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.