Knorpelkeks` terrain for AS

[Knorpelkeks02]

Hello there,

I have not touched BT or AS for quite a while but some matches of AS are coming my way.  :D
I noticed that I don`t have any good terrain left. A quick brainstorming showed me that the most prominent feature in my mind are mountains. So I decided to follow a tutorial on Youtube by the channel Okay Hobby Time and built some stepped hills. These kind of hills may not look very natural but I prefer the way they fit into gameplay. I wanted to have a appearance of sandstone or some other kind of sedimentary rock. Because of this I did not choose the typical grey color of those standard tabletop hills.
One important requirement of my procedure was that I do not want to buy any new stuff but to use only materials I already have in my hobby room. Therefore my sheets of xps were 3 cm thick. Concerning movement I will treat them in game like 1 inch. Even if I am not playing BT but AS I like the fact that 2 levels will completely hide the heavyest mechs.
Let`s show some pictures:


We start with simple kidneys in various sizes.

With the help of a knife and a steel ruler we turn it into something like this:



Next step - take some pva and glue chinchilla sand on top. The sand gives a nice grip so the pieces laying on top of another piece do not slide even if you accidentally jab them.


Now we paint the rocks with a tone of sand and the top with a brown tone.


After this we apply a dark brown wash. Sadly my cam on my cellphone does not catch the fine details really well. Besides this I forgot to take a picture.  ::)

The next step is a firm drybrush over the whole terrain piece with the primary tone of sand and a slight drybrush with pure white and only vertical strokes of the brush.





I have to say that I am really happy with the result.

Here are some pics with some minis for scale.



Right now there is only some flock missing. But this is the point I have to think twice. There is a lot of gras for model railway by Noch in my inventory but I do not like to use it on terrain for 6mm scale. I feel like it does not fit this scale very well. I would need something like the fine turfs of Woodland Scenics. But this would be against my plan of not spending any additional money (and they are hard to get at my place). I will sleep about it and show you the result. There is more to come during the next month because i feel the need for wood and waters.

Best wishes

Knorpelkeks

[RazorclawXLS]

These are awesome.

So if I understood this correctly, you used the box cutter knife to manually cut the stone texture on the sides? You didn't use the that Proxxon hot-wire cutter?

Were you using the steel ruler only for measurements, or did you use it in some other way?

[Knorpelkeks02]

The Proxxon is used to cut the kidneys out of the xps sheets.

Then you take the knife and cut some horizontal and vertical lines in the smooth surface of the sides.

The next step is the one where the stone pattern is created. You take your steel ruler and pull it with its edge firm across the incised surface. Parts are breaking away randomly and the xps gets this cracked look. It needs a little bit of practice and it soon gets tedious. If you accidentally removed to many of the incised parts you can always come back, cut again with the knife and use the ruler again.
If my words are not clear enough I recommend to watch the tutorial on Youtube.

[RazorclawXLS]

Thanks for the info, it is much appreciated. I am intending to mimic the hills and mountains on the regular BT maps by creating the 3D equivalents out of the extruded poly. foam, so seeing this thread was a godsend.

[Daryk]

Gorgeous work!  :thumbsup:

[Knorpelkeks02]

Thanks for the info, it is much appreciated. I am intending to mimic the hills and mountains on the regular BT maps by creating the 3D equivalents out of the extruded poly. foam, so seeing this thread was a godsend.

That`s very nice to read that there is a benefit for you.  :thumbsup: I thought about the same some years ago but i liked to have a little bit more room and crafted some bigger hexes. If you own the Proxxon Thermocut you can print out blank hexes out of thick paper and use it as a guide for the wire. I did it this way and it worked like a charm. Back then i did not structure the sides because i cut out hundreds of hexes an it would have taken me ages to do so.

Gorgeous work!  :thumbsup:

Thanks a lot.  :)

Right now my hills have to wait a little while. I ordered some blended turf... Meanwhile i did some prototypes for my waters. The base is cut out of hdf-boards with a coping saw. the edges are beveled with a box cutter.



I took some xps sheets with 3mm thickness and cut out a outline with the hot wire.



This lake will be a shallow one with only level -1.



This one is deeper.

Thats it for now:



I think that is enough waters for my gaming table. Maybe I will craft a modular river later.

In game the lakes will not count as elevated. I only built them this way to have a possibility to pour some 2k epoxy resin. The minis will always stand on top of the terrain. You can tell the depth by the color of the bottom. I am curious where this is going to...  :D

[Daryk]

That makes two of us!  :D

[Knorpelkeks02]

Only little steps this week...



I smoothed the edges with a modeling paste.



Glued the sand with pva.



Painted it with a mixture of brown and pva...



and noticed that there a many small holes especially on the inner edges.

So I painted these areas twice and hoped that everything is sealed. Otherwise the epoxy resin will eat its way through the foam.



I painted the different sub levels with different colors, glued some rocks on and washed them and...



put them on some damp paper towels with some weights on it. This step wasn`t really necessary. I only had little warping since I used hdf for basing. But because of the resin I wanted the bases to be absolutely flat. Just let them stand for one day like this and they will be leveled. This works for bases made out of mdf or cardboard, too.
I did a drybrush and then came the magic moment...



The resin! This picture is right after pouring. I am still waiting for the result... ??? I used some acrylic inks to tint the resin. Right now I am not really pleased 100 % with the apperance  :-\, but let´s see how this will look with flock on the table... A lighter or a blow torch are very handy. Just go over the surface with it from time to time and the bubbles in the resin will burst. There will be bubbles even if you had the impression that there are none while pouring.

Time to think about the woods and to do some prototypes for the trees! There will be 3 (or so) of them on every wood base to represent the wood. They will be removable for storing purpose.

[Daryk]

Looking good!  :thumbsup:

[RazorclawXLS]

Oh boy! This thread is a treasure trove of modelling terrain info.

[glitterboy2098]

if you don't want to do green flock, you could just go for an Arid/desert terrain feel.

[Knorpelkeks02]

I was too busy with work during the last weeks. My schedule is delayed...  ???

At least I managed to finish nearly all 12 wire trees. 3 of them still need some twisting of their branches. I took me longer than I expected to make one tree (between 30 to 40 minutes each).



Right now I am waiting for some neodym magnets to arrive. Nest step will be to make the roots and the bark.

I glued the turf on my hills and had an issue:



I used this kind of turf for the first time and and I have no idea why there were those strange glue lanes after drying. My procedure was to paint the glue on the surface of the hilltop, sprinkle on the turf, turn the hills around and knock of the excess. I decided to redo the sprinkling but this time "woodland scenics style". I sprinkled on a thin layer of turf and soaked it from above with a liquid glue. I really have no idea how this stuff is called in the USA. Here in Germany it is called "Tiefgrund". It is much cheaper than the scenic glue by woodland scenics and I suspect that this "Tiefgrund" is an ingredient of the scenic glue. Maybe some others here know how to translate to English. I did not want to make a big mess so I used a pipette (and not an spray can). This only works if you use something to break the surface tension of the liquid. Otherwise the turf will float away. Therefor I misted some isopropyl alcohol with a very fine spray flacon before dropping the "Tiefgrund". This is what it looks like right now:



The liquid glue is milky when it is wet and transparent when it is dryed. I think that everything will be fixed firmly. At least this is my experience with static gras in combination with "Tiefgrund".

Slowly marching on...

[Daryk]

Progress is progress!  I look forward to the finished product!  :thumbsup:

[SeeM]

I really appreciate a clean working table. Mine becomes a mess really quickly. I have to steal that idea of yardstick on the table edge.

Those hills are not only super nice, but also very light. With enough of them, it makes a huge difference.

[Knorpelkeks02]

Progress is progress!  I look forward to the finished product!  :thumbsup:

Me too!  ;D

I really appreciate a clean working table. Mine becomes a mess really quickly. I have to steal that idea of yardstick on the table edge.

Those hills are not only super nice, but also very light. With enough of them, it makes a huge difference.

Thank you very much. I have to admit that I am not responsible for the yardstick. It is a piece of furniture I get hold of by a friend. He is an architect and he replaced old furniture in his office. Nevertheless I use it with great enjoyment!   :)

A quick update:

It worked! The turf is firmly glued to the ground. Over the weekend i put on another layer of this adhesive. Just for being sure... Due to my process of gluing and sprinkling turf the result looks a little bit irregular. This makes some nice variations that appear natural to me. The issue from above turned out to be a favor.  :thumbsup: Now only the woods remain! Let´s chop some trees!  :thumbsup:

For my own motivation: a quick arrangement

[Daryk]

Looks great!  :thumbsup:

[Knorpelkeks02]

Had some great games and a lot of fun this weekend.  :)

This evening i started to make the upper parts of the magnetized tree bases. The roots oft the wire trees were bent with a diameter of 6mm. The hollow space was filled with a 2 part epoxy putty and a magnet was pressed to the bottom with a tiny dot of super glue.



After this the trees were pressed to a sheet of baking paper. Now all 12 trees are done and I am waiting for the putty to become firm...



Next stop: The counterparts on the woodland bases.

[IAMCLANWOLF]

Sweet job!

[Daryk]

Those are BRILLIANT trees!  :thumbsup:

[shadhawk]

great work on all of it.  :thumbsup:

the trees are a nice twist  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Knorpelkeks02]

The evolution of my woods goes on. I made little progress.

At first i used some epoxy putty to sculpt some enclosures for the magnets on the ground and glued those magnets down.



Then followed the specific steps:

Primer und drybrush.




A first layer of flock (looks ugly!  :o).




Several other layers of different kind of flocks (If I remember correctly 3).




A final soaking of glue finishes today`s issue of my terrain diary.  :))




I used a lot of my stock of model train flock by some German manufacturers. The different kinds have the disadvantage that they bleed out a lot of color when they are soaked with this liquid glue. Woodland scenic`s turf doesn`t bleed out that much. You have to keep that in mind if you are building some pieces of terrain where you don`t want to stain surrounding areas. In my case I hope that this color bleeding creates some smooth transitions between the different flocks. It won`t be that bad...

The trees will be next. I just decided to do the bark by using pva and saw meal. The foliation will be executed with WS clump foliage.

[Rougarou Rhapsody]

Very nice.  I put wood screws into the bottom of my trees instead of magnets and just used magnets on the template itself.  That way I didn't have to keep track of which pole of the magnet was face up. It was a little unruly to get the screws inserted properly but I didn't scratch build my trees with a wire armature. Food for thought on your project moving forward.  Wood screws are super cheap.  Might save you some money in the long run, since you won't have to double up on magnets.

[Knorpelkeks02]

Very nice.  I put wood screws into the bottom of my trees instead of magnets and just used magnets on the template itself.  That way I didn't have to keep track of which pole of the magnet was face up. It was a little unruly to get the screws inserted properly but I didn't scratch build my trees with a wire armature. Food for thought on your project moving forward.  Wood screws are super cheap.  Might save you some money in the long run, since you won't have to double up on magnets.

Thanks for your input!  :thumbsup:
Yes you are right. If there were more trees to do I would switch to a piece of metal combined with a magnet. Because there were only 12 trees to handle I opted for using 2 of them. 24 magnets took 4,80€ out of my wallet. That makes 20 cents each. Too much for building big forests but quite ok for my application. I have to say that I really like the extra portion of magnetic adhesive strength by using 2 magnets. No wobbling or shaking at all...

Now the trees are drying. I am not really satisfied with their look. The glue was hard to control while sprinkling the saw meal. Some branches have some strange bulges now. I will leave them to dry and have a look again tomorrow. Usually I use a clay that has to be baked in an oven for texturing the bark. But that won`t work in this scale with those thin and tiny branches. We will see where this will go...

[Daryk]

Real trees often have strange bulges, so I wouldn't worry too much.  :thumbsup:

[Knorpelkeks02]

I have to say that I underestimated time and effort of building the wood pieces. Nonetheless they come closer to their state of being finished.  ;D
Some of the intermediate steps really don`t look nice and took some confidence of my building routine.

Just after the "barkification" ;D:



With its primer on:



After the wash (mix of black, brown, green):



With some clump foliage on:



And with better lighting:



4 done, 8 left to do.

I like the result. The foliage is glued on with superglue. I have to think about how to make it a little bit more sturdy. Maybe I will soak it with PVA. The wood base will get some more details like bushes or low shrubs.

[Daryk]

Those look REALLY good!  :o

[Knorpelkeks02]

Update for my woods: I consider them as done!  :)

I soaked the foliage with pva and glued some bushes on the base and around the roots of the trees. Everything seems to be quite sturdy.   8)

Today I can only deliver some pictures with artificial lighting.

From above - not much difference to my last post (2 bases are still waiting to dry):



In detail:



With a scout sneaking through the thicket and trying to spot for allied artillery:



This marks the temporary end of my journey in terrain making. I had a lot of fun with this little project.

Thanks to all your kind replies! Especially Daryk for always staying tuned! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I will make some other hills later this year. I need some with a dessert theme, too. But before I will start again I will make a wish to Santa for bringing me a nice neoprene gaming mat with the size of our gaming table...  ::)

[Daryk]

Congrats on a finished product, especially one that looks SO good!  :thumbsup:

[RazorclawXLS]

I was waiting on the pics of the finished product, and they haven't disappointed. Awesome work on the forest templates. This thread is inspirational and provides excellent tutorials.

[MarauderD]

Wow.  You killed it.  Amazing woods templates!

[DOC_Agren]

very well done

[RazorclawXLS]

@Knorpelkeks02

I am finally starting to make my own hills and mountains for AS, I am in the process in acquiring XPS boards, but I am not sure about the sizes of "kidneys" I need to cut.

Can you give me a run-down on what sizes are you hill/mountain shapes (layers)? And how much did you make out of each size?
I am not asking for super precise dimensions, I just need dimensions of a rectangle that will hold a given shape you cut.

I forgot to ask, what did you use for a brown wash? What would be good to use as a wash for terrain in general?
I am asking this, because there is no way to wash the terrain with washes I use for my minis, as I would use up all of it.

[Knorpelkeks02]

Sorry, I didn`t see your post until today.

The size of the kidneys depends on your gaming table and on the style you want to achieve. My goal was to have some hills which are fully walkable for the mechs. But I also have some w.i.p. hills for my dessert (with a different technique) which can only be mounted by jumping mechs.


The good thing with hills or rocks is, that you do not really have to care about scale or shape (from the aesthetic perspective). Just try out what is pleasing for you.

For making these hills I used a lot of scrap foam pieces. Unfortunately I can`t give you the rectangular measurements but I can give you some dimensions of the finished products. These are the biggest:





And these are the smallest ones:



Do not make them smaller if you want your mechs to have a solid stand on them.

By cutting and carving the rocks you will loose maybe round about 2cm (0,79inch) on each side. But you can always take away more if you want or need to. So maybe start a little larger than you feel it would be right.
I made sure that each smaller layer had the possibility to be positioned in a way that there was always at least one side with enough space for one hex base (at least). But don`t overthink it. Embrace the happy little accidents. After the first 4 hills I turned off my head and let the inspiration take me to wherever it wanted to.

When washing terrain I always make my own cheap and simple wash by using acrylic paint (mostly burnt umber), water and a tiny drop of dish dertergent. I noticed that i like the result better if I do not use the cheapest paint because the better the paint the better the pigments and the better the effect. In my area we have the German brand "Schmincke". They have a series called "Akademie acryl color". They use pigments that are very opaque. I find them to be great for washing terrain. I always make a test model before washing all the other stuff.

Hopefully this helps a little bit.

[Daryk]

I see it's kidneys FTW! ;D

[Knorpelkeks02]

I see it's kidneys FTW! ;D

That`s Capellan dedication. They give a kidney for Xin Sheng! 

Long live Capella! Long live Sun Tzu! 

[RazorclawXLS]

Thank you very much, Knorpelkeks, for your extensive answer.

[Knorpelkeks02]

Thank you very much, Knorpelkeks, for your extensive answer.

You are very welcome. 

Fell free to ask again if there is another question!

[badlands]

WOW!!! That was really AWESOME!!! Great job, thanks for showing how you did that.

[Knorpelkeks02]

Hello to everyone! 

After a short break, there is more to come. I have got some spare time during the next 2 weeks and I decided to make some terrain again.

Besides some buildings (still haven`t got a clue for some handmade ones) I always wanted to have a modular river. So let`s go picture heavy as usual!  Everything is built with materials I already have. No extra money is spent.


Some HDF-boards cut to pieces with my trusty coping saw with the measurements of 15x30cm and 15x15cm. The smaller sections will become bends.


A lot of sawing this time because the edges should not be straight lines.


The embankment is built with 2mm xps sheet an beveled with a box knife.


First check showed, that it fits quite good and the gaps between the pieces do not dominate the impression. But I also noticed, that I do not like the straight inner edge of the embankment. It looked like an artificial canal.


So I made some pieces out of the xps to disguise the straight lines and glued them to the inside.


With the sand on (this time bird`s sand) the little gaps between the pieces are hidden.

Next steps to come:

Paint and drybrush the sand and make some water. This time I won`t use epoxy resin. Much better! I will use a lot of thinned PVA and toilet paper. 

[dirty harry]

Nice idea! Nice to watch!

But a suggestion: Wouldn't it be better to have 45° angled river bends instead of 90° only? That should make layouts on the table more flexible and if a 90° angle is needed... 2 45° angle pieces and voila!
(and yes, i can imagine the pointy edge to be very prone to breakage...)

[Knorpelkeks02]

Yes, you are right. A bend with 45° would be more flexible. I have to decide if those bends or a forking are more important to me. I will finish the actual pieces and decide according to my experiences (and my motivation). 

[Knorpelkeks02]

The progress of today:

Painting and drybrushing of the embankment: all pieces done

Toilet paper water: 9/10 straight pieces , 0/8 bends

I replicated the way making the water from a youtube video. This is how it works:

You will need a lot of watered down PVA!


Soak the base with PVA.


Lay down the first layer of toilet paper and soak it with PVA. Then stipple with a stiff brush like there is no tomorrow. This will remove every motive that is pressed into the paper.


Repeat soaking, laying down paper and stippling until you have 3 layers of toilet paper.


Than stipple one last time and try to make a wavy pattern.


Close up.

Next steps:

Finish the toilet paper on all pieces.

Paint the surface of the water in realistic colors.

Apply at least 3 layers of gloss varnish.

Drybrush the waves carefully with pure white.

[Daryk]

Another amazing project!  I look forward to more! :)