Top tips for making foam terrain boards

[goat major]

I’ve got a pack of 2x2 foam boards that I’m going to make into terrain boards later this year , a sort of scrubby look to match my basing scheme . What are your top tips for successful foam boards ? These won’t need to be transported so high resilience isn’t the main priority.

Top tips such as “don’t use foam boards” will be classified as too exciting to process and dumped in the folder reserved for HMRC letters and links to TMP articles.

[Jeremy]

Don’t use... oh wait. Never mind

[grizzlymc]

Make sacrifices to the goddess of luck and impracticable ideas. Otherwise, be very geometrical.

[World2dave]

Well done for finally getting going on these.

For the flat bits, I just use sand and paint. My method is:
Apply a thick layer of paint (masonry stuff is good), cover with sand.
When dry, apply patches of second layer of sand to create a varied texture, but still effectively flat.
Remove excess.
Paint in the usual layered pallet.

Make higher levels from spare bits of foam boards? Add more texture where you want/need it. Go with place-down rocks/taller features? Use creme brule burner to gouge gullies, roads, etc?

[RMD]

Top tip: Keep any offcuts to use as 'spacers' underneath the boards and to make slopes to ramp up from lower boards to higher boards (if you want to have large areas of the table as higher ground). I've seen people buy double-thickness boards for high ground and that's a total waste when all you need to do is add spacers underneath your existing boards.

[levied troop]

As W2D says, but if using the crime brûlée burner then ensure you have a face mask and a bucket of water on standby. And adequate life insurance.

A bread knife is good for ground cutting, best of all is a small grapefruit knife (serrated edges and a nifty 33 degree angle to the blade).

[valleyboy]

nMy tits are here
https://valleyboyinnz.wordpress.com/201 ... king-sand/
https://valleyboyinnz.wordpress.com/201 ... king-sand/
https://valleyboyinnz.wordpress.com/201 ... -the-hill/

Just make everything the same and when you paint it do it all in one go or make sure you have enough paint mix to keep for later and oh keep spare paint and the flock mix because no matter what you say about finishing, you never have and will always makes something else later

[Peeler]

I haven't done a nice board for ages. Where did you get your 2x2 boards from & hoe accurately cut are they?

[Vintage Wargaming]

nMy tits are here

Always nice to see people’s tits here

[World2dave]

You'd have to be sober to hoe accurately. Otherwise I'm sure Gaynor would have a thing or two to say.