Heroscape Terrain Ideas (Update: 10/21 - Burn, Baby, Burn!)

[john blackwell]

Between various tree-building steps, I've been taking time to work through ways to spice up the terrain on the game board.  These are WIPs, but I think this should work very well.

The challenge I face with Heroscape is placing additions to the terrain so that they will stay in place, even after a not-so-gentle bump.  I came up with the following idea:



I plan to mount all terrain additions on thin styrene.  I picked up a sheet that is 1mm thick.  By cutting it per the shape in yellow and adding 2mm-thick styrene pieces shaped in red . . .





I get a plate that has the shape of a hex with three sides that can hold it in place.




By alternating how I place the tiles, I can place them in adjacent hexes (one of the places spans 2 hexes).  They are also thin enough to not interfere with terrain elevation.



I can now build industrial features like fuel tanks (ping pong ball revisited) or reactor units (baby formula scoops)
           



I plan to add trees on the short sides (where the styrene holds the plate to the board) and create wooded hexes, but I'll have to update that later since I have none under way.


I also decided to use the styrene under 'buildings'.  I took a baby-food container and added styrene pieces under it.
   


This holds the building in place very well.




For me, the selling point is extreme ease of placement or movement.  I'll update the progress with more shots later, but wanted to get the ideas out there for sharing/stealing.


Happy hunting,
JB

[Papabees]

Any chance of you posting a template of the exact size of that pattern?

[john blackwell]

I've been 'free-handing' the cutting, but the approximate dimensions of the tile are:

short sides ~17mm
long sides ~ 34mm

I've finished flocking some tiles and put a fuel tank on one.  There is still touching-up to do, but here they are . . .
 

You could add anything you like to that tile: trees, rocks, structures, etc.



The tiles are very thin and should blend in well once I begin the next project, flocking all my Heroscape hexes *ugh*.  This is a back-burner project I do when I'm waiting for elements of the other two projects to complete.

Hope this helps,
JB

[Slideways]

Great idea, I just love it when a player slams the table and buildings and such goes skittering across the map.  Not.
Another genius idea by JB!  Keep them coming man!

[john blackwell]

Got the first two (of hopefully many) terrain pieces finished.  Just a shot with some hair spray should 'seal' the deal.

I know fuel tanks and the like would not be among the bushes, but I couldn't resist.    ???  Sorry.  Vortex for scale.


It turns out these pieces are ~4 Heroscape plates tall.  Perfect for becoming level 2 structures.  (Swamp tiles in the foreground.)


I am very pleased with the concept. 

JB

[glitterboy2098]

looks good. you might want to figure out a way to disquise the edges though.

think you could do a step by step on how to build that tankage? i'd love to have some of my own, but can't quite figure out what you used beyond a pingpong ball for the one.


btw, where do you find those mech(a)'s? i've seen them around here before, but no one's ever said where they got them.

[Brother Jim]

That's a long OOP Mekton mini from RAFM.

[Noonan]

Those look really good. They give me a bunch of good ideas, so thanks for posting those up.

I use paper buildings on my Heroscape for the most part. I have a ton of the swamp water hexes. I put them down under all of the buildings so that the hexes they occupy are clearly marked. When we need to check LOS, the building can be temporarily removed and the laser always tells the truth. 

I do have a few buildings that might be better glued to the hexes though. I'll have to check that out.

[john blackwell]

looks good. you might want to figure out a way to disquise the edges though.

Yeah, I noticed the same thing too.  I'll be edging with brown paint so the sides are brown

think you could do a step by step on how to build that tankage? i'd love to have some of my own, but can't quite figure out what you used beyond a pingpong ball for the one.

If you check out the thread "Diorama", I have a few other shots of a ping-pong ball fuel tank at reply #45 - top of page 4.  I cut the strip styrene to 20mm (half the diameter of a pp ball).  File the side down and at a curve to better match the curve of the ball.  I use 'styrene solvent plastic cement' to attach the legs to the ball.  I cut brass and place it.  Pieces need a slight bend in order to get around the curve of the ball and the other overlapping brass.  I use crazy-glue.

None of the glue joints is rock solid, but can handle gentle contact until mounted on something solid.  The fuel tank will never be a beat-around piece.  I liken it to handling a glass figurine - solid, but delicate touch.

I'm considering making two more tanks.  If I do, I'll shoot the steps and update here.  Please don't hold your breath, though.  It may be a bit before that gets done.

I hope this helps. 

That's a long OOP Mekton mini from RAFM.

Yeah, I haven't bought a mech of any kind in over 10 years.  I picked most of them up between '91 & '98.  Nothing since my move in '01.

Happy hunting!
JB

[john blackwell]

I finished some 'rough' ground.  I couldn't decide what to use for large boulders on the edges until I was picking up kitty litter this morning and happened to see aquarium gravel a few aisles over.  Eureka!  $2 for ~1qt bag.  Some white glue to hold the big rocks, white glue & water to hold the litter, and a few pumps of hair spray to complete the surface.  Now only a bit of touching up along the edge.

 

I can now place rough ground anywhere I wish without affecting the usefulness of the hex, and the litter in the hex doesn't threaten to topple the mech while the boulders confirm the presence of 'rough' ground.  I think this will work.

Happy hunting,
JB

[john blackwell]

This will be the final update for this Heroscape idea.  I have enjoyed working out how to create various tiles to place on Heroscape terrain that keep the board straight forward and easy to customize. 

Earlier I showed some of the industrial tiles.  That led me to the question, what if, for some reason, the industry is destroyed?  So for each tile of industry I am building, I build a second one.

These are incomplete - still lacking rocks & shrubs, needing touching up, and needing color to the fire/smoke.  But the concept should be clear.

A huge Thank you to Spaceman Spiff for the smoke pointers.  It's working well.











I have also created 3 template tiles that can fit any variety of Heroscape terrain issues.  These can become whatever I need - rough ground, woods, etc.

For clear terrain
     


For terrain up against a level of elevation
     


For terrain in tight confines
     



Finally, as a concept, I added two trees to each side of a tile to create a wooded hex. 
I have not decided how to do Light/Heavy woods: Lt = 1 tree/side  Hv = 2 trees/side  -or-  color the trees with a darker wash for Heavy.  But that's for later.
     


I still have plenty of work to do: trimming, washing, touching up, painting, etc.  But it's by reading these forums for years that I have gleaned ideas that led to this work.  I hope I can pass along some good ideas here and motivate others.  Feel free to comment, but please steal any ideas you can use.

Happy hunting,
John Blackwell

[LordNth]

They are looking good.
For the Lgt vs Hvy woods.  I was never a fan of the different color system.  I understand why as most of us can't make trees (or have not the time).  You seam not be not as plagued as the rest. 
Why not have the Heavy Woods feature trees taller than the Mech.  And Light woods would be no higher than chest level as you have pictured here with that last post.  Just a thought for you crew on.

Sorry to see it's your last update on this post.  I really want to see everything finished and what other ideas you come up with.

[john blackwell]

I appreciate the compliments, Nth.  I'm not finished by any stretch, and some finished shots would be nice.  I also know that it's going to be a while before I get them done and don't want to keep unnecessarily resurrecting this thread.  Being back in school means much much slower work.  But if you're willing to be patient, I would be happy to update with more completed tiles later.

On a side note: I also considered using taller & shorter trees.  However, I still need room to insert the hex-base among them, and larger trees have too wide a spread, IMHO.  Even these 32mm trees need to be scrunched a bit to fit the base plate.  So I decided that the heavy woods get two trees to a side and the light trees get only 1.  I've made one tile of each, and it's a nice difference.  It's also easy to differentiate between light and heavy woods. (The number of trees = the terrain modifier)

I also added some shrubs for decoration.


JB

[john blackwell]

It's been a while, but I finally finished the destroyed facility and decided to update with the progress.


Before




After - including three out-of-action defenders


Thanks again to Spiff for the tips on smoke.  I hope these make him proud.  These pieces are also firsts for me regarding:

- foam-insulation-smoke
- dry-brushing
- thinning acrylic paints with water
- mixing paints for shades

There's still some touch-ups to do as well as shrubs/stones to set.  Please: comments, pottery welcome.

Happy hunting,
JB

[tsmpaul]

Wow - those burning ruins are awesome work! Now I'm hungering to make some wrecks of my own!

[btp2k2]

EXCELLENT!

Love the fire and smoke! You have given me a great idea to make fire markers!

Keep it up!

[LordNth]

Your flames look great.  You have shading and drybrushing down.
Very rarely do you see glassly black (could be camera flash) smoke billows.  Go back and hit the smole with shades of grey much like you did with the flames.

[john blackwell]

Your flames look great.  You have shading and drybrushing down.
Very rarely do you see glassly black (could be camera flash) smoke billows.  Go back and hit the smole with shades of grey much like you did with the flames.

The shinyness of the smoke is the camera flash and the fact that some of the paint was 'damp'.  I was too excited to wait.  The black is actually a flat matte - but anyway . . .

Should I dry-brush from above and brush down?  That would give the appearance of the smoke being top-lit by the sun . . .

What are your thoughts?

JB

[ApokalypseTest]

I want to see more, mooooooore

[HavocTheWarDog]

That is some Excellent work you've done!

[ApokalypseTest]

Any ideas on how to make roads? I have been thinking about that for a bit, need to wait until my tiles arrive, but I have been toying with the idea of just painting some of the pieces gray.

[john blackwell]

Any ideas on how to make roads? I have been thinking about that for a bit, need to wait until my tiles arrive, but I have been toying with the idea of just painting some of the pieces gray.

Yeah, I thought about painting tiels gray.  I did some of that.  It's alright, but I think it needs a dark wash to bring out the 'texture' in the tile.  I haven't gotten around to doing that, but it's my idea. 

Otherwise, I have also considered making roads from styrene with pieces underneath to hold them in place.  I would most likely make pieces 3-5 hexes long similar to the terrain pieces.  This would also allow me to add rocks, shoulders, etc to the road as well as make some paved roades and some not.

Hope this gives you some ideas.  Unfortunately, at this time I'm fairly mentally fried and not much good for creative ideas.  Oh well,

Happy hunting,
JB

[ApokalypseTest]

I like the general idea with the styrene stuff riding on top of the tiles (I am think about generally flocking my tiles if at all in one or two variations. Making special tiles for roads would be severely cutting into my supplies for 1 and 2 hex tiles. I like the idea of adding all kinds of features with your styrene adapters - roads, Buildings, trees, you already showed so many options :)

Where and how do you buy your styrene?

[john blackwell]

Where and how do you buy your styrene?

The brand I use is "Evergreen Scale Models". I buy mine at a model railroad shop.
Here's a link to their site:  http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/index.htm

Apparently they don't sell to individuals, but you can probably find a retailer near you - (boy don't I sound like a commercial)

I hope this helps.  Happy hunting,
JB