Making modular terrain boards

Introduction:
Hi there!
Terrain is in my opinion the most important feature in a tabletop wargame. Even the most brilliantly painted army will look out of place when playing on a plain green table sheet (or worse).

It is very rewarding when you can play your games on a beautiful gaming table with all kinds of terrain features.
But there are downsides to having such a table. A standard gaming table will be about 120 cm by 180 cm. In many houses there is simply no room to store a big piece of terrain like that.

There is a solution for this: modular terrain boards! These consist of multiple smaller pieces of terrain which will connect which each other on all sides, much like a giant terrain jigsaw. And the best part: it is much easier to store when not in use!

The idea is not new. There are MTB’s available on the market like that of GW, but those are expensive, about 200 euros for six boards.

In this tutorial I try to explain how I made my own modular terrain, with as many cheap, simple and easily available materials as possible. We’ll go for a 120cm by 180 cm gaming table, consisting of six square boards. But to keep matters simple, I just show how it's done with only one board!

Step 1 – make a plan
When you make your MTB’s, make sure you know what you’re going to do. Make sure they will connect on all sides. So, make a plan!
For my boards, I choose the simple approach (which is roughly the same concept as the GW board) -- six square boards. Two flat pieces and 4 pieces each having a quarter of a hill. Like this.



The great advantage of this design is that you can make your terrain one big hill, two half hills with a valley in the middle, or four small hills in the corners and combinations. See below for some examples. Remember, this are combinations you can already make with just six boards. Imagine what you could do with even more!



Note that while the hills vary in shape, they can all still connect. That is because I made sure that on the edges the shape and size of the hills is identical.

Also note that the same thing can go for rivers, lakes, gorges etc. But for now we stick with the simple hill design.

Step 2 – shopping list
You will need:

- 6 mdf boards of 60 cm by 60 cm.
For the thickness I recommend 0,5 cm, but you could take a heavier board if you want. Many DIY shops will saw mdf to size for you, sometimes even for free!

- Polystyrene foam board, 2cm thickness.
These are sold in my country in 50cm by 100cm boards. You’ll need about 6 of them. Perhaps you can do with 5, but 6 is better, more room for errors etc.

- 6 square battens, 240 cm in length, 2 cm thick. (actually you’ll need some more, so make that 7!)
I use these to reinforce the edge, so the boards will be very, very durable. I suppose you can do without them and just glue the foam boards on top, but these will damage quickly. Warned be ye!
- About 100 small screws (less than 20 mm long)
- Plenty of wood glue
- Textured latex wall paint
- small stones / rocks (availible in aquarium-selling shops)
- Static grass
- Wallpaper glue
- Filler (as in wall filler)

Step 3 – basic carpeting
In this step I make the base of the board and reinforce the edges.
To do so I drill 12 holes in each board like this:



I use a countersink to make sure the screw’s heads will not stick out of the wood and scratch the underlying surfaces. (Very terrible picture, sorry!)



I sawed the battens to size. For each board you need two pieces of 60 cm in length, and two of 56 cm.
Glue them to the board with wood glue, and use the screws for extra strength.



In top of the first frame, I also glued ‘n’ screwed some shorter battens to the edge of the hill.



Congratulations! Now you have a very sturdy base for your board!



Step 4 – place the foam boards and making the hill.

In this stage I basically filled up the space between the edges of the board with foam board. I cut the pieces to size with a steel ruler and a sharp craft knife. The foam can be glued on the board with wood glue. You don't need to cover the board entirely with glue, just around the edges and some lines in the middle.

I roughly sketched the shape of the hill on the foam board and I cut it out with a hot wire cutter.



One of the best investments I’ve ever made!
That is because you can very easily shape foam with it to get every form you want!



I glued the hill in place in its corner and trimmed the edges to match with the edges of the battens.



Step 5: filler and texturing.
Now you have a rough shape of the board. It’s time to close gaps and smooth the area between the edges of the board and the foam.

Here you can use (wall) filler. It is cheap, lightweight and will be rock-hard when dry. You could also use self-curing clays or other modeling masses for this.

I also used a kitchen torch to texture the foam board a little bit, to simulate the roughness of a ‘real’ landscape.

CAUTION: make sure you do this outside or in a open well ventilated area like a garage! The fumes are toxic and there is always the danger of setting your boards on fire!

As a finishing tough I also smeared some patches of filler on the board, waited a bit for it to dry a little and then drew a tile/flagstone like texture on it with a toothpick.




Step 6: Apply the textured paint and rocks

For this I used textured latex wall paint. When it sets it will be pretty hard, but because it is latex will still stretch a little, making your board very resilient. After all, soon whole armies will march over it!

The rocks, I use little stones found in pet shops (for aquaria) and glued them with wood glue on the board. Logical places for rocks are at the bottom of a hill or cliff, in groups at the bottom of a lower point in the landscape, and near other (bigger) rocks.



For some extra dramatic effect I also made some ruined walls from insulation foam. (roofmate)

Step 7: Painting.
I base coated the whole thing with black spray paint. Note that the propellant in spray paints will dissolve any exposed Styrofoam. So when you do not apply the latex neatly, you will get holes, just as I did. Luckily, it is easily fixed with some more filler.

Hereafter I started painting the board in layers, from brown to more or less sand-like colors. Technique involves mostly dry brushing. The rocks where dry brushed with gray and white.



You can see that it is not as realistic is it could be, but all that will be all right in the last stage!

Step 8: apply the static grass
All you need to do is to apply wallpaper glue on al places where you want the grass to be.
In my case, everywhere except on the rocks.
Then you sprinkle the static grass onto the glued areas. Try to vary in density. I used an herbs sprinkler. It was just like sprinkling salt over your egg!

I know there exist static-electricity based sprinkling devices which will actually make the grass stand up, but these are very expensive and the board is gonna be uses to play on, so I suppose the grass would wear off only faster.



Overlaying the differently shaded color of the board, the overall effect is quite nice!

Step 9: Finishing touches.
Now the board is almost done. It’s time to go nuts with pieces of large grass, hedges, bushes, skulls, bones, old shields, wildlife etc. Don’t go too nuts tough, as the board purpose is for your army to maneuver on!



Step 10: sit back and enjoy your hard work



Conclusions / afterthoughts:
And that's it, my first tutorial on CMON.
This board was fun and rewarding to make. I think the overall result is quite nice and I can tell from my own experience that the table has become very sturdy.

The design, sizes, materials and methods used here are just one way to go. You can of course pick any designs, size, methods or materials you’d like.

I hope this example of how to make a modular terrain board can inspire other people to start making their own.
I made a rocky-highlands-style table, but how about deserts, lava rivers around a volcano, ice planets?

Any feedback, tips and comments are much appreciated!