The inspiration for this table game from the battlefield in a box badlands set. I had bought one box of this stuff about 5 years ago when I was first getting back into Warhammer. Unfortunately, I didn't realise it was a (very) limited run. I couldn't find any when I went back to the internet to find a table's worth of additions. I decided to try and find some alternatives and headed to the local random junk from China shop. Stuff like this is sometimes available for aquariums and to display porcelain figures and weird stuff like that. I found a few pieces, but they were all different colours and had flat backs, which wasn't ideal. They were dirt cheap though, so I bought 'em. I then decided to make the rest of the table out of styrofoam after seeing some awesome videos by 'the terrain tutor' on youtube and seeing this table:
The first thing I needed to do was salvage the resin pieces:
The foam I'm using is insulation foam from Bunnings Warehouse. Polystyrene would be just as good, but that stuff is actually quite hard to find in Australia. This insulation foam was pretty cheap (~AUD$20 for 1.5mx0.5m or thereabouts), is really easy to work with, doesn't explode into bubbles when you cut it, has some weight and comes in nice big sheets. Great bonus - the foam is just under S2 in size, but taller than S1. This is perfect for INFINITY!
To fix the resin bits, I first placed them on the foam and traced their outline onto it. I then cut the foam so that it fit fairly snug onto the resin, and the other side would look like a natural extension of each hill. Some adjustment was required. I don't want to make it sound like this was easy. Once you've got the rough shape you want, go at it with a hot wire cutter. to bevel the edges. The terrain tutor has great videos on this - check out his youtube channel. Next I drilled some holes into the resin and glued in some cocktail skewers. To these I attached the foam bits, one piece at a time, starting with the base. Once the base was one I pumped a bunch of gap-filler into the cracks, mostly to act as a glue, but also to cover up these unsightly holes. That took a day or two to dry. I then put the next level or two on, again using the skewers to attach them to the resin pieces, and also slathering them in PVA to help them stick to the foam layers below. Then I would drive long kebab sticks through the foam layers from the top, holding them together like dowling. The sticks are much more important than the PVA. I snip the ends of these with pliers. I then go at it again with the gap filler along the sides and top at the join, covering up any holes and helping to glue everything together.
The process for putting foam pieces together is very similar, except you don't have to worry so much with the tracing, drilling and filling. Start with a big base piece that you cut to shape and form with a wire cutter. Make sure you wire shape each piece individually before you put them together, otherwise you won't be able to maneauvre the tools very well. Then cut another, small piece to be the second level. Form this with the wire cutter and then connect the two slabs using the cocktail skewers and PVA. Repeat for as many levels as you might want, then connect the whole thing together with big kebab sticks for good structural integrity.
Once you've got the big shapes, I get a candle and burn some extra shape into them. The candle melts the foam really well, and the foam is light enough that you can just pick it up and move it around the candle with your handle. This technique let's you add some texture to the flat surfaces, foam cool looking holes in the lower levels, and smooth out any edges that look a bit too obviously cut by a knife. Again, the terrain tutor has an excellent video on this method.
Next up, I get some this textured paint you can buy at craft stores. It's just white, and it dries to a sand-like finish. Just brush it onto all the flat-surfaces liberally.
You're ready to paint! I used Army painter fur-brown as the base colour, but any red-brown spray-paint (not mud-brown!) that doesn't have a solvent strong enough to melt the foam (note: GW spray melts the foam) will do and probably be cheaper. Spray liberally, and don't be afraid if some bits look a bit yellower than others as the foam comes through a bit - this adds nice colour transitions, even if they don't make much sense. After that, I drybrushed the whole thing, but especially the edges, with a gold oxide colour.
Onto texturing! Again I relied on tips from the terrain tutor. The joins between the different pieces of foam is exactly where rockfalls would accumulate. So slather them in PVA glue and sprinkle some ballast in there. I used two different sizes, with the bigger size going in first. I also brushed some bobs of PVA randomly over the flat surfaces and sprinkled some fine ballast over there just to break up those surfaces a bit more.
A final pick of the finished table being used at one of our tournaments:
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