19 replies to this topic

[Jaxom08]

I been getting back into playing table top BT with my wife and we have been wanting to come up with something to use for buildings on some of the maps, especially the city type map that comes in the 25th anniversary edition. I looked for terrain and buildings online but they were difficult to find or kinda pricey. So , on a limited budget, what do you think would be a good idea......we have a wood working shop (owned by our land lord right next door ) and we were thinking wood blocks painted to look like buildings and sky scrapers and such but want them to be to a relative scale with the mechs.

any ideas or links would be appreciated! thanks in advance.

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

Train model terrain tends to be what alot of people use. [model train terrain]

Another option is to just use paper cutouts... and there are some "paper craft" buildings and the like you can print out and fold into place.

Outside of that, miniature terrain can be expensive. I know some people who use 40K terrain... other's still who just splurge and get whatever they want.

On the cheap, I'd look for model train terrain... it's still going to be pricey, but it'll be the best bang for your buck.

[DocBach]

for buildings a great thing to use is packing material from boxes - styrafoam and cardboard can be painted up like buildings. Your wood idea works, too. But styrafoam packing inserts usually have a futuristic shape to them and you can sculpt it to look damaged and whatnot.

[RangerRob]

Lots easier to make your own stuff, if you play hexless on an open tabletop.

Cities are easy with the Packing plastics repainted as mentioned by DocBach.


Solaris VII - Factory Map recreated with Styrofoam & Plastic




Then with just wood...You can get really crazy and make a 4 foot Solaris VII Coliseum.

[KalebFenoir]

I remember me and my friend not being able to afford anything more than the basic map-packs, which we were bored of. One day we looked around his condo and realized it was just cluttered enough in just the right way that, if you bent the minatures rules about ranges a bit, you could use EVERYTHING around you as terrain. At one point we had a jumping battle along a set of stairs that was pretty fun, and having a pair of assaults duelling around the legs of a coffee table was kinda funny as well. Depends on how serious you want to make things I suppose. We were just having fun.

[Jaxom08]

thanks for all the ideas thus far! some really cool things coming in and all will be considered.....our issue is we have very little space to play and kinda want to keep it hex based.

[Tarl Cabot]

Modular Hex Game Elements 1:1000 Scale (WIP / Release)

Modular 3d Paper Hex (hills) - WIP

What are people using for Terrain?

Above are links to creative ways with terrain. One person uses Heroscape
Images for heroscape

[Ravenwing67]

JR miniatures has some http://www.jrminiatu...-300sci-fi.aspx

You could also use "Z" scale railroad buildings.

[cso dak]

I'll throw a plug for Armorcast in if you don't mind.

http://www.armorcast.com/

Dak

[TheGiantTribble]

If your willing to spend a bit of time it's amazing what you do
as others have said polystyrene packing can be carved/melted/persuaded into just about anything.
yog drinks pots make fuel/gas storage units, linked together with drinking straws for pipework gives you a refinery
It's amazing how once stuff is sprayed black and dry brushed with one or two other colours it becomes unrecognisable
as to what it used to be

[Exilyth]

Another alternative is scratchbuilding stuff.

For some buildings (read: appartment blocks), that means cutting windows into polystyrene sheets, gluing four such sheets toghether at right angles and gluing on a roof. Balconies can be made in a similar manner, e.g. a bottom, a front and two pieces for the sides. Maybe add some sprues as pipes. Of course, other building styles might be more difficult to make.



btw... for bridges, N resp. HO scale is more fitting if you want to place miniatures on them.

Edited by Exilyth, 11 September 2012 - 05:50 AM.

[Warmonger2600]

Don't forget you can purchase 3d puzzles which you can also destroy to your hears content

The

[Hythos]

Never forget that you can also use lego trees and blocks for buildings...

I was fortunate to have been able to acquire 4 geohex sets back in ~91 - and ever since, I've used the small trees as light woods, large trees as heavies, and built plenty of buildings out of my extra legos with a 3x4 block base per-hex, three blocks high per level (I think was what I've used).
These buildings are perfect for dimensions and have a bit of weight to them so they're not delicate, and they have strength to support mini's on top of them.

Beyond that, Foam Core poster-board is awesome, but does take a bit of time. I once made TONS of sets for Warhammer... 15+ years ago. I actually wound up trading away 2 Space Marine / Terminator armies and about 10 full scenery sets for a full regiment of battletech mini's =)

[Roflberry Pwncakes]

I'm a big TT fanatic, with loads of experience painting minis and doing terain, and I consider myself to be somewhat of a know-it-all smartypants on the subject. Because of the eensy-weensy-teeny-tiny scale that BattleTech minis are, I find it really hard to make convincing commericial or residential style buildings from scratch, becuase there's just so much detail that has to be packed into such a small area. If the scale was larger, it wouldn't be so bad. For office buildings, appartment complexes, etc... I'd use model train buildings. N-guage or smaller if you can find it. For doing industrial areas what you want is junk. Interestingly shapped bits of used packaging, pill bottles, etc... Just throw them all together in some sort of fashion that makes it look like a refinery or factory or whatever, spraypaint it all black, then go over it again lightly with grey spraypaint, and then drybrush the edges with light-grey or white. For other terrain items like woods, go to a craft store that specializes in artsy-fartsy decorations like Martha Stewart would get into. You should be able to find dried plant things that are MUCH cheaper than the wargames or model train shop sells them for. Just find something that is going to look like a full grown tree next to a mech miniature. Plug 1 into a styrofoam base for light woods, 2-3 for heavy woods and then flock the base like normal. For rough terrain, just use sand and gravel from your driveway, or for rubble, get some diagonal cutters and go to work on the sprue from a plastic model kit. Just cut the sprue up into a bunch of lil chunks and glue them onto a base and paint. If you are really feeling ambitious and want to try your hand at scatch building structures, get wood blocks and some illustration board. Art supply stores carry it and it's about a buck for several square feet. Trace the shape of your wood block onto the illustration board, then use an exacto knife to cut details like windows out of the illustration board, just remember to keep the scale right. Cut 2 sides of the illustration board out just a little larger than you traced them so when you mount the illustration board on the wood blocks the edges will be flush. Great looking terrain doesn't really take anything more than just a little bit of common sense, some household odds and end, glue, a lil paint, and some model railroading flock. Just experiment, and don't get discouraged if something doesn't look the way you like, just find some qualities that turned out awesome and keep using the technique that got you those results, and keep experimenting with everything that didn't turn out quite right.

[Jaxom08]

once again thanks for all the tips and links.....all of it has been very useful information and has had me looking at plenty of very cool websites. it is greatly appreciated.

[KalebFenoir]

If you don't mind tossing down money and don't mind where the miniatures come from, you could always hit up the nearest GW and grab some scenery. Just gotta remember to buff out any 'human skulls' on it, and consider the scale I guess. Doorways would be big enough for mechs to pass through anyway. LoL.

[Jaxom08]

I'm gonna try to pick up some paints and get some wood block scraps and such in the next couple days, if I am able to gather the stuff I need/want, I'll post pics of what I came up with. Thanks for all the help. You guys have me looking at normal house hold objects a bit different too,lol

[Ravenwing67]

cso dak, on 10 September 2012 - 08:22 PM, said:

I'll throw a plug for Armorcast in if you don't mind.

http://www.armorcast.com/

Dak

I had forgot about armorcast, good call.

[Surtr]

http://www.sarna.net...edia/cardstock/


KA-BOOM! Go buy a big ream of cardstock, some elmers, an exacto knife, and a half decent color printer and you'll be up to your eyeballs in buildings.

[Jaxom08]

Surtr, on 11 September 2012 - 10:14 PM, said:

http://www.sarna.net...edia/cardstock/


KA-BOOM! Go buy a big ream of cardstock, some elmers, an exacto knife, and a half decent color printer and you'll be up to your eyeballs in buildings.

I found that too,this is a VERY good idea, and oddly enough I was already looking at printers , this is more then likely the track I will take, since my wood scrap idea ( while cheap and easy ) is not always accessible ( the shop is not our's).