Modular Terrain Part One

Hello there! With the completion of the cabin and the transfer of most of my 'stuff' to it, I now have the space to progress some projects.

The first project will be the start of the modular terrain that I have started many times over the years and has produced desert terrain and the start of some for North West Europe, which will double for my ACW games.

Like the other projects I will be starting at the same time, but will all be related, I will not wait until completion then publish them on the blog, but do them in linked parts

I had already decided that the overall dimensions would be based on 600mm x 600mm squares. To house river sections and smaller features I would also make a number of 600mm x 300mm and 300mm x 300mm tiles.

The plywood sheets are 3.6mm thick and can be cut using a Stanley knife. Now this is obviously fraught with danger so I devised a system where a couple of quick release clamps held a premeasured sheet on to a cutting board, in this case an old sheet of 12mm thick plywood, and also held a 600mm long steel rule in place so I could score a line in the plywood using the steel rule as a profile. It also meant that I would shed any blood for this project if the blade slipped or jammed.

I have used the thinnest and most easily obtainable timber for the surround of the modular tiles. In this case 19mm x 50mm PSE timber. This was cut to the desired length using a cross cut saw and then I cut a 45 degree angle at both ends.

The picture above shows how I held the sides in place with quick release clamps and used solvent free gripfill to glue it together. I also had an engineers square to make sure it was all square.

If it set in the wrong position I used a carpenters plane to square the sides and make sure the 600mm x 600mm dimensions remained.

The styrofoam was glued in place using expanding urethane foam. I recommend wearing some gloves while doing this bit. Do not use too much expanding foam and stay with the job once the styrofoam is in place as it may continue expanding and rise up

Here are the tools I was using to shape the styrofoam board. The item with the red handle in a Stanley Surform. This has been invaluable in getting the shapes of hills and to make things fit without having to get the knives out again. Also the kitchen bread knife is also very useful.

The expanding foam which has set and hardened and managed to creep out round the edges of the styrofoam can be cut off and shaped with the surform.

Once the shaping has been done then the worst of the holes can be filled in with water proof tile adhesive. This does not have to be mixed and is a consistent thickness and texture. I prefer to do this separately because the thicker the next layer of tile adhesive is applied the longer it takes to set.

So in part two we will have the layering on the surface and application of texture.