Essential Terrain Making Supplies

Here is a thread dedicated to terrain making. This is a list of things that will be very useful in terrain making:
1. Heavy duty X-acto Knife & Blades (needed)
2. Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks (needed)
3. PVA Glue (white craft glue/needed)
4. Hot wire Cutter (buy or make one yourself)/ Use Outside!! (optional)
5. Small Xacto Knife & Blades (needed)
6. Black SprayPaint (use Acyrlic based paint)/ Use Outside!! (obviously )
7. Acrylic craft paints (needed)
8. Paint brushes (a variety of sizes/needed)
9. Broken Figs from the game you are making the terrain for (optional)
10. Blue or Pink Foam insulation (in 3/4",1",1 1/2", 2")
11. Wood Filler (for filling gaps)
12. 1/4" MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) for bases.
13. Paint Stripper Gun (aka Heat Gun/optional)
14. Needle Files (optional)
15. Variety of different colored flocks and/or static grass


Sand, Dirt, Small Rocks, Aquarium Stones, Sticks, Lichen will add much detail to any outdoor terrain piece. There are gels that you can pour to make water surfaces, but they tend to be expensive. Use your imagination. Colored plexiglass, even the blue Ziplock freezer bags can make a cool water surface.
Roof shingles can be made from Cereal boxes.
Keep your eyes out for usefull small pieces of gears and transistors from radios and computers. Start up a small box with potential terrain making parts. Small gears can be used in a clocktower or a Wizards lab.

red/all
I noticed that the pink foam comes in two compression ratings 20 and 30psi? which IYO is better/easier to use?

A sheet of 1" 30psi is a few bucks cheaper than the 20.

kid

I don't know much about foam (other than foamy's relation to beer), but I know that there's a couple key ingrediants that Red left off his list...especially if you read White Dwarf.

The first is "Plasticard!" Or, "sheet styrene" as it's known on this side of the pond. It can usually be found in any quality railroad/hobby shop and comes in a variety of thicknesses, colors and forms. In the USA, the most common brands seem to be "Evergreen" and "Plastruct." If you're using sheet styrene you might find a heavy-duty paper punch to be useful for making circles that can be used for rivets, coins, etc.

You can get the "normal" plain sheets, sheets imprinted with different surfaces (everything from cobblestones and clap-board siding to diamond-plate) and different shapes such as I-beams or pre-formed right angles.

Also missing is the classic pin vice. This is a small, hand-held, manual drill. Basically, you have a handle like that of a screwdriver but instead of the Phillips or Standard head you have a grip with a drill bit. I bought mine (GW brand) from a gaming shop, but I think that I've seen them at the other "big box" hobby/craft stores. Even if they don't have it, they should be able to order one. The pin vice is very usefull for making miniature conversions, but could see use anywhere you need to make a pin for a stronger joint or even just for making holes in particular areas (like through some skulls to make a "Welcome" sign!).

Good call on that pinky. I prefer the dremel to the pin vise most times, but it is not essential.(as a pin vise is essential for sure)
I have always kept an eye out for plasticard, but i have never seen it for sale in this area. Hopefully one day i will find some...lol

Plasticard has been one of "those" problems with folks not in Europe, and has caused a number of gamers/modelers some stress. I can't tell you the number of times I saw something in a magazine and wanted to try to build it, but couldn't obtain the supplies.

Luckily, I just happened to try a search string that landed me on the GW USA site wherein they explained that plasticard and sheet styrene were really the same thing! *sigh* It took me years to happen upon that little bit of information...it's not really quite as bad as all that, there was a decade or so when I wasn't modeling/painting and so wasn't actively seeking the information.

Plastruct.com
Gale Force 9's site
Evergreen Scale Models--But they don't seem to have their own shop.

eBay also has plasticard for sale, but those prices seem suspicious to my eyes.

Amazon (searches for "plasticard" and "sheet styrene" may be used) also has several entries.