Battle Boards Tutorial (Terrain)

With the recent release of SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1, I've been inspired to attempt to make some new terrain tiles.  CS1 is set in an urban wasteland, drowning in toxic rain and pollution bubbling up from the ground, littered in rubble and ruin.  Think of that back alley that you avoid when walking home from the pub and then imagine how bad it could get over the course of the next 500-years.


Anyway, I posted a picture of my first experimental title onto one of the Facebook Groups I frequent and someone asked for a tutorial.  Easily done: here's my step-by-step tutorial for Tile #2:

Step One: get yourself a suitably rigid base tile

Forget cardboard.  The good-old cork tiles aren't going to cut it - as the layer of filth dries out, the cork will warp.  Trust me, I know these things.

This time around I had a piece of 5mm thick MDF (I think) which I cut into a 12" square.

I cut this one using a circular saw.  A table saw would be better, but getting
a 12" width might be tough.

Step Two: acquire a whole lot of crap basing material

I found this packing cardboard has a nice texture and it's easily ripped into small bits for sticking down.  I've also got some kitty litter, sprues, lolly straws, even some flattened beer bottle caps.  Really anything will do.  Smash it.  Rip it.  Break it.

One of my many boxes is just full of bits of stuff that I had been saving
for a project just like this.

Step Three: frame and glue

Well if you haven't got a frame, make one: I simply cut and screwed together four bits of lumber surrounding a 12" inside square - it took all of 10-minutes to do.  Make sure you keep it bottomless, that way you can remove the tile with ease.

Plonk the tile into the frame and spread a layer of glue onto the tile - the thicker you make it the longer it will take to dry... there's no magic here - just use as much as you think you'll need, as you can always add another layer later if you like.

I used some kids paste I had purchased years back on the cheap
 - I knew it would eventually be used!

The frame is useful as it means you can build stuff up inside if you like without
worrying about overhanging the title.

Step Four: applying the stuff

If you have a particular plan in mind, I suppose there'd be some grand design you could be working off, however, I am going for a generic wasteland, so it's all pretty random.  Rip a bit of cardboard up, stick it down, scatter some kitty litter, repeat.

Really, you'd be hard-pressed to get it wrong as it's a dump you're trying to simulate!  

There's probably an art to this, but I just kept on sticking stuff down until
I couldn't see any more glue.

See those beer bottle caps?  Smash them with a hammer and get them flat - you
won't even recognise them once they're painted.

Step Five: Let it dry

This is easy - take your tile out of the frame and put it somewhere to dry.  Depending on the amount of glue you've used, the local humidity and temperature, it could take a good while e.g., days.

Here is the tile pre-drying - I placed it under a couch (so people don't step on it)
next to a heating outlet in our floor.  My first tile I used way too much glue and it
took ages to dry, this time around it was good within 24-hours.

Step Six: Seal it in PVA

Grab yourself a small jar - something that you can shake with a lid. Make a 50/50 PVA/Water mix and paint it over the tile.  Let it dry.  Repeat.  Keep on doing it until you're sick of it - chances are you'll regret stopping and should really do another coat or 15.

A tip: put some bright acrylic paint in the glue -
that way you can easily see where it has been applied.

Looks all a bit too natural for my liking, but that will change!

Step Seven: Prime and seal

There are plenty of cheap priming spray paints that are available.  As you're doing the first coat, you can use almost any colour and get away with it.  I like to use a Matt Black, but often even the cheap Matts are Glossy.  Not to worry, it's going to be 99% covered in any event with more paint.  Let it dry again.

I trialled an even cheaper Matt Black than normal - definitely a tad more glossy
than I'm used to but it seemed to dry adequately.

Step Eight: Paint it up

There are lots of different ways of approaching this.  My first attempt on Tile #1 was pretty much standard painting i.e. lots of colours, washes, dry brushing, even highlights.  It looked authentic but... blah.  Just blah.

Then by accident - or call it divine inspiration - I decided to give a 'dry sponge' a try: I grabbed a normal cleaning sponge, applied a light layer of white craft paint to it, wiped a good deal of it off then just pressed it down lightly on the tile. The more raised bits tend to catch more paint whilst the lower bits stay darker.  Seems to work and was a hell of a lot quicker than a typical drybrush affair.

One sponge from that time I washed the car, now put to some good use.
The craft paint was from Lincraft - about as cheap as it gets.

You can see, the sponge is hardly dripping in paint - it's all very light.

Now that looks pretty damn cool if I say so myself!

So the above is only black and white paint.  Subsequent to that shot, I showed the result to a mate who suggested I pick out some details etc, just to catch the eye some.  My phone camera doesn't seem to do it justice, but I'll try some more shots in better lighting sometime and see how it goes.

Step Nine: Lockdown your good work

You'll want to ensure that the paint etc doesn't get knocked and scratched off, so you'll need to apply some sort of varnish to lock it all down.  I've got a few cheap rattle-can sprays that I use - again I'd recommend going for Matts rather than Glosses, however, the Cannibal Sector 1 is meant to be under a cloud of persistent toxic rain, so a gloss could definitely work.  The more the merrier!

Once your board is dry, you're good to go!

So what's next?

"The Plan" is to make 9 of these boards so I can cover a 3x3' board.  I've got an idea for some other board options - I may have to have a chat to The Knights of Dice to see if they can assist.

I'm in the process of making the boards even more disgusting using some cheap alternatives to the usual modeller's water effect compounds.  I'll be sure to share the secret (not really that secret) in due course.  Also, I'm well progressed in making scatter terrain for my boards; already I've prepared maybe a dozen pieces which are looking ace.

 If you're interested in following the journey, feel free to subscribe/follow the blog and drop me a note - the more the merrier I say.

Now if I could only get my hands on some of those SLA miniatures...