Where should we start?

[Ergonomic Cat]

So, my local game shop manager and I want to update the stock of terrain at the store.  We're pretty well covered for houses and ruins, and we have plenty of oddly shaped green things that are forests.

We play a number of different "dudes on a board" games - Malifaux, Warmahordes, 40k, very rarely Batman or Infinity.  And while I looked over the resources link, I'm just not sure where to start.

We have basically no supplies, but we do have a fund made up of tournament and league funds that's up to (I think) a couple hundred dollars.

So the question is, really, what's our best starting point?  Do we just go out and get a mess of raw materials and start carving things up?  He's an excellent painter, so we can do that, but I'm just not sure what is the best use of our time and money to build a flexible new stock of terrain....

[Kaos]

There are several stuff you should not spend money on. 

Like wooden coffee stirrer, small gears, scrap metal mesh, sawdust, building sand, ecc.

See if you can get this stuff for free first. Isn't going to be the bulk of your scenarios, but surely will work nicely for details. 

Then you need to decide if you want to make tables or just scenarios. To make tables you need a solid wooden base (you will probably need to spend money on this) and styrofoam. You can use styrofoam from boxes but it's usually not good quality and tend to crumble.

Then you probably need to buy some glue (a big bucket of vinyl glue if you can) and paint (of course standard grade acrylic paint coming in jars not the small pots for painting minis) and you are more or less sorted. 

The results will wildly vary and depend from the time you are willing to spend.

If you want to do something like realistic rock formations, I also suggest a bag of plaster of paris and a iron brush.

 

 

[Clockwork_Fish]

This is the perfect time of year to stop by Michaels.  They always have plenty of diorama stuff at Christmas (and Halloween) that works well.  Rubber mats with cobblestone patterns on them, pine trees (you can wash the 'snow' off them in hot water), lamp posts, and other bits of scatter terrain.  They also have balsa wood, styrofoam and other bits and bobs.

[solkan]

For timing, Michaels puts their Christmas and Halloween stuff on sale -before- the holiday.  It's stuff by Lemax, and I know locally Menards carries a random bit of it too.  

The better time for pine trees may be -after- the holiday, if you hit decoration sections at places like Wal-Mart.  

[KrazyIvan]

Well, what kinds of environments do you want to make? I'd start there then decide on materials. Here are some ideas for "genre neutral" environs:

1. Mountain trails (arctic or otherwise)
2. Mines/caves
3. Swampland
4. Lavafields
5. Deserted island (water/beach + jungle)
6. Barrens (think Barrens form WoW)
7. Ancient woods (really big trees mixed in with what you have already)
8. Cities (I happen to have a lot of experience with this one)

So decide what you want to do, post it, then I can start making specific suggestions.

[paradoxstorm]

Do you have hills?  Some scraps of  styrofoam or the foam used for building insulation can be used to produce everything from simple hills to providing the foundation for complex landscapes.  The terrain tutor on youtube has a "Back to basics" series that shows hill making from simple to moderate.  Other videos  

The various foams don't like the propellant in spray paints--makes them melt--so you'll either need some brush on house paint or you'll want to give the pieces a couple of coats of watered down PVA/home made paper mache before spray painting.  

If you want a lot of hills with minimum work seal your foam with glue and use one of the stone texture spray paints.  The house insulation foam is the easiest to work with and comes in 4'x8' sheets at home builder stores, but large enough bits of packing Styrofoam can be used--cut them to a basic shape then use a candle to create some more rock-like contours.    

If you are willing to put in more time then there are many options for doing more--tree bark and plaster molds for making rock faces, flock for grass, sand for more texture.   

[Clockwork_Fish]

A couple things I just picked up from Michaels that I'll mention.  First cork.  It comes in rolls, with sheets of about 12 x 12 inches.  Use it as is to make dry, cracked earth, or break it up for rocks and rubble.  Dirt cheap, even at Michaels, but you can get it at the Dollar Store too.

Next, if you look in the wood crafts section, where they have all the wooden letters and shapes, you can find thin circles and squares of wood that make great, cheap bases for terrain pieces.  They were about a dollar Canadian each.  I use them as bases for forests.  I glued irregular pieces of cork to the circles then painted them with a bit of sand mixed in for texture.  Then I drove wire pine trees (the Christmas diorama ones) into the cork with a bit of glue to hold them in.

Finally, as an alternative to coffee stir sticks, there's soap stir sticks.  Little bit more expensive, but they have squared off ends.  I mention these only for those who are lazy and don't want to spend time cutting the ends off popsicle sticks.