Homemade Warhammer 40k Terrain, Pt. 1

Alright, so: who wants to learn how to make homemade terrain, on the cheap?

I was inspired to start making terrain after watching Jesse himself attempting (and horribly failing) to create ruins from cardboard boxes. From what I've done so far, I'm pretty sure I've put his mutilated cereal boxes thoroughly to shame.

If you want to start making homemade 40k terrain, you're going to have to start doing some collecting/recycling. Get a large box, garbage can, or some kind of bin and set it aside somewhere not far from your normal garbage can. This is a pretty fun part, because it gives you free reign to be a slob for a while. Start collecting EVERYTHING you think you might be able to use for terrain pieces. Soda cans, paper towel tubes, old socks, cottage cheese containers -- you name it, it goes in there. I've even gone as far as to pick up some odds and ends I find lying around on the street. I like to call the bin we have at home my "Barney Bag". The thing to remember is, you never know what you're going to need to make terrain, and you never know what kind of inspiration you might get later that will make you think "Awe shit, I really shouldn't have thrown [insert odd or end here] away!"

ONE SMALL BUT IMPORTANT NOTE: While you're tossing stuff away, be sure to take a moment to thoroughly clean out any food containers, ESPECIALLY soda cans. I tore apart some soda cans earlier and trust me, you don't have to go through the hassle of washing out that goop later on.

My "Barney Bag"

Depending on your household size, you may need to collect for a couple days, or maybe a month. Between Jesse and myself, we collected for about a month or so. Some of the items in our bin include:

• 2 Liter Soda Bottles
  
• Soda Cans
  
• Cottage Cheese Bin
  
• Cardboard Paper Towel Tube
  
• Broken Duckie Soap Dispenser
  
• Styrofoam Cups
  
• Oatmeal Box
  
• Soy Sauce Bottle
  
• Cat Food Can
  
• Assorted Tin Cans from Food Products
  
• Plastic Plant Pot
  
• Orange Juice Carton
  
• Ice Cream Carton
  
• Old Shoes
  
• Old Socks
  
• Old Jewelery
  
• Clear Shortening Container
  
• Freezer Pop Bag (red netting thing in top left)
  
• Bicycle Tire Innertube
  
• Ritz Boxes, Cereal Boxes, Ramen Boxes, etc

To be honest, I don't know exactly how much of this stuff I'm actually going to use. But that's okay; it's better to have a wide variety of junk to choose from than to find you really don't have much to work with. Besides, you can always throw away what you don't use later on.

As you can see, we mostly eat store brand stuff. That's the beauty of making terrain yourself: even impoverished souls like ourselves can afford it. It will probably be the cheapest part of your tabletop 40k experience. BUT if you don't already have an assortment of craft supplies, you may have to go on a small shopping trip.

Supplies

While you're filling your junk bin, here's an idea of the kind of craft supplies you might need. If you're missing a lot of these things, you might need to make a Wal-Mart run. I understand some of these seem like no-brainers, but not everyone has drawers and drawers of craft crap like I do, so I'm not going to take anything for granted here.

• Newspaper
  
• Paper: get colored construction paper if you can, but as long as you have paint any variety should do
  
• Assorted Brushes: DO NOT use the nice brushes you use for your models; you can buy a bag of assorted crap brushes for about $5
  
• Scissors
  
• Scotch tape
  
• Elmer's glue: you may also need to use some of your model glue
  
• Paint Palette: You can get one of these plastic, compartmentalized ones at any craft store or Wal-Mart for $0.25
  
• Ruler
  
• Acrylic Paint: DO NOT use your GW model paints, it would be a waste. DO NOT buy the glossy paint, unless you like having a glossy sheen on everything you paint. The acrylics bottles I have here were about $3-4 each. All you need is your primaries and black and white, so this shouldn't cost you more than $15-20.
  
• Stapler
  
• Box Cutter or X-Acto Knife
• Flour: if you don't cook or bake, you may not have this, so grab a 1 lb bag.
  
• Also, see that orange thing on the left? It's a mini paper-cutter. You can always use scissors, but I've found this thing is great for cutting straight strips of light cardboard. I got mine in the scrapbooking section of JoAnn's for around $15.
  
• Wooden coffee stirrers: Not a requirement, but they are very useful for decorating houses and, I'm sure many other things. Grab some if you can.

In my next post, I'll show you how to build a house, and later I'll show you a clever technique I came up with for making craters. If you have any ideas or suggestions for making terrain, or would like to see something in particular made, leave a comment on this blog and I'll incorporate it into this project.