DIY Terrain on the cheap

Well hello all
It has been about six months since I have been into the hobby, I have been busy with life .
now after having a listen to the pod cast Counter charge I had an idea to get back into the hobby of terrain making. we have the new dead zone due next year and warpath after that. So I was listening to the episode where they where talking about armies on the cheap and now you can use just about anything to make an army. I think it was build an army on about $5 a week.
well I love to build terrain and I believe you need to have a great table to play on.( the third player in all our games). so I started to look at showing you can really build a great looking table for a cheap price.
Now what I will say that in table will be costed for product only and the tools are one I already have.
I will also say that I do have one advantage as I work for a large Australian DIY retailer so I have the opportunity to pick up the goods a little cheaper. I will through cost the goods at retail price for the purpose of the exercise.

Up first I took a piece of MDF this one came from the scrap pile at Bunnings, so it was only $5, now the size is 4 foot by 2'10" so a little short one side but longer the other. I had an idea so I drew the basic out line on the MDF.

 the next was i took some paint and painted  the different levels with some craft paint this was to give me some idea of the basic outline. it also made it easy to see what I was doing for the photos.

 

 now i picked up some form board from work to use as the basic levels, there is two thickness they are 50 mm and 25mm, they are 600mmx1200mm in size, one was $20 the other was $16. now I had one already left over from another project so i only purchased one this time

next i raided the kitchen and borrowed some baking paper and cut out the stencil for the top level.

 so using a sharp exacto knife I cut out some blocked areas around the areas, now one of the dig things you need to look at is to get the most out of your foam is the position of the parts you need. take some time and use your stencil to work out the must economical use of the foam. you can cut down the stencil to make it work then join the pieces together. i marked out the areas I needed and then got out my trusty hot foam cutter. you can actually make one quite cheaply if you need but I have had mine quite some time.

now as you can see this is all cut out and layered out.

 next was do the same with the bottom layer, again there are gaps under the top layer section will be hollow this helps keep the cost down as you will not need a second sheet of foam. you can if you like spend the extra and have two solid pieces under the top. the difference is I will have to do a little more clean up latter on the base.

next up was design and carve out any extra areas that will need work, in this case the beach head and the jetty will need to be done.

 so worked the jetty and the beachhead, again the MDF I use was from the scape bin at work. but you can pick up a 600x300 3mm sheet for $4 so not two expensive. then just cut it down into the sizes you need. i also took the scape's from the cutting of the second level and added them to the top giving me an extra height an some more levels

 gamer eye view to date

next up was to glue is down and let it set. now i use a water base glue , it is called aquahere, it is not the cheaper version on the white glue as it is $15 a bottle for 1 litre,  but this is a product that you can find others do for as little as $8 a bottle. now this product will be needed later so you will need to get one.

So to date
wood base $5
foam board $36
MDF $4
white glue $8

I now have to wait for it to dry,
it took me about 4 hours to get to this point , but I have the equipment an have set up my work area to make terrain. For an average gamer I would give your self about 6 hours and then let the build dry for about 48 hours.

thanks till next time

Justin