Re: [Epic][E40K] Terrain

From: David Lado <lado_at_...>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 13:43:56 -0400 (EDT)

>Sauron1 writes;David, the paint sand mix is what I use for whole sets of
>hills,or when I make sets of 24 24"x24" terrain boards for customers.It
>is relatively inexpensive and results in a hard durable terrain.I use
>guesso and marble paste as well as other artist materials for individual
>pieces. What do you use for woods effects? I have tried many different
>types of floral pics for that alien terrain effect,but have found that
>plain green trees are my greatest seller,Imade over 300 last year.I am
>currently cutting up two artificial christmas trees and mounting them on
>metal washers.The results are quite reasonable. sauron1

The artificial tree sounds like the way to go for mass producing terrain.
I actually hand make my trees out of sodder (sp?, that metal allow with
a low melting temp for fixing pipes and stuff). I sodder 3+ branches
on a tree, paint it black and drybrush it, and use scenic foilage for
the leaves. For pine trees I just wrap foilage around a single piece
of sodder wire. I prefer the sheet type, not the clumps (a little
pricy though). The stuff I buy comes in 4 different shades, and I
like to mix all 4 with trees of various sizes and types.

For dead trees, I take alot more care with making them, sticking
smaller sodder pieces onto the branches and warping the branches
so they loose their cylindrical appearance. The result is time-consuming
but quite nice (I garnish with a little "autumn foilage" here and there
for a dead tree look). I also carve various sized rock formations out
of styrofoam (I get high quality stuff from biological shipping containers,
since the cheap stuff crumbles). This garnishes the woods stands and
also means I need less trees :).

I wish I had heard (or thought) of using the sand/paint combo before I
started making my terrain. Using flocking looks nice enough, but it
uses lots of materials. I'm interested, though, in how much you sell
your terrain for. People have offered to buy stuff from me, but I
always balk in the end because I don't know what a reasonable price
is given all the time I put into it (adding up the materials is
relatively easy).

David
Received on Fri May 16 1997 - 17:43:56 UTC