sportcult's custom terrain - updated - Rimworld Colony

[DeadEye]

I realy like the Lava custom terrain.......
Its pretty awesome.

DeadEye

[sportcult]

Thanks Deadeye, I love your Hot Dog Stand dice tower! Your Jandar bridge is cool, too. I really like the way you are careful to incorporate hexes on everything. I think that's one of the most fun and challenging aspects of custom heroscape terrain.

[Soridir]

Originally Posted by sportcult

Thanks! I like the flocked pieces you posted in the gallery. That tree looks good.

Thanks, I just started getting the technique down for custom terrain.

[karl with a k]

Nice customs, they look really fun to play with.

[sportcult]

Tutorial #1 - Getting started.

After all the great info and tips I've found in the other tutorials on this site, I thought it was only fair to share some of my own. Here are some ideas on getting started with making custom terrain pieces from foam:

There are two popular types of foam used for modeling, "pink" foam and "green" foam:

Pink foam, or expanded styrene, can be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes, or your local lumbar yard. It comes in 2' x 8' sheets it varying thicknesses. Shown here is 1" thick. It costs about $10 per sheet. It is pretty firm and strong. It can be cut and carved into almost any shape.


Green foam, or floral foam, can be found at Wal-mart, craft stores, dollar stores, etc. It is very soft and crumbly. It has larger open pores than pink foam so it makes good texture for rough rocks, earth, or weathered stone.



Here are some of my favorite supplies. For gluing foam pieces down to hexes and filling small cracks I love the Elmer's squeeze caulk. It dries fast and clear, can be painted, and the tube is super easy to use. Costs $3. For gluing most everything else, Quick Dry Tacky glue is awesome. (Wal-mart, $3) For quickly tacking small plastic or metal pieces, a tube of super glue gel is handy, also. To seal foam surfaces and certain gluing operations, you will find a jar of Mod Podge handy. It's basically just watered down Elmer's, but for $6, it's saves you lots of time. After paying $3 a shot for tiny pots of fancy miniatures paints, I've found that the 97 cent tubes of Folk Art acrylics from Wal-mart work great on terrain. It is water based, can be thinned, and dries matte. All of these products (minus the super glue) are water based so they clean up really easy.



Brushes and knives. You will want an assortment of hobby knives for cutting and carving. Be careful! Especially when you're hacking out big chunks of foam. A good set of brushes will greatly influence the outcome of your project. Different sizes and shapes are handy. You don't need the most expensive, but don't get the cheapest either.



OK, down get down to business! Hack out the rough shape of the item you're making with the large blade. Carve in the final details using smaller and smaller blades. You can also sand, scrape, and gouge to create weathered effects. With a little practice you will get the hang of combining precise with random to get a realistic shape. Once you're happy with the base at least, glue it down to some hexes. Go ahead and add other features that will be painted with the same base coat. Let it dry until the glue becomes clear. A fan will speed this up.


Next paint on a coat of Mod Podge. If you're using green foam or are planning on spray painting a base coat, you will need to do 3 coats of Mod Podge. (spray paint melts uncoated foam)

Undercoat - Paint the object flat black. Occasionally you will use other colors, but most terrain items will start black. My lava rocks start with a red base, olive drab for grave yard ground, etc. Just paint the whole thing, details and all.



Next, start bringing up the detail and establishing the final color. Take a brush and wipe off most of the paint onto a paper towel. You will vary the dryness of the brush depending of how much of the color you want to apply and the coarseness of the texture. For this coat, it's not really "dry brushing" yet. It's sometimes called over brushing. Anyways, scrub on the color over the surface of the object. The paint will stay out of the grooves and holes, leaving a detailed suface behind.




By Heroscape standards, you could just about stop here and have a pretty cool looking piece. How much more detail you want to add is up to you. By adding at least one more layer of lighter paint will give you a great looking surface with lots of contrast and detail that will stand out from a distance. This time rub almost all the paint out of the brush bristles. It shouldn't leave any streaks on the paper towel. By scrubbing it over the surface it will leave a thin haze of paint. Use a much lighter tone than you used for the previous coat. Note the difference between the top and sides of the platform below as the difference between the last steps:


Continue to reapeat this process for each color and detail of the piece. For instance on the wooden elements I will next use medium brown over coat then a light brown dry brush. You will likely need to use smaller and smaller brushes.

Unless you have lots of details, most terrain items will be done after those steps. I'll be adding some small detail colors as well as texture to the ground of the pieces next. I'll post the pics as soon as they're done.

[nyys]

This stuff is great! How did I miss this thread until now?

sportcult, I don't live all that far away from you, South Shore, MA, and my gaming group prediminantly lives right on the RI border (next to Woonsocket).

You have to come to an upcoming event so we can meet, and then possibly talk about getting together to play on some of this terrain awsomeness you create.

[Raudulfr Shieldcrusher]

Two questions sportcult, can you explain your candle technique? And how are you storing your customs?

[sportcult]

Originally Posted by nyys

This stuff is great! How did I miss this thread until now?

sportcult, I don't live all that far away from you, South Shore, MA, and my gaming group prediminantly lives right on the RI border (next to Woonsocket).

You have to come to an upcoming event so we can meet, and then possibly talk about getting together to play on some of this terrain awsomeness you create.

Sounds good! Keep me posted. I'm not too in to the tournament style play, but I'd be into some regular games sometime.

[sportcult]

Originally Posted by Raudulfr Shieldcrusher

Two questions sportcult, can you explain your candle technique? And how are you storing your customs?

I'm going to do a tutorial on the lava terrain soon, but here's a quick description. Carve the rough shape of the feature you want. You don't have to worry too much about shrinking, it is easy to control how much the flame changes the foam. Then either go outside, set up a big fan, and/or put on a respirator. As you know from using a foam wire cutter, the fumes from melting pink foam are nasty. Use a nice tall table candle so you can look up under the flame. Take your piece and draw it near the flame. You will see the foam shrink and smooth over immediately. It's up to you at that point how drastic of changes you want. Any sharp corners or edges will melt into a rib. If you want holes, use a drill bit and gouge out the rough shape. Then fine tune the hole with the flame. The other cool thing that the melting does is harden the surface of the foam so that you only need one coat of Mod Podge, if any, before painting.

I have a big basement so I have quite a bit of room to store pieces. Shipping them has been tricky, but packing peanuts are pretty amazing. Also, I subcontract the storage out by trying to sell most of them.

[LongHeroscaper]

sportcult, your custom terrain is really good. I like the lava terrain the most! Great job!

[sportcult]

Thanks! It's really fun to make.

[NecroBlade]

Tutorials? Nice! Always good to see those.