Re: [SG] Terrain

Hi Folks,

>I'm making some houses for SG terrain, and thinking I probably ought
>to base them.	The buildings themselves are about 2" square in light
>card stock (mini gift boxes, with the lid turned upside down for a
>parapeted roof--these are Islamic Fed) and I'm not going to bother
>with the interiors.  I'm probably going to mount it on matte board,
>add spackling for texture and flock it.
>Any suggestions as to
>a) why I wouldn't want to base them, or
>b) a better way to do it?

You do want to base them - it makes the buildings stronger (and more
resistant to shipping/storing damage), and can look more "complete"
depending on what type of terrain you use for the rest of your table.

I would suggest that you base them on plastic, not matte board. 
Depending
on the type of glue you use, matte board can sometimes curl/bend/warp.
Also, the edges get damaged easily.  I prefer to base buildings on sheet
styrene, and have used 1/16" which works really well.  It's more
expensive
than matte board, but if you get some through a plastics dealer you
should
be able to get it cheaper than in hobby stores (but you know that...
didn't
you do plastic industry sales or something?)

When you're creating the base, you should consider making the width of
the
base *either* exactly the same size as the outside dimensions of the
building (so no base overhang), *or* (and this is my preference) at
least a
bit wider than the width of one standard figure base.  If you make it
wider
than a figure base, then you can add a bit of detailing and still have
room
for a figure to stand right at the wall of the building without tipping.
If you make it with no overhang, then you can also stand a figure next
to
the building without tipping.  If you base the building with overhang in
between, you'll have people trying to stand their figures next to the
building and the figures will tip, and that is *annoying*...

Having a 1" or so overhang works well, but makes the buildings a bit
more
difficult to store.  I do it with the overhang anyway, because it gives
me
the opportunity to add bits of sand/rubble/stuff at the bottom edge of
the
walls, particularly for "destroyed" buildings, and that looks better.

An alternative suggestion, if you're going for an "urban" look.  I
recently
came across some foam sheets in a hobby/craft store.   I don't have any
handy, so I can't give the brand name, but this stuff is cut to about 11
x
17" or so, and was quite thin (1/16" or maybe a bit thicker), and
stiff-but-flexible.  It comes in a variety of colours.	My friend Dave
bought a bunch of it in black, and dry-brushed grey paint onto the
surface
to give it a "worn tarmack" sort of look.  He does a "blasted ruined
city"
terrain setup using shapes cut out of that foam as building bases, and
doesn't bother putting an actual hard base on the buildings themselves.
This works quite well, and is *inexpensive*.  The foam can be cut to
make
"road" also, and looks like tarmack.

Have fun,

Adrian	

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Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca

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