DavicusPrime

KrazyIvan: Anyway, All tiles have been sealed and counter warped so that they lay flat. I have been having a horrible time reducing warping on my terrain pieces. What were your methods for "Counter Warping" your boards? The way I've had the most success has been gluing multiple layers of 3mm hardboard together. 2 Works, but I often end up using 3. -DavicusPrime

This is some very good stuff. I have been shy trying to do any urban terrain, but your work shows that it shouldn't be as hard as I was fearing it would be. Time consuming, yes. Too hard, no. Please continue showing off your creations! -DavicusPrime

I think Victorian is commonly used in Malifaux because that fits the asthetic of the victorian horror theme common in the game. The Fluff makes it totally reasonable to use everything that would be around pre-1900 which lets folks who play other games mix and match their terrain collections. You can claim the settled areas to have been rebuilt to fit the settling peoples' taste. The quarantine zones could and should be all kinds of weird. I suck at building urban terrain, which is why I have focused on building bayou terrain pieces. -DavicusPrime

So I've been trying to improve on my speed and technique for making some basic terrain I might be able to sell on ebay... Here's the latest batch. 2 Rock formations and a swamp shack and tree. Normally, I just use painted foam for my rocks but I've been trying to increase the sturdiness. This batch I coated the foam with an air dry clay. Only problem is that the clay shrank as it dried so I had lots of cracking. the white you see there is gap filler to get rid of them. The tree is polymer clay over a wire armature. When it's done, it'll have woodland scenics foliage clumps to top it off. the shack and platform are my usual craft sticks with wood grain drawn on via ballpoint pen over a foamcore frame. Here's a closer pic of the swam shack piece: hopefully I'll be able to get some paint on 'em by next week so I can show y'all how they look. -DavicusPrime

All it needs is a gremlin sitting on budda's head, fishing. -DavicusPrime

I've used the same material minus the holes and still have warping issues unless I glue 2-3 layers together. Storage is one of the problems... I have to keep my terrain out in my shed so my terrain has to handle temperature shifts and fluctuating humidity. And it seems the simple use of white glue on one layer of 1/8" hardboard will warp it in my experience. If it's just paint, one layer works fine.

They suggest super glue on their website. The usual plastic glues won't work on the vinyl as they actually melt and weld polystyrene based plastics together. -DavicusPrime

The newer projects are looking good. You may have mentioned this already but I'm feeling too lazy to read the old posts... What are you making your bases out of? I've had a horrible time with warping over the years so I'm always looking for other ideas. Your bases are really thin but look like they've been staying flat for you so I want to know what it is. :-D -DavicusPrime

I'm lucky enough to be between several towns and cities but I've found that I really don't need any "special" tools for the most part. Just requires a little more ingenuity and perhaps time. I've done most of my terrain using an xacto knife kit I got 20 some odd years ago that included a razor saw and two hobby knives and a 4 part kit of small pliers and wire cutters. A scroll saw and sander and a couple clamps is all I need to make the bases. Everything else is improvised from what's lying around the shed. Judging by what you've been able to make so far with what you've got, you're doing just fine. -DavicusPrime

Looking pretty darn good. I try to use a bit more scatter terrain... Barrels, perhaps some low stone walls, light poles, shrubbery! Gives your melee folks a little hope getting through to shooty types. Your two story house looks very nice and pretty much fills a quarter of the table. The other structures incorporate a nice mix of obstacles, walls and buildings. -DavicusPrime

I really like the way you made tabs to link your floors and the fact that they look like part time of the brickwork is a nice touch. I also like the start of your board. I've been using as my swamp board a bit of brown canvas stretched over some hardboard on a wooden frame. I painted some brown and green splotches to pretty it up. I want to try a folding board next, either for a malifaux city board or for X-wing. Right now we have been playing X-wing on the swamp board, or the "brown nebula" as we call it. -DavicusPrime

Dhampir... that is flipping awesome. is that mold flat or does it have some curvature? hard to tell from the pic. I think I'm going to have to make myself some forms to make a couple different stamps. Thanks for the ideas. -DavicusPrime

G.G.: Just out of curiosity... What are to going to use as the surface of your table? Okay. I've been slow to make any city style terrain/tables because I wanted to figure out a tolerable way to add various cobblestone textures to things that looks reasonably good, is durable, doesn't take forever and won't cost an arm and a leg. So far, Dhampir's homebrew cookie cutter texture stamps are looking like a potential breakthrough on the tooling side of things. I really want something more durable than foam, but if someone knows a good way to protect the foam without filling in the texture, you have my attention. -DavicusPrime

I'm glad you put the mini in the warehouse for scale... In my mind's eye I thought it was a heck of a lot smaller, with the shelves being more in scale with a book shelf. Wow, was i off. The fences do indeed look very good for the scale. I have been using these long and skinny type of craft sticks that don't require much trimming to fit unless you want them to look more irregular. For my terrain pieces I want the wood to look pretty rough so I just score them with a hobby knife and break them. But then most of my terrain is meant to have been slapped together by Gremlins in a swamp. It actually takes more time roughing up the wood than any other part of the job. -DavicusPrime

I've not tested it, but i was thinking 1/2" x 1/2" in my sketches for one of my next projects. The stairs from the terraclips sets seemed to be a little shorter than that, but with the gap under each stair being high enough for bases to slide under that was enough for you to still put a mini on them, assuming you didn't go too wild on basing the mini. I was going to copy the general design for a two story townhouse sort of thing. You've got to find a compromise between looks and playability. Trial and error plus blatantly stealing ideas is the way to go. -DavicusPrime