3D Terrain [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

3D Terrain [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Aleco
06-22-06, 06:48 PM I'm making terrain and I would love recomendations. I make the terrain out of Map Folio 3D and the terrain on the site (I use cardstock). I would like to know how to make trees and mountains.
Gnome_Dragon_Disciple
06-22-06, 10:21 PM You can generally find premade trees in hobby shops, but your best bet for doing outdoors terrain is to stop by a model train store. Many of them have pretty much everything you could possibly need to make all sorts of terrain, and if you can find a train scale that corresponds closely to the 25-30mm scale used by D&D you can likely get the help of the staff to get things to look "right".

I also reccomend looking into Hirstarts.com. You'll likely find yourself far more satisfied with the result than with the 3D Map Folio. It'll be more time consuming, true, but in the long term it's surprisingly cheap (plaster isn't exactly pricey if you get it in bulk). You can even offset your costs somewhat by selling some finished pieces to other gamers (just so long as you say exactly where you got the molds for your pieces).

Or if you have a crapload of cash to put into making terrain, you could just get a digital projector and Neverwinter Nights (or Neverwinter Nights II, which comes out September) and set the projector to display on a white tabletop.
Aleco
06-22-06, 10:31 PM What else do you recomend, do you know how to make a Gaming Table?
Bulletproof_Condom
06-22-06, 11:19 PM You could do something like this: [link] (http://www.freewebs.com/theonesean/boards/treepattern.JPG) [link] (http://www.freewebs.com/theonesean/boards/tree.jpg)

That pattern isn't difficult; you can apply it to any more or less symmetrical tree image. You can also make it a + shape rather than a * shape by printing two of them and cutting each one halfway through; one from the top and one from the bottom.

Most gaming stores will have terrain. But there are people that just sculpt miniatures that've never heard of D&D, so you might consider looking in those sorts of places (http://www.miniatures.com/hbs/global/index2.asp).

Gaming tables are easy; it's just a table with a one-inch grid on it. If you know how to make a table, you know how to make a gaming table. But there are instructions for the ultimate gaming table (http://www.twilightavengers.org/wld/table.html).
Gnome_Dragon_Disciple
06-22-06, 11:29 PM I've never made a gaming table myself. Normally I reccomend making your terrain as modular as possible, and that you make your game table itself out of 2" pink foam (you can find it in most hardware stores for about 14-18 USD for a 4'x8' sheet). Pink foam is also a great material to make all forms of terrain out of, such as rock formations for your game table. This tabletop you would then put on top of a folding table (again, you can find folding tables at most hardware stores, but office supply stores are also a good bet) which you can get for about $20-25. Spending more than that can probably get you a snazzier table, but it's not really needed.

The table top you'll want to keep as generic as possible. You'll start out by applying play sand to the entire top surface of the pink foam with wood glue. Next, paint the whole table a dark brown, and then drybrush progressively lighter shades of brown until it looks like dirt. Normally you can do fairly well with just two shades of brown and a large pallete to mix paints on. Next paint large-ish patches of the surface green (again starting dark and drybrushing progressively lighter shades of green). On these green patches you'll add a somewhat large ammount of static grass (if you're making a table, I trust you're familiar enoughwith miniatures and whatnot to know what static grass is and where to find it), but you're really the only one to determine how much is enough.

To make deciduous trees, you'll need wire, clump foliage (also found at train hobby stores and the better tabletop game hobby stores), plaster, medical guaze (the type one mixes with plaster to make casts), spray adhesive and wood glue, and if you're making them REALLY big, paper towel tubes help for the main trunk (for smaller yet still impressive trees, use a wooden dowel or even a .5"x.5" strip of pink foam instead). Like most terrain pieces, you'll mount this on a sheet of either foam core board, sheet styrene (called plasticard by most game modelling hobbyists), or .5" pink foam cut at an angle and then sanded to seem like a smooth and low hill. Put your central trunk where you want it to line up on its base, and twist some of the wire around the trunk and into the foam base in the general shape of roots. Do the same further up the trunk for your branches, bearing in mind that you're going to need to paint this thing eventually. Make sure your wire is strong enough to support the weight you're going to add to the whole thing, because the wire is going to have to support the shape and weight of the branches while the plaster dries. Once you have the structure of the tree set, add the plaster-soaked gauze in layers like paper mache'. The only rule of thumb I can give you is that trees generally get thinner the further you get from the base of the tree. Once your plaster is dry, paint the tree (brown tones work best) then glue on your clump foliage as appropriate. Once it's all glued on, spray the whole thing down with spray adhesive (not too much! you don't want an ugly film on your tree). Do the base just like you'd do the base for any miniature.

For dead trees, a little plaster like above and a piece of driftwood (or an aquarium feature) can go a loooong way.

When designing your table, though, remember that players are going to need space to roll the dice, even if they use clipboards for their character sheets. You're also going to want to be able to move your terrain arround to represent as many possible scenarios as you might potentially think of. Moreover, you're going to need to make sure your players can move their miniatures around in the terrain (a lot of wargamers make "forests" by making large sheets of terrain more or less exactly like the game table, and then put premade trees on large, round bases roughly 40-50mm wide which they can move as needed to accomodate the miniatures).

Finally, if you have any friends that are die-hard Warhammer fans, see if you can borrow any of their White Dwarf magazines. Normally there's at least one terrain making article in them. A look through the Black Gobbo archives on the Games Workshop homepage can't hurt either, and you might as well look around the British homepage for the company to see what other modelling tips you can find. Most game hobby shops will also have a lot of people with their own game tables who can offer their own tips. Better still, many game shops have space where you can work on individual terrain pieces and miniatures in an environment where help is only a "Hey guys!" away.

EDIT: Also, D&D doesn't need to use the "grid" system per se. With next to no adjustment, you can do it sans grid using a tape measure.
Uncle Meat
06-22-06, 11:53 PM I second the recommendation of going to a model train shop. Those guys are literally decades ahead of us when it comes to scenery. You can also find free tutorials at the Model Railroader and Woodland Scenics websites.
Aleco
06-23-06, 11:55 AM When I paint the table do you recomend the regular paint (ones that come in a bucket) or the spray paints?
Gnome_Dragon_Disciple
06-23-06, 08:02 PM For the table, regular paint such as what you'd paint a room with will do. For highly detailed smaller terrain pieces, I'd go with dedicated miniatures paint (I'm fond of Vallejo, but Reaper and Games Workshop are fine, too). Spray paints you'll only use to prime terrain or miniatures to recieve the actual color of paint you'll be using (I prefer black primer, others prefer white... it's really a matter of personal preference), and NEVER use spray paint on pink foam. The accellerant in the paint will corrode the foam.
Aleco
06-23-06, 11:25 PM A friend told me I can make the trees using pipe cleaners can you give me instructions on this?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Aleco 06-22-06, 06:48 PM	I'm making terrain and I would love recomendations. I make the terrain out of Map Folio 3D and the terrain on the site (I use cardstock). I would like to know how to make trees and mountains.
Gnome_Dragon_Disciple 06-22-06, 10:21 PM	You can generally find premade trees in hobby shops, but your best bet for doing outdoors terrain is to stop by a model train store. Many of them have pretty much everything you could possibly need to make all sorts of terrain, and if you can find a train scale that corresponds closely to the 25-30mm scale used by D&D you can likely get the help of the staff to get things to look "right". I also reccomend looking into Hirstarts.com. You'll likely find yourself far more satisfied with the result than with the 3D Map Folio. It'll be more time consuming, true, but in the long term it's surprisingly cheap (plaster isn't exactly pricey if you get it in bulk). You can even offset your costs somewhat by selling some finished pieces to other gamers (just so long as you say exactly where you got the molds for your pieces). Or if you have a crapload of cash to put into making terrain, you could just get a digital projector and Neverwinter Nights (or Neverwinter Nights II, which comes out September) and set the projector to display on a white tabletop.
Aleco 06-22-06, 10:31 PM	What else do you recomend, do you know how to make a Gaming Table?
Bulletproof_Condom 06-22-06, 11:19 PM	You could do something like this: [link] (http://www.freewebs.com/theonesean/boards/treepattern.JPG) [link] (http://www.freewebs.com/theonesean/boards/tree.jpg) That pattern isn't difficult; you can apply it to any more or less symmetrical tree image. You can also make it a + shape rather than a * shape by printing two of them and cutting each one halfway through; one from the top and one from the bottom. Most gaming stores will have terrain. But there are people that just sculpt miniatures that've never heard of D&D, so you might consider looking in those sorts of places (http://www.miniatures.com/hbs/global/index2.asp). Gaming tables are easy; it's just a table with a one-inch grid on it. If you know how to make a table, you know how to make a gaming table. But there are instructions for the ultimate gaming table (http://www.twilightavengers.org/wld/table.html).
Gnome_Dragon_Disciple 06-22-06, 11:29 PM	I've never made a gaming table myself. Normally I reccomend making your terrain as modular as possible, and that you make your game table itself out of 2" pink foam (you can find it in most hardware stores for about 14-18 USD for a 4'x8' sheet). Pink foam is also a great material to make all forms of terrain out of, such as rock formations for your game table. This tabletop you would then put on top of a folding table (again, you can find folding tables at most hardware stores, but office supply stores are also a good bet) which you can get for about $20-25. Spending more than that can probably get you a snazzier table, but it's not really needed. The table top you'll want to keep as generic as possible. You'll start out by applying play sand to the entire top surface of the pink foam with wood glue. Next, paint the whole table a dark brown, and then drybrush progressively lighter shades of brown until it looks like dirt. Normally you can do fairly well with just two shades of brown and a large pallete to mix paints on. Next paint large-ish patches of the surface green (again starting dark and drybrushing progressively lighter shades of green). On these green patches you'll add a somewhat large ammount of static grass (if you're making a table, I trust you're familiar enoughwith miniatures and whatnot to know what static grass is and where to find it), but you're really the only one to determine how much is enough. To make deciduous trees, you'll need wire, clump foliage (also found at train hobby stores and the better tabletop game hobby stores), plaster, medical guaze (the type one mixes with plaster to make casts), spray adhesive and wood glue, and if you're making them REALLY big, paper towel tubes help for the main trunk (for smaller yet still impressive trees, use a wooden dowel or even a .5"x.5" strip of pink foam instead). Like most terrain pieces, you'll mount this on a sheet of either foam core board, sheet styrene (called plasticard by most game modelling hobbyists), or .5" pink foam cut at an angle and then sanded to seem like a smooth and low hill. Put your central trunk where you want it to line up on its base, and twist some of the wire around the trunk and into the foam base in the general shape of roots. Do the same further up the trunk for your branches, bearing in mind that you're going to need to paint this thing eventually. Make sure your wire is strong enough to support the weight you're going to add to the whole thing, because the wire is going to have to support the shape and weight of the branches while the plaster dries. Once you have the structure of the tree set, add the plaster-soaked gauze in layers like paper mache'. The only rule of thumb I can give you is that trees generally get thinner the further you get from the base of the tree. Once your plaster is dry, paint the tree (brown tones work best) then glue on your clump foliage as appropriate. Once it's all glued on, spray the whole thing down with spray adhesive (not too much! you don't want an ugly film on your tree). Do the base just like you'd do the base for any miniature. For dead trees, a little plaster like above and a piece of driftwood (or an aquarium feature) can go a loooong way. When designing your table, though, remember that players are going to need space to roll the dice, even if they use clipboards for their character sheets. You're also going to want to be able to move your terrain arround to represent as many possible scenarios as you might potentially think of. Moreover, you're going to need to make sure your players can move their miniatures around in the terrain (a lot of wargamers make "forests" by making large sheets of terrain more or less exactly like the game table, and then put premade trees on large, round bases roughly 40-50mm wide which they can move as needed to accomodate the miniatures). Finally, if you have any friends that are die-hard Warhammer fans, see if you can borrow any of their White Dwarf magazines. Normally there's at least one terrain making article in them. A look through the Black Gobbo archives on the Games Workshop homepage can't hurt either, and you might as well look around the British homepage for the company to see what other modelling tips you can find. Most game hobby shops will also have a lot of people with their own game tables who can offer their own tips. Better still, many game shops have space where you can work on individual terrain pieces and miniatures in an environment where help is only a "Hey guys!" away. EDIT: Also, D&D doesn't need to use the "grid" system per se. With next to no adjustment, you can do it sans grid using a tape measure.
Uncle Meat 06-22-06, 11:53 PM	I second the recommendation of going to a model train shop. Those guys are literally decades ahead of us when it comes to scenery. You can also find free tutorials at the Model Railroader and Woodland Scenics websites.
Aleco 06-23-06, 11:55 AM	When I paint the table do you recomend the regular paint (ones that come in a bucket) or the spray paints?
Gnome_Dragon_Disciple 06-23-06, 08:02 PM	For the table, regular paint such as what you'd paint a room with will do. For highly detailed smaller terrain pieces, I'd go with dedicated miniatures paint (I'm fond of Vallejo, but Reaper and Games Workshop are fine, too). Spray paints you'll only use to prime terrain or miniatures to recieve the actual color of paint you'll be using (I prefer black primer, others prefer white... it's really a matter of personal preference), and NEVER use spray paint on pink foam. The accellerant in the paint will corrode the foam.
Aleco 06-23-06, 11:25 PM	A friend told me I can make the trees using pipe cleaners can you give me instructions on this?