[Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

14 posts · Feb 4 2001 to Feb 9 2001

From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>

Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 09:26:06 +1100

Subject: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

G'day guys,

Derek and I are just about to embark on a major terrain building phase and I
was wondering if anyone had tried making terrain out of "spray foam"? We got
the off cuts from a friend who was insulating her guinea pig hutch and they
looked a lot like rock formations.

I've also painted up the blister packaging off kids toys before and we're all
set to do some styrofoam and artist's board carving. Have we forgotten any
other cheap material??

What have others used?

Thanks

Beth

From: Jon Davis <davisje@n...>

Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 18:56:25 -0500

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

> Beth Fulton wrote:

It sounds like your on track with the foam insulation and the foamcore board.
Both are common terrain making materials. Another material is standard
cardboard, but that's used primarily for bases. You can also use thin plywood
as a base material.

I've seen a number of "geomorphic" sections of urban terrain mounted on 2' x
2' thin plywood which allows for configurable terrain pieces.

I'm currently interested in making terrain for FMA scenarios in order to
simulate counter terrorists operations. Foamcore is my preferred choice for
the base and walls for a three story embassy building. I'm also envisioning a
large one story villa for a drug lord assassination attack.

Unfortunately, I'm still busy getting prepared for the ECC convention next
month, so I'll have to wait until March.

From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>

Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 17:42:37 +1100

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

G'day Jon,

> I've seen a number of "geomorphic"

We've been thinking about that kind of thing too. We're not going to go for
terrain squares or octagons (at times like this you wish you hadn't given
away your set of terrain octagons to your father/father-in-law), but
will
have some hills/pieces that can be mixed-n-matched together. We'll also
have some stand alone stuff. The relative amounts of each depends on how

easy this all works out to be.

> Foamcore is my preferred

Cool.

> I'm also envisioning a large one story

Different;) Are you going to go for brick work, plaster or flat effect to the
wall surfaces?

Cheers

Beth

From: Robert Makowsky <rmakowsky@y...>

Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 06:38:20 -0400

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

Jon,

How do you simulate surprise? Surprise and swift decisive action seem to be
the traits of CT Ops. FMA definitely suits but I wonder how you keep those Ts
in check.

Bob Makowsky USCG SAR

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Brian Burger <yh728@v...>

Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 12:56:00 -0800 (PST)

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

> On Mon, 5 Feb 2001, Beth Fulton wrote:

> G'day guys,

Go to your nearest large hardware/do-it-yourself store and take a slow
walk down the plumbing aisle. All sorts of interesting pipe shapes, end caps,
and whatnot. Good industrial park scenery material.

As well, spend an evening going over the Terragenesis website, if you haven't
already. I don't have the URL handy, but it's near the very top of
my links page at http://warbard.iwarp.com/links.html

It's aimed at GW gamers, but the techniques are universal and the whole site
is excellent.

I've also got a few ideas, and a few more links, at my Scenery & Terrain
page - http://warbard.iwarp.com/scenery.html -

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://warbard.iwarp.com/games.html -

> Thanks

From: KH.Ranitzsch@t... (K.H.Ranitzsch)

Date: 06 Feb 2001 07:41 GMT

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

> ----- Ursprüngliche Nachricht -----

Just about any sort of plastic packaging can be turned into terrain with
paint, bits and pieces and imagination, especially at DS II scale. Containers
for food make nice buildings, joghurt cups can be towers, the

plastic bubble strip for pills malke small bunkers.

Also seed pods and pine cones can be converted to alien habitats, vehicles or
vegetation. And I guess Beth's marine biology lab could provide some
interesting looking stuff for the same purpose.

> Go to your nearest large hardware/do-it-yourself store and take a
material.

And fasteners for fixing screws in walls make good missiles/ towers/
spaceships (depending on their size and your scale)

Paper or thin card can be shaped into angular structures

I've been toying with the idea of covering objects in that shiny
silvery holographic gift-wrap that's now seen everywhere.

Greetings Karl Heinz

From: KH.Ranitzsch@t... (K.H.Ranitzsch)

Date: 06 Feb 2001 07:47 GMT

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

> ----- Ursprüngliche Nachricht -----
material.

The heavy rubber/plastic foil sheets used for insulating garden ponds
can be cut up into strips and painted to look like roads, tracks or rivers.
This makes flexible roads the lie well over hills.

Cheers

From: Robert Makowsky <rmakowsky@y...>

Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 07:22:42 -0400

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

For buildings and vehicles there are tons of paper card models available
online. Get some thicker cardstock paper, download these and print out with
the inkjet some white glue and away you go.

Bob Makowsky

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Jeremey Claridge <jeremy.claridge@k...>

Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 11:30:38 +0000 ()

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

> For buildings and vehicles there are tons of paper card models

Got any website addresses for those?

From: Robert Makowsky <rmakowsky@y...>

Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 08:00:24 -0400

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

Here is a good start. Lots of good links:

http://www.peterjvisser.demon.nl/indexe.html

There are a bunch more...try a search on Paper Models.

Bob Makowsky

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>

Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 11:02:52 +1100

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

G'day guys

Thanks for all the helpful terrain ideas!!! We'll let you know how things go.

Cheers

Beth

From: Jon Davis <davisje@n...>

Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 19:12:52 -0500

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

> Beth Fulton wrote:

We expect to see some pictures in the near future!

From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>

Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 11:22:29 +1100

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

G'day Jon,

> We expect to see some pictures in the near future!

Pictures you'll get, near future is debatable;)

Beth

From: Donald Hosford <hosford.donald@a...>

Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2001 02:31:18 -0500

Subject: Re: [Semi-OT] Making alien terrain

My own attempts:

Sheets of green felt (about 4 square yards) for the grass/ground.

Strips of light brown felt for dirt roads.

Various sizes/colors of "Pom Poms".  For bushes/shrubery.  (Got these
from a craft store.)

Hills made from a 1.25" thick styrofoam packing sheet I got from work. Covered
with various shades of green felt. (They look more like green pyramid steps
than hills. Thats about as fancy as I get...)

For more terrain ideas try this page:

Major General Tremorden Rederring's Colonial Wargames Page

Although it covers colonial-era wargaming exclusively, he does have a
number of terrain ideas that has worked for his group.

And reading the scenarios is great fun.  :-)  This guy writes
imaginatively.

His "games in progress" pictures look more like dioramas than wargames!

My terrain will never look this good. (Sigh.)

Donald Hosford

> Beth Fulton wrote:

> G'day guys