Hi again folks,

Well I made a very small hill just to try out some techniques. I used a foamcutter I got off ebay for close to nothing. The cutter was a Tamyia-kit that I hade to assemble myself, but it was dirt cheap.

Having cut up some packaging foam I had at home I then cut out a piece of plastic from a cd-cover, to fit the foam hill as a base. I glued it on and smoothened up the edges with milliput.

After that I painted the whole thing with textured paint (some sand in regular citadel paint), painted it goblin green and shaded it with very much watered down green ink and black mix, and highlighted it with goblin green and some yellow added in as the last touch.

Its quite a bit of work for not so spectacular a result. Any tips on how to do it better or more importantly quicker and easier?

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"We are the sword of fire with which the Traitors shall be cut down."

Get some cheaper paints. Citadel paint is too expensive to use on terrain unless it is a really important piece.

Try using more "natural" colors. The green ink I'm guessing really changed the look after the goblin green.

Don't use that texture it's too large and irregular for Epic. Find some beach sand and coat the whole thing in it (paint on wood glue then dip it in the sand). Alternatively use flock to completely cover it.

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-Malakai

"You'll never understand how much watching other people's pain gets me off, hearing their screams and knowing that I have the power of a god." -Velvet Acid Christ

Or playground sand.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Well, there are lots of tutorials on making hills, and this one is fairly typical of them.

The alternative is to use sand instead of flock as above, and then overpaint the sand (much as you would normal 28mm model's base).

Personally, I use a coloured textured spray paint; paint hill in base colour, spray with coloured textured paint in a second complimentary colour, allow to dry, done!

And for cheap paint, your local DIY store can sell you tester post of house paint cheaply. Even better, most of these stores can match any colour if you take them a sample of what you want. Here in the UK, a tester pot is a usually about £2, and will cover 3 square meters approx.

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Quote: (Warhead @ 08 Mar. 2009, 10:33 )

*...Blinded by awesomeness, Warhead can't see the keyboard to type his overwhelmed feelings of wonder... He hits emergency "too cool" button!...*

+++EMERGENCY! THIS IS TOO COOL! DROPPING RAY SHIELDED BLAST DOORS+++

Try not to use beach sand.  The salt content is not good for painting.

If you go to an aquarium you can get big bags of silica sand that is ideal for basing as it is all uniform and clean.  I and some friends bought a bag between us last year and after making a 6x4 board and basing our armies we still have loads left.

I wouldn't use spray paint on styrofoam hills.  

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-Malakai

"You'll never understand how much watching other people's pain gets me off, hearing their screams and knowing that I have the power of a god." -Velvet Acid Christ

Ok, I guess ill have to try it once more with finer sand. I also thought spray was not an option cause the foam would melt?

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"We are the sword of fire with which the Traitors shall be cut down."

In theory, if you sealed the hill first with some other paint, glue, or whatever, you could get away with spraying it. But you'd have to be fairly careful.

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"Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale."
- George Borrow

testors makes a spray paint that works fine on styrofoam, i didnt believe it until i tried it but it works great.

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"god help me, i do love it so" - Patton

Yeah, I paint the styrene first to protect it (as bolded above).

Also, the stuff in the textured spray paint isn't really like normal spray paint, and won't dissolve the styrene (much - if at all - in my experience).YMMV though.

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Quote: (Warhead @ 08 Mar. 2009, 10:33 )

*...Blinded by awesomeness, Warhead can't see the keyboard to type his overwhelmed feelings of wonder... He hits emergency "too cool" button!...*

+++EMERGENCY! THIS IS TOO COOL! DROPPING RAY SHIELDED BLAST DOORS+++

Ahh, I misread you then. My bad.  

Brother-Captain, what kind of surface do you play on? Surely you want to match the hills to your playing surface?

_________________
-Malakai

"You'll never understand how much watching other people's pain gets me off, hearing their screams and knowing that I have the power of a god." -Velvet Acid Christ