@
keglo
, thanks!
It's weird now that before throwing some plastic stuff away, I analyze it for potential terrain projects
The problem becomes storage of the "trash to potential treasure" stuff. Small things are easy enough, but I have to draw the line sometimes, as my hobby stuff is already encroaching upon my gaming area.
With regards to the gravel, I haven't tried kitty litter. I'm not sure about its soaking up qualities and how it will glue down or hold paint. it may work great though. The product I used is
Medium Basing Grit by Gale Force 9 (GF9). I bought it for use on miniatures bases, so that little container goes a long way....unless I keep using it for bigger terrain bases
But I also got some fine grit that is a more sand consistency (sand would work too), and static grass by GF9. I have some basing material from Army Painter also, some brown grit a little finer than the gravel sized grit, and some tufts and little shrubs. Then a decent sized container of Woodland Scenics blended turf. I've collected it here and there over the past year, so it ends up being a decent collection and options.
The way I did the gravel, was to use Elmer's Wood Glue (could be any PVA glue, but this is what I had for use with wood too) and spread it to where I wanted the gravel to go. I put the base on a sheet of paper to catch extra grit, and I pour the grit on. I used the edge of a toothpick to kind of tamp it down a little and then let it dry for a couple hours. Then I tipped it over the paper and tapped the back of it to knock loose pieces off onto the paper. I have the paper already creased in the middle longways, so that it's easy to loosely fold and use to pour it back into the container of the material. Since this grit was a sandy tannish color, I sprayed the whole base with the grey primer I use. Then a little drybrush of a lighter grey and then another light drybrush of white. The brown dirt in the water tank piece, is the fine sand grit that I put on after all the gravel drybrushing was done. Then I thinned down some dark brown paint and painted it to look brown, then a little drybrushing of some lighter brown and tan. There are a couple larger pieces of grit in the dirt, but that's because I have a little jar that I poured some remnants of grit of a couple sizes into, and used that for this dirt. Then I spray varnished the whole thing a couple coats and from several angles.
As far as choosing a genre and going all in with it, it's tough for sure. I guess if you are limited in how much you can or want to spend on a game system, then find maybe a couple that you can do crossover terrain for. It also depends on what genre you and the people you game with are into, as that's ultimately the deciding factor . The only reason that I have gotten into so many is because of my buddy Chris that I met about a year or so ago when he joined my gaming group. He has a store's worth of board games, but is also into tabletop minis games, as he used to play Necromunda and War Machine when he was younger (he's still a youngin' at 36). He got into Guild Ball and Infinity, but then when I got Halo Ground Command, he got into that too, then we both got into Frostgrave at the same time. I eventually got Guild Ball stuff, and Infinity stuff because I knew someone that would play it. Some other guys in the group started getting into Guild Ball and have joined us in playing Frostgrave. So while I wasn't looking to get into all this stuff, knowing others into it has gotten me more into it. But I have pretty much stopped buying new board games for awhile, other than a couple things I had kickstarted a while ago. I have sold some board games that I don't play anymore and don't see myself playing, so that has helped fund this new hobby of mine.
Star Wars Legion does look cool for sure, and I have pre-ordered it. I'm not a total Star Wars nut like some of my friends, but I will play Star Wars games, I just don't geek out over it or know all the lore etc. I believe we have 4 of us so far that are buying into it. But yeah, that terrain piece at GenCon looked great! I have yet to attempt the insulation board use for terrain making. The 1 or 2 inch pieces that people cut and shape to make neat hills and such. One day perhaps, but then there's the issue of storing the bigger pieces.
If you can find a couple genres that you like, you can make some of the terrain multi-use so it can work for both genres. I have a resin hill piece from Battle In a Box that I am able to use for just about any outdoor setting. The painted Heroscape rock outcrops can be used for various things, as well as the Heroscape trees. The wood chips that I painted and added some mossy look to, can be used as scatter terrain for various things. These tanks I just did can be used for modern, post-apocalyptic, or even SciFi settings like Infinity or Star Wars Legion if the rest of that setup is perhaps on an outpost or frontier type planet.
To me, that's the best way to get the most bang for your buck.