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kris gorham
United States
albuquerque
New Mexico
I wasn't born ! I sprang from the forhead of God , as he contemplated a particularly vile joke !
I wasn't born , I was hatched in the deepest darkest part of the ocean , and raised by sharks !
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BARRICADES
Ok , so I gotta admit that I think the squares are great , but I definitely would rather have 3d terrain to play with , so along comes my next big idea to replace the terrain squares .
Now as I write this , let me preface it by saying that I am not fully happy with this particular batch , but it was a learning experience to get used to the table saw I just bought for the sole purpose of building terrain for my gaming .
I love the LOOK of the paper craft bunkers , but I hate paper terrain , its just to flimsy and easily damaged , and I have seen the people using plaster , but plaster is to easily cracked and crumbled . So I will just stick with the materials I am more comfortable with : wood and plastic .
All future batched will be a little cleaner and tighter than this first batch was , and I now have a much better idea of “expected yield” vs. “actual yield “ when cutting out the parts .
Please keep in mind that while this brief tutorial used wood , people without access to tools to cut it can still recreate the project using card board or the like as detailed on my blog post about using card board and other lesser materials .
While some may criticize my choice of subject to build this particular time , I felt it was fitting , not just because it replaces the card board squares from the first set , but also because when watching a lot of pulpy movies like Hell Boy , Sky Captain , League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the like , this type of terrain element fits perfectly in , so while I will do OTHER types of terrain squares later , this I thought was a great fitting start for a terrain element that would work perfectly in any sci-fi or steam punkish type game .
Also , this project will mark my foray into the terrain for sale pool .
If anyone else is interested in picking any of these obstacles up , I am willing to make and sell them for a limited time before I move on to another project , just PM me here if you are interested . Keep in mind I only accept paypal.
So since this project was intended to be used primarily (for me any way ) for the dust tactics game , I started out with coming up with the idea and making it happen . It may amuse some to know that most of my ideas are never written down on paper as I plan them out , they just happen .
So step one was assembling materials . Unfortunately while I was at the hard ware store , they only had one 2’X4’ sheet of 3/16 MDF , but I was ok with it as a starting batch . All future batches will probably use ¼ thick sheets . It may not seem like a big deal , but at this scale , on this project , it becomes one fast .
Out of the 3/16 I cut 2 sets of strips the first was a set 1 inch wide , the second was ¾ inch wide . For this I used the table saw . Later I used a band saw to cut the 1 inch wide strips into 3 inch lengths , and cut the ¾ inch strips into 2 ¾ inch lengths .
Next , using the table saw , we cut a sheet of ½ inch thick mdf into squares the same size as a single tile .
After that we used the table saw to cut a 2x4 into 2 square dowels each the same size as on all sides .
Now it needs to be mentioned that not all wood is the same size . While a 2X4 is called a 2X4 , its actual measurements are supposed to be more like 1 7/8 x 3 7/8 . don’t ask me why , its just the way its been done for a couple hundred years . The missing 1/8 inch is the width of a saw blade used to cut the wood to size . But this is not always exact , so if a timber mill can shave off an extra 1/16 inch over a million boards , to get a few extra boards , the pennies add up .
So we used the 2X4 as a measure and just cut it into a square dowel , there was enough left over to cat the remainder into a second mostly square dowel . For this project , it doesn’t have to be as exactly square on all corners , some rounded corners will be just fine .
Next we cut the 2X4 dowels into 3 inch lengths .
So here is what we had as “parts”
And now on to the assembly . Using the 3 inch and 2 ¾ inch strips , glue them together as you sandwich them to form “ribbing“ . You can do different configurations if you want , and it adds some nice variety to the finished projects .
Each terrain piece will need 4 sections of ribbing .
If you have cut off like I did , you can use them to add in a little more variety to the piece . I added in some spare ribbing , and square caps to make them a little cooler , but you can do it how ever you want .
After the ribbing sections have dried , glue them to the 3 inch long sections of 2X4 dowels as shown .
After that dries , glue it to the ½ inch thick square base section . They don’t have to be exactly centered . The reason I chose the dimensions I did was to give me a little ledge on all sides to break up the over all shape a bit and make it look a little more interesting .
As you are doing these try to keep the gaps to a min. , but don’t worry if its not perfect , its terrain , and with enough of it on the field , little imperfections wont bother you as much .
Once these are dry , I coated them with a thin coat of watered down glue to make the MDF a little sturdier . MDF is good , but its not indestructible , and the corners and edges are susceptible to wear .
Next I coated them with 2 coats of interior HOUSE paint , to add a little more durability to the finished items .
Next I added some gravel to the recesses to add in a little more variety to the project .
After that was all dry , I sprayed them with a light coat of watered down black paint , so thin that it only served to darken the gray a bit so that the highlighting would add a bit more contrast to the finished project and darken the base recesses a bit more .
Then I did some highlights , first using the same gray house paint , then a lighter gray craft paint for the edges .
I think for future batches I might use black house paint as opposed to gray for the base color , then lightly spay gray paint on top so it looks more industrial and drab .
I also think I went a bit over board with the highlights . I think I will dial them back a bit on my next batch .
Now all that’s left is to let them dry , then seal them , first with krylon clear coat to add a bit more durability , then with dull coat lacquer to kill the shine .
I will warn you , I took just under 2 weeks to finish this , to give the house paint more time to dry since it was not intended to be handled so often so soon with the added moisture from the black wash and the craft paint .
And here they are with some figs for comparison
If anyone else is interested in picking any of these obstacles up , I am willing to make and sell them for a limited time before I move on to another project , just PM me here if you are interested . Keep in mind I only accept paypal
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