key to truly realistic and effective synthetic fur terrain is to trim the hell out of it. Too many example I see today look like playing on the back of a green haired monster. On average, grass tends to hit mid-calf height (average mind you) and even lower for pasture land (heavily grazed upon).

To this end I invested in dog hair-clippers which should do better than standard clippers - I'll let you know.

GROUND THEORY

I'm adopting two principles in my approach. The first is 'nature abhors a straight line'. To this end, everything is rounded and curved. I am starting with only four tiles which will include roads - more will follow with one Y intersection. These road sections are ostensibly straight sections inasmuch as they enter on one side and pass through to the opposite side ... but they are not straight. They meander just a little and whilst one side enters (or exits) at the mid point, they always exit the other side a third in from the end. I doubt the Romans would approve.

10mm model of first four road sections

 

My second theory in my approach is, 'there's no such thing as flat'. Again, this is just a general principle but many, many (most even) fields have undulations, lump and bumps. So many even beautifully laid out table-tops I see are nevertheless, dead flat. Well, I've got 30mm of depth up my sleeve so I intend using it.

Getting back to this first photo, you can see I have a few curving sections of 5mm polystyrene which I've glued onto three boards. I do not intend for these to be hills - merely slight rises in the land. You may not be able to make it out, but I have a similar sized and slight depression on the right board. I have another larger but shallow cut and sanded depression on another. None will be high enough or deep enough to obstruct anything. They are simply designed to break up the uniformity of the 'flat' look.

HILLS

I am starting with only two hill sections but have planned for a modular series of seven further sections: hill ends, running rises and even a hill road section. You'll notice the two sections make for a kidney shape becasue they match up with the entire series to make a range of shapes. I've played with my 10mm models for a while and they really are quite diverse in the combinations I can make.

Above is the two-hill combination prior to gluing and sanding. The top tier of the hills will only sit on the hill to give me further options and I'll likely make them rockier tops. The main hill will be generally covered over with synthetic fur and when finished it should all look more seamless - I hope.

UNDER or OVER

I really like the ability to slide hills under game cloths and I have a few. I will continue to use them for WW2 games and when traveling to game. I'm still convinced I can do better for my permanent home terrain solution - we shall see. I puzzled over if I'd go for flatter boards with scatter terrain hills but if my fur solution is going work, the hills needed to be integrated. Scatter terrain sits unevenly on any 'pile' of fur unless it's quite heavy. Integration makes for more boards but I have a four car garage with a tonne of storage space so I'm going for it.

This project has been the subject of much thought and discussion on my part and it really will be a series of experimental terrain modelling. I'm certain I will make mistakes along the way. The joy is I can always replace sections and keep adding to them in the future.