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Modelling - Supplies
Here's the raw material I've used to build all this terrain.
Foam card
Foam card forms the basic walls of most of my buildings and is often used for floors as well. Foam card is sold at most bulk stationary suppliers as 'mounting board'. Here in New Zealand you can purchase a ??mm x ??mm sheet for $5. That's enough foam card for about six Mordheim houses. Foam card is typically 5mm thick, cuts easily and is quite sturdy.Balsa wood
Used for roof beams, floors, floor beams and window and door detailing. Balsa wood is available from most hobby stores and is very cheap. Get a 'mixed pack' of balsa if you can because thick beams of balsa can be very handy.Tip: Always cut and score balsa wood with the grain rather than across it. It's just easier to work with that way.
3mm MDF
MDF is 'medium density fibreboard' and is very common here in New Zealand (we are apparently one of the largest producers and consumers of MDF per capita). It's a light weight building material used for interior wall cladding, shelving, cheap cabinetry etc. MDF comes in a variety of thicknesses at your local hardware store (Mitre 10 or Placemakers in New Zealand). I typically use 5mm to 3mm thick MDF.Tip: 3mm MDF is thin enough to cut with a Stanley (carpet) knife. To cut 5mm MDF you'll need a hacksaw and a lot of patience, or a jigsaw.
Tip: If you're jigsawing 3mm MDF do it slowly. With a jigsaw you can tear the edges of the cut if you try and travel through the MDF too quickly. This isn't a biggie but will require some hand sanding to clean up.
Cereal Box Carboard
Keep the boxes from your favourite breakfast cereal. The thin cardboard is excellent for making roofing 'tiles' and floor tiles for Mordheim buildings. It's also handy for making building templates as well.Tools
Knives
Pretty obvious really. What modeller doesn't own an Xacto knife or equivalent? I also use a Stanley knife and a jigsaw.Tip: Make sure you use a very sharp Xacto blade to cut foamcard otherwise you'll end up tearing the foam interior which makes a mess.
Brushes
For painting terrain you'll want a selection of larger and cheaper brushes. I rarely use my figure painting brushes for terrain because drybrushing, applying plaster etc. will destroy brushes fairly quickly. Cheap student brushes are good and the stiffer 'hog bristle' brushes are best for applying texture.Rulers and Right Angles
I have a ruler and a right angle around just to make my life easier, but I guess this depends on how 'rustic' you want your terrain to be. I build all my Mordheim terrain to two different base sizes because I have a grand plan to build 1' square terrain tiles with slots for buildings.Tip: A ruler is handy for building the first couple of floors of a house from foamcard. Measure the entire wall length you'll need (subtracting the width of the foamcard from each corner - typically 5mm) and then cut through the foam card at the corners but only on one side. Then simply fold the foamcard wall around the base and glue it down.
Tip: I use cereal box cardboard to create wall templates that include windows and doorways. I have a couple of different templates and use them to quickly mark windows and doorways on the foam card for cutting. This saves a lot of time but can give your houses a slightly uniform look - almost like they've been constructed by the same builder.
Sandpaper
Important for smoothing out the sometimes rough edges of MDF after it's been cut. I also use sandpaper to bevel the edges of MDF used to base terrain. You can do everything by hand sanding but if you've got any kind of power sander around it will make your life much easier. I used to orbital sand MDF but that's a bit fast and loose. These days I use a mouse sander which is slower and easier to control.
Tip: When power sanding always wear work gloves. If you're sanding small pieces of MDF it is easy to sand yourself as well. Work gloves will resist sanding but your flesh won't.
Glues
Craft Glue
I use Helmar's Craft Glue for all my quick drying / strong bonding requirements. It's excellent for fixing foam card to the MDF bases, or for glueing where you want a strong and flexible bond. As Helmar's is solvent based it dries very quickly with a skin forming in about 2 minutes, so keep the nozzle clean! It's also toxic and I have noticed it can irritate your skin sometimes.
Tip: Helmar's really does dry 'crystal clear' as advertised which has made me wonder if it could be used for water features.
PVA
Our good friend Poly Vinyl Acetate or 'white glue'. PVA is a thick white glue that dries reasonably clear and takes a while to fully cure. PVA also tends to shrink somewhat as it dries which is worth keeping in mind if you want to try using it for water features etc. Superb for glueing balsa wood and foam card details. I use it for the less important stuff as it can take hours to dry. PVA is also much cheaper than Helmar's. It's water based and non-toxic...although it doesn't taste that nice.
Detailing
Artist's Gesso
I think Gesso is just a very thick acrylic paint but I could be wrong. At any rate it's great for lightly textured surfaces. I use it to texture and seal foam card walls prior to painting. Apply it with vigorous 'dabs' using a thick hog bristle brush to get a kind of stucco or plaster finish on Mordheim houses. Much easier to work with than plaster of paris and gives you much the same effect. Gesso dries quickly and is very thick so make sure you wash out your brushes.Railway Ballast and Kitty Litter
For gravel textures I use a mix of kitty litter (larger whitish gravel) and railway ballast which is an incredibly fine gravel used for the ballast on model railway tracks. Model railway ballast is available in a variety of colours and weights. I use red 'iron' ballast and mix a couple of sizes in with the kitty litter for variety. This mixture has based my entire 40k Imperial Guard force and I also use it for Mordheim ground. For Mordheim it's glued down with an under and over coat of PVA glue and then painted brown with several lighter drybrushes followed by a chestnut ink wash.Tip: You really want to keep railway ballast stuck down. I use an undercoat of pure PVA which the ballast is poured over followed by an overcoat of watered down PVA. The overcoat tends to wick up the undercoat PVA and the whole lot dries to a solid mix of PVA and gravel.
Room Temperature Vulcanising Rubber
This is what you need to mold anything for casting. RTV usually comes as a two part mixture which consists of the rubber and a catalyst to vulcanise it. The kit I use must be mixed in a 10:1 ratio and the catalyst is coloured blue so you can tell by colour matching if you've got the ratio right. In New Zealand you can get RTV from Topmark (who sell to several Hobby stores in Auckland I believe). Ultrasil is their RTV product and they also sell Klean Klay for making masters and mold surrounds.Tip: Once you've made your first successful RTV mold, keep it handy when you mix your next batch. You can compare the colour of the set mold to your fresh mix to get the catalyst ratio close without tedious measuring. This is all I ever do these days and haven't had any problems with running out of catalyst or bad mixes.
Tip: I'd at least double the manufacturer's setting time just to be on the safe side. There's nothing more frustrating than botching a mold. Ultrasil has a setting time of four hours from memory but I typically leave it for a day (twelve hours plus) before going back to it. You can test the mold by pressing down gently on the open side (if you have one, I've only done one sided molds to date). If the RTV springs back up immediately when you remove your finger chances are the mold is set. If you take your finger away and the dent slowly returns to shape the mold isn't set fully so leave it alone!
Tip: RTV is apparently sensitive to the sulphur contained in most common plasticines. Whatever you do don't make your masters from normal plasticine as the RTV may not set around it! It's recommended you use Klean Klay or some other modelling clay instead. I've made molds from plastic and DAS air drying clay masters without any problems.
Tip: RTV is a catalysed that does not rely on exposure to air so don't panic if you get the ratio wrong and your RTV fails to set. I've done this in the past and found you can simply pour the unset RTV out of your mold, clean the mold, mix a little more catalyst in and re-pour the RTV. You want to do the second pour quickly though because re-mixed RTV seems to go 'off' a lot faster.
Static Grass
Or flock, good for adding a little greenery to your Mordheim scenery. I've used it on warrior bases occasionally too. Stick it down with a little PVA and then vigourously tap the base while upside down to get it to stand up a little more.Paints
Student's Acrylic
I use a variety of FAS student acrylics for covering large areas of terrain. They're cheap paints you can get in large quantity here in New Zealand. I own a couple of selected colours: black, burnt umber (for wood and earth), tan (for washing walls white gesso walls) and red ochre (for all manner of alien rock for 40k) which pretty much covers all my basic terrain colour needs.Tip: FAS is very thick acrylic paint and I water a lot of it down and to 50% and store that in resealable plastic jars. This mixture is much easier to paint terrain with.
Hobby Paint
Games Workshop paint is pretty much the only line I use these days for figures and terrain detailing. I usually thin the GW paints with methylated spirits before applying them. I also use Tamiya paints for Imperial Guard 40k vehicles because their colours are more 'military' than GW's.Tip: Treat your pots of GW paints with utmost respect otherwise you'll end up throwing half of the paint out! Never shake them! Never paint from the lid! Doing either will eventually cause a thick rim of dried paint to jam the lid and stop it from sealing properly. Then your paint dries out slowly... but surely.
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