The Commander Series Forum

What is the preferred method for basing your hills, trees, etc.? I have used plywood and MDF in the past but the wood warped and the MDF could be fiddly (fraying when cut). Any other materials used for basing terrain?

I've used large plastic game counters for trees, also magnetic 1p and 2p UK coins. Other scenery I avoid basing.

If cutting you own MDF using hand tools I've found cellotape stuck over the cutting line stops the edges fraying as bad. Larger workshop power tools don't tend to fray the edges as they are so much better of course, if you have access to them?

Steve P

Plasticard.

Plasticard, too...

Plasticard for me as well.

When they were still in every post office for free I used a lot of AOL trial cd-roms.

I though about CD's too, just I dont want terrain feature to be round. What about foamcore? Will that warp? I have heard about gatorboard which is supposed to be the cats meow, but it is expensive. I am looking to go a little cheaper.

plasticard.... depending on size you can go super cheap. I helped myself to a handful of samples for house siding from Lowes. They are about 2x4 inches in various colors, i have not tried to cut any yet - but are a good size to place a few 6mm houses on with detailing (walls, trees, etc...)

2mm platicard.

with an S

One other option is hard mousemats. Shedman had a stock ages ago and we've both used them. For mine I sanded the top to key the surface so PVA would stick for flocking and painting whilst Shedman's used the plastikote flecked spray paint to good effect.

Hard to make them circular but easy to score and make smaller rectangles.

Steve P

I've been using the black foamboard (Gatorboard, I guess it's called), and that works pretty well. I get a tiny bit of warpage, but not much. I try to limit the size of the piece of terrain, so that may be a contributing factor. The bigger the piece, the more warpage you'll get.

However, a couple of years ago, I glued 6mm white foamboard to a 2mm sheet of plastic to make a foundation for a large-ish terrain piece, and to this day there is zero warpage on that thing. It's as flat as a ruler. I think I may use that method in the future.

What is the recommended thickness for Plasticard (Sheet Styrene on this side of the pond)? I picked up some .040 and it seemed thick enough while still being easy to cut, but after gluing trees and then coating the whole thing with Vallejo pumice it seems to be warping a little bit. It is not dry yet, so I don't have the final analysis, just curious what thickness others are using for terrain basing?

Not sure about this; but if it is warping, just paint the other side. Might help.
Paul

Very thin plasticard can warp badly. Depends upon your glue and paint content. For plasticard I'd use 0.6mm to 1mm at least although recently I've started using 2mm mdf for anything 15mm scale or larger.

my 2mm plasticard stuff lasted years so far and no warping...

For moveable terrain I use MDF.

For the 6 mm I have used the 50mm blue insulation foam so it does not need a backing. I stick the trees to the base and use little transparent stands for the units to sit on when they are in BUAs or wooded areas

WOW!
Your terrain must be really fantastic looking...
Mine consists of pieces of green felt cut in various shapes and sizes which I place down to represent wooded areas, then on top of that I have about 100 10mm trees I've based on little cardboard squares which I've painted green so I then place them on the felt and there's your wood
About a fiver for all the modular woods I'll ever, ever need!
Also there's a few feet of printed cardboard walls I've cut to about 10mm wide and bent down the length (making them 5mm high) which are then placed on green cardboard strips to represent walls. These look really good, actually (the walls are commercially available sections of walling which comes in A4 sheets so it's a great investment for roofs, walls, stone bridges etc...)
These vary in length from 2.5 to 10cm long so I can make walls around buildings, running alongside roads etc....
Roads are based on cardboard, too. You'll be surprised once stretched out how much cardboard is actually inside boxes of corn flakes!
Buildings aren't based but placed over rectangular gray cardboard sections. All the terrain is modular and it's all really cheap to make and totally modular.
Also, you can use the cardboard to test your designs before doing them up with plasticard, which in Australia at least given the postage is quite expensive.
S.

punkskum, you can see some of my terrain at http://www.flickr.com/photos/45064081#64;N04/

sorry did that wrong again
url is http://www.flickr.com/photos/45064081@N04/

This is a very impressive ..... Pretty nice ground for WG ....

Thanks - it is probably to 10 time I have tried to build this sort of terrain and first I have been happy with

Plasticard