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Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
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Author:  Chris GoM [ Sun Apr 08, 2012 4:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
I was wondering whether polystyrene sheets or Styrofoam is better for my (first) terrain project (it's going to be a modular board), I found both online, but don't know which is better. I have no experience with either so any help would be appreciated
As far as I can tell, Styrofoam seems better quality, and is about £28 for one 24inch by 24inch square, but polystyrene is cheaper, about £6 for four 24inch by 24inch squares

Also, does anyone have a guide on painting ruins, I'm not sure if I want grey or off-white
Author:  Drumstick [ Sun Apr 08, 2012 6:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
I'd go styrofoam as you get a smoother finish while polystyrene is quite messy and leaves a bubble effect. Color wise grey is probably better than off white as the white may appear a little from under the paint.
Author:  GothmogtheWerewolf [ Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
If you use polystyrene dom't spraypaint it, thats all I have. That and, lots of grey sounds good, whoite sounds too clean for rocks, unless ou have a lot of a mud wash lying around to darken (rahl) it.
Author:  Bartelomeus [ Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
I'm trying to make a nice green, hilly landscape out of polystyrene sheets (six squares of 40x40cm and 5cm thick +5 cm for higher hills)
But creating fluid hills is really hard and messy, you need to finish it with filler to make it smooth.
Author:  Oldman Willow [ Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
A bondo grader or surform is very useful for making rolling hills. Pink and Blue foam can be sanded as well. The grader is available from Stanley tools. http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp ... AND+BLADES
Image
I have been working on some articles on terrain making. This thumbnail is in a tool album that includes foam cutters.
Image
This album contains some WIP photos of A large D-Day table. It is not Middle Earth but the principle is the same.
There are spay paints that work with foam. Check the labels.

I have not used foam or foam core to make ruins for a long time so I do not have photos. I start with dark colors and dry brush lighter.
Author:  lorderkenbrand [ Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
Chris GoM wrote:
I was wondering whether polystyrene sheets or Styrofoam is better for my (first) terrain project (it's going to be a modular board), I found both online, but don't know which is better. I have no experience with either so any help would be appreciated
As far as I can tell, Styrofoam seems better quality, and is about £28 for one 24inch by 24inch square, but polystyrene is cheaper, about £6 for four 24inch by 24inch squares

Also, does anyone have a guide on painting ruins, I'm not sure if I want grey or off-white


Many of my first projects were with the white polystyrene sheets. The white stuff requires a layer of something over the top and the sides protecting with masking tape otherwise pieces will chip off. If you plan on using poly-filla to coat the the terrain then polystyrene is fine.

However if you value your time and sanity above money then go for the blue styrofoam! It is much easier to use and easier to clean up, plus no static white balls sticking to clothes.. :-X

Personally though I would use the cheap white stuff to build up a board and use the blue stuff for smaller, detailed projects. £28 seems expensive for a 24" square piece. Have you looked for cheaper suppliers?
Author:  Chris GoM [ Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
Thanks for the help everyone. I think I'll look around for some cheaper styrofoam, and if I can't find any I go for polystyrene. I may pick up some Ruins of Osgiliath in Games Workshop today.
Author:  hithero [ Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
You can't go wrong in buying a few of these to get you started. They are good quality but the finish of them does need tarting up to get them to llook better. A bit of drybrushing on the rivers, I wash the pale roads with a brown paint and rub in some other flock type to get rid of the lawn effect.

http://totalsystemscenic.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1031_1032_1036
Author:  Chris GoM [ Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
hithero wrote:
You can't go wrong in buying a few of these to get you started. They are good quality but the finish of them does need tarting up to get them to llook better. A bit of drybrushing on the rivers, I wash the pale roads with a brown paint and rub in some other flock type to get rid of the lawn effect.

http://totalsystemscenic.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1031_1032_1036



Thanks for posting that Hithero. I had seen them before, but dismissed them as being a bit "basic". I didn't really think about painting them. I may buy them, but I have a few questions first:
- Is it possible to repaint/rebase them. It's quite hard to see from the pictures how detail the sand/flock is on them, or whether it's just painted green/sand. Also, as some of my armies (the ones I use most) have grey bases, I was wondering if the sand ones were possible to repaint?
- Have you bought any of their terrain before, it looks quite good, and would save quite a lot of time, would you recommend it (if you've bought it)? If you have, is it possible to rebase/reflock them to match the board?
Author:  hithero [ Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
I've got 6 of them than I have tarted up, all colours are static grassed except for the blue rivers. This does make it difficult to paint with GW paints but I had a tube of poster paint and when watered down, colours the static grass nicely and easily. I used brown poster paint for the roads. To add grass texture I just dapled on watered down PVA in a few areas' and littery rubbed in green flocking. I'd certainly recomend them as they are a good, cheap, effective way to start a wargames board. The best thing about them is you can actually have waterways in a depression instead of placed on top of a baseboard.
Author:  lorderkenbrand [ Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
They look cool hith thanks for sharing. Do you know what they are made of?
Author:  hithero [ Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
They are white polystyrene but a lot denser than the bubbly-white packing/insulation stuff.
Author:  lorderkenbrand [ Thu Apr 19, 2012 3:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Polystyrene or Styrofoam? & painting Ruins?
Excellent! Should be a suitable alternative to the overpriced Realm of Battle board, cheers
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