In Regards to your Barney Bag...

In keeping my bin of junk around for making terrain, I have noticed it's kind of messy. I have gotten into the habit of holding onto everything and anything, and frequently contemplate strange objects I see on a daily basis for their potential as terrain material. My Barney Bag is overflowing onto my bedroom floor. Frankly, I need a couple much bigger boxes.

And as a slight neat freak, who suffers from anxiety when my home is messy for too long, I have seriously contemplated breaking up with my Barney Bag and just taking the lot of it out to the dumpster for my own satisfaction.

But today, I watched this TED talk:

What Dan Phillips does with the homes he builds in Texas is the same thing I am trying to do with the terrain pieces I'm making at home. I am reclaiming those things I usually throw away, looking at them in a different and interesting light, and making something new and original from it. This is innovation at its finest.

At one point, Dan Phillips tells how he has lots of toilets, so he smashed one with a hammer to create a new tile design. There is a lesson in this; this is how you should be thinking when figuring out what to do with all those tin cans, 2-liter bottles and toilet paper rolls you saved up. Ignore what it was originally made for, break it down, and recreate it. This is how my aluminum soda cans turned into craters. And that wasn't even what they turned into first....

Sponsored in part by Mountain Dew.

I needed a lid for the 10-gallon tank I was keeping my feeder mice in, and I couldn't afford the one they had at the pet store for $20. So, I set out to make my own. All I needed was some kind of netting and a metal frame. The netting came from the plastic netting bags I had leftover from freezer pops. The metal frame came from folded and stapled strips of aluminum from the bodies of soda cans. In order to tighten the netting over the top, I tied the netting taut with tiny strips of aluminum leftover from when I was cutting the cans apart. After all this I was left with the carefully constructed tops and bottoms of soda cans, and when I looked at them, I saw craters.

Remember that game you played as a kid, where different colored carpets or tiles were different kinds of terrain? For instance, maybe you couldn't step on the black tiles because they were pitfalls, so you had to go across the kitchen on the white tiles. I myself had a childhood home where all of the carpets in each of the rooms was a different color. My brother's bedroom was blue (ocean), the living room was brown (desert), our parents' bedroom was green (grassland/forest), the kitchen was white linoleum (ice), and my and my sister's bedroom was pink (lava). Changing the environment simply by imagining it was different, made it different. We interacted with the world in a whole new way. This is how homemade terrain works; you imagine your junk is different, and then you MAKE it different.

Another great tip from Mr. Phillips here: when you have a whole bunch of something, it doesn't matter what that is, as long as you can make a pattern of it, you can work with it. How this applies to terrain: let me share with you a piece I just started on. At my job, I deal with a lot of boxes, and some companies are pretty meticulous about their packaging. Once company in particular had a box full of a certain toy and, for whatever reason, it was imperative that the corners of these toys not be dented or crushed. So, on each corner of every box, there was a hard, black, plastic cap.

These were interesting to me, and there were a lot of them, so instead of throwing them away, I stacked them up and stashed them in my bag. After playing with them at home for a few minutes, I came up with this:

Do you see it? Soon, it will be a ruins piece. I thought maybe I would make pyramids or building roofs out of them, but none of that seemed to be working. But, since I had a whole bunch of them, I was able to create a pattern with them. If I get enough, I can probably make a whole series of ruins pieces just like this. Of course, it's not going to look like the ruins GW puts out, but who's to say it has to? It can be homemade and still be functional and aesthetically pleasing. Just pick a pattern and stick with it.

When he talks about the Apollonian perspective versus the Dionysian perspective, I think it's pretty clear where we fall in this dichotomy...

Apollonian : GW :: Dionysian : Homemade Terrain

For those of us who play, we have an image in our head of picture-perfect terrain pieces. In fact, if we have our codex in hand, the picture is right in front of our face. GW does make some amazing and beautiful terrain, I will give them that, and when making terrain we all try to live up to their example and emulate their style. But it is not always necessary to follow their mold. The reason they are able to come up with such amazing terrain in the first place, the way they make their molds, is by being innovative and creative. So when making terrain, it's best really to throw the GW molds out of your mind and start from the ground up. Granted, sometimes they offer some great inspirations and supplemental ideas, but that's all they should be when making homemade terrain: supplements. The innovation, the mold, needs to come from you. I have used GW ideas as supplements before (i.e.: the shingled roof idea I got from a GW terrain-making book), but the overall building designs are my own.

Even in Phillips's talk, he references Maslow's heirarchy of needs. Keep this in mind when you're making terrain too. The basic purpose of terrain is to enhance game play: you need to be able to fit models on, in, and around it; it needs to be to a reasonable scale; it needs to stay on the table and not fall over easily; it needs to be secure. How good it looks standing next to a GW-made terrain piece, and how cool you'll look to others using it on your table, is one of the last things you'll need to worry about. Don't let your own vanity hamper your terrain-making experience. If your first few tries are kind of messy, who cares? As long as it works.

And even if you have some failures - and Phillips confesses his own share of flops - you don't need to stop. At some point, maybe you'll try something of your own and end up with a sopping wet pile of newspaper and pipe cleaners and bemoan all the time and materials you've wasted. It's okay. Even if you didn't get what you wanted out of it, it is these experiences that we learn the most from. So pipe cleaners just aren't strong enough for that? Well, maybe then you can try using them for this... Move on, keep experimenting.

After watching this video, I now feel a lot better about that pile of garbage on my floor. It actually put me in the mood to make a rag bag. Which I would do, but I don't have enough disposable time to sew a bunch of rags together by hand. One day, a sewing machine, then, the world...

Homemade Warhammer 40k Terrain: Pt. 3

As promised, here's how you make craters!

For this terrain piece, you will need:

• Aluminum soda can
• Scissors
• Scotch tape
• Cardboard
• Newspaper
• Flour
• Bowl or pan
• Acrylic paint

Craters

Step 1: Set-up
The first step is to take your aluminum can and cut the bottom out of it. Aluminum cans are relatively easy to cut with a good pair of scissors, but be careful: it's easy to cut yourself or get a nasty metal splinter doing this. Once your aluminum bottom is cut out, find an appropriately sized piece of cardboard to serve as the base.

Next, cut the base to the size you want for the base of the crater.

Once this is done, use Scotch tape to secure the can bottom to the cardboard. This doesn't need to be completely sealed off and unbreakable; again, like with your box houses, this is just a frame.

Step 2: Paper Mache
Next, prepare your paper mache material. You can find instructions for this in my previous blog. Pinching then end of each strip to the center or inside edge of the can bottom with your thumb, wrap each newspaper strip around the edge of the crater and under the bottom. While the newspaper will not stick very well to the aluminum, it will stick to other strips of newspaper as you go along, so just hold it in place for a while. Be careful how much newspaper you clump in the middle; if you layer it too many times, you will have a very shallow and unimpressive crater. For this reason, I only recommend one layer of newspaper for this terrain piece.

Once you're finished with this part, you'll notice the crater looks a little flat.

In order to add some realistic texture, add about four or five more strips of newspaper around the edge, but this time pinch them along the side in order to create some wrinkles as you secure the strip.

Now you're cooking. When setting your craters out to dry, do not leave them on your counter or newspaper covering. Because you paper mached the bottom, if the crater dries on newspaper or countertop, it will stick or leave a crusty film behind. Use a cookie sheet.

Step 3: Painting
Once dried, you are ready to paint. Like painting models, you should paint your craters with three colors. Use one medium color to paint the entire piece, one darker shade of that color to paint in the shadows and crevices, and a lighter hue of that same medium color to dry brush the whole piece to bring out the highlights in it. You can use whatever colors you think are appropriate for your table/theme, but for mine I just used shades of brown. Once done, your crater should look something like this:

If you want to add a little extra texture to your piece, you can always add GW gravel around the edge of the piece, or perhaps in the center. Another interesting accent would be to use leftover bits to show Space Marine/Tyranid/Eldar/etc. remains in the center of the crater, as if they were hit by a bombshell. If you have water effects, you can also fill the crater with water. A large enough crater like this filled with water effects could also serve as a lake.

Homemade Warhammer 40k Terrain: Pt. 2

Sorry it took so long. I was busy finishing school and keeping my job. But thanks to my readers Kala and Liam, I was reminded that some people might actually find this information particularly useful for the holiday season. If you haven't thought of a gift for your Warhammer-loving family and friends, have no fear, here are a couple of terrain ideas you can create for them in an afternoon!

Houses and Buildings

Houses and simple buildings are really easy, since they're pretty much just painted boxes. This is a good place to start with your terrain project. You will need:

• A small box (dimensions somewhere around 2"x3"x4". In my example I use a 3"x3.25"x4" box.)
• Scotch tape
• Elmer's glue
• Acrylic paint
• Scissors
• Newspaper
• Flour
• Pan or bowl
• GW grass, gravel, or other terrain materials (optional)

Step 1: The Frame
To begin, select your box. This will be the frame of your building. For this we will be starting with a simple rectangular prism building with a simple, even roof. Open up the flaps on either the top or bottom of the box (if available) and measure out equal lengths for the flaps. Shorter sides will make a more shallow roof, longer sides will make a steeper roof. It's up to you how you want the design to come out.

For my measurements, the sides of my roof were 2.5".

Tape the two sides together at the desired angle. If you have inside flaps, pull them out and trim them as appropriate and tape them to secure the sides of you roof. This doesn't need to be too neat and tidy. Remember, this is just the frame of your building.

Step 2: Paper Mache
If you don't remember paper mache crafts from kindergarten, the formula is really quite simple: 2 parts water, one part flour. A pinch of salt (optional) will help prevent mold.

I was at first using this large metal mixing bowl, but I found later on my 8" round pan was a little more comfortable to use.

Stir these together in a large bowl or pan until the mixture is smooth and milky.

Before you begin actually applying the paper mache, create a stockpile of strips of newspaper (about 1" wide, 3-6" long). Once your hands are covered in this mixture, you're not going to want to keep going to wash them off just to tear up more newspaper. How many strips of newspaper you'll need depends on how thick you want your building to be, and how long you're willing to wait to let your building dry before painting.

So now, the fun part: getting you hands dirty. Let a strip of newspaper soak in the mixture, then pull it out, gently run it through your fingers to get off excess mixture, and apply the strip to your building frame.

Continue doing this until the building is completely covered. Personally, I just use one layer paper mache, but depending on the strength of your box and how sturdy you want your building to be, you may want more layers. When done, your building should look something like this:

Now you need to let the building dry. This takes a couple hours. While you're waiting, you can set up more buildings or terrain pieces for later completion. I find it useful to do these buildings in waves, maybe five at a time, so that once I've applied paper mache to one set, the next set is dry and ready to be decorated.

Step 3: Decorating
This part demands the most creativity on your part. Depending on your table design, army, or theme, you may want to look at real buildings to get an idea of what kind of decorations and colors you want on your building. For this, I stuck with very simple, almost medieval designs, and painted them very quickly.

I played with a few different ideas (wood paneling, concrete brick, wooden frame accents, stone trim, shingled roof), but you can always do much, much more with your building. You may wish to create functioning, hinged doors. You may want to use clear plasticard to create real see-through windows and paint inside and install tiny furniture. Perhaps you have a small wooden block to use as a chimney. Maybe you want to cut your building in half and paint it as a ruins piece. It's really up to you, and the possibilities are endless.

One idea I used in these models, that I would like to continue to use in the future, was wooden coffee stirrers as framing accents (see the two buildings on the left). When I ran out of coffee stirrers, I also found that thin strips of cereal box cardboard worked well too. All you need to do is paint them, measure and cut them to fit the length of the building, and glue them into place.

Another excellent effect I used in these models was the shingled roof. For this effect, simply cut 1" strips of construction paper the length of your roof and make cuts 0.5" deep about every half inch along the length of each strip. Then, starting at the base of your roof, glue each strip down with the cut side facing the ground, each one overlapping the next. Glue down one solid strip over the top like the binding of a book to add a clean finish.

I have a few other ideas I'd like to try out, so as I continue making buildings like these, I'll share different techniques.

Step 4: A Base
This step is not entirely necessary, but it can add a little extra flair to your terrain. First, cut out a piece of cardboard for the base. Thin cereal box cardboard will do. Mark where you will be placing the building so you don't waste any material on that section. You can paint the base a different color than Cardboard Brown, but for my first attempt at this I stuck with the cardboard's natural color. Using a paintbrush or sponge, spread Elmer's glue around on the area you wish to apply your gravel/grass/snow. Sprinkle the terrain material on the glued area liberally, and wait for it to dry some. Once it has dried, which should only take a minute or so, dump your excess gravel/grass/snow back into its container. It's just like applying glitter. Once this is done, you must glue your building onto the base, then you're done.

Depending on how thorough you are, you may want to trim the edge of the base off if you were unable to get the terrain material to stick. In this model I did just that, and then glued some rubble in place to accent the stone trim on the building. Such accents can add some spice to the game as well; in this case, anyone trying to obtain cover from certain sides of this building will probably have to pass a difficult terrain check in order to leave the cover.

So, see what you can do with your buildings and start trying this out. Hopefully Kala and Liam will post some pictures of the terrain they make for their dad for Christmas.

In my next post, I'll show you how to make simple craters.