Terrain musings

So A Wyrd Place is running a terrain building competition for the January competition. I have been needing a kick to get some terrain building done again so this should help.

The idea is to build some terrain and donate it to a local gaming club. Given that our local henchmen wants to do a February tournament at Dark Sphere that sounds just perfect.

The purpose of this blog is to throw some ideas together for what I would like to end up creating. I figured I would start with looking at some of the scenario terrain from the book:

• Ancient monument - there isn't any real explanation to what this could be, but it is aimed a 50mm base. I suppose some form of statue or crumbling ruin piece could work. 
• Forbidden text - 30mm book marker. Seems more like a scheme marker item. 
• Arcanist lab - This is a lab in itself, I feel this would be better as an entire themed table and would be beyond what I can do in January.
• Dead zone - 3" mana dumping terrain, no real explanation, perhaps some sort of creepy cobblestones with some weird OSL painting might work. Seems more a painting issue.
• Graveyard - This is pretty open, you could do various coffins, tombstones, sarcophagi, mausoleums etc. Pretty flexible. I was planning on doing a graveyard table for home in the near future so I could practice some techniques on this.
• Mysterious effigies - This is more model driven than terrain.
• Carnivorous plants - This could be quite fun. Would need to think of some creative ways to make crazy plants. I have seen some interesting articles on alien plants i might need to fish up.
• Junkyard - Another one that I feel would be better for a full themed table, but a couple of junk piles might work.
• Bog - I made some ponds a few years back for my old SA club. It was good fun and fairly quick to do. It also adds some interesting water features to a table without being an intrusive river. 
• Badlands - The scenario is more about the rules in play, but severe craggy terrain could be quite fun and fairly quick to churn out.
• Mine - Doing a full underground table will be fun in the future, but for this perhaps some mine carts or a mine entrance could work.
• Saloon - There is so much laser cut wild west terrain this doesn't appeal at all.
• Hanging tree - I would like to model a big scary tree at some point.

Key:

Green - ones I am keen on

Red - these ones don't appeal or are would require a base dedicated to the theme.

Blue - maybe

It seems there are quite a few areas that I am keen to explore. I might see if I could do 3 pieces / sets.

To narrow it down I think I could do the following quite easily:

1. A set of craggy rocks and terrain. This requires some MDF board, my hole saw to get some convenient base sizes. Perhaps some pine bark or blue styrofoam for the rocks.
2. Some ponds. Yet again some MDF boards, some clay for the lips of the pond, then cork, bark or rocks for some rocks and logs for the pond. Then my trusty Woodland Scenics water effects for the water.
3. A Mausoleum for a graveyard. MDF boards and foamboard for the walls. 

That's it for now. Let's go play around with some raw materials.