Swamp Board Area Terrain

 Realistic Area Terrain

In my last post I had created some simple ruins to use as area terrain, obstacles, and areas of cover. As a continuation of that theme I have finished up working on areas of vegetation, fallen logs, and large boulders that infantry sized models can hide behind for cover and also add to the overall aesthetic of the board. So lets look at the steps involved in creating the areas of vegetation terrain.


Back in the spring as I was cleaning up my yard I had a rather large pile of branches and twigs that fell down over the winter and some of them had unique moss shapes on them that I knew would fit into some of my terrain items so I put them down in my basement to dry out. Once they were dried, I broke the branches up into small sections and soaked them in a mixture of wood glue and water.

I let each piece soak for a good 24 hours or so then placed them in a tray to dry out while I soaked the next batch. I repeated this process 3 times to ensure that the wood glue absorbed into the wood to create a protective seal.

Next I glued the branches onto some pre-cut hard board

Next I added in bits of shale and cork board that will eventually be the base for the foliage that will be added in at a later stage.

Once the glue dried I added sand to the base and then painted up up the pieces using the same paints and style that I used for the simple ruins. Then I added in the plastic floral pieces to finish up the area terrain.

Here is a group shot of all of the pieces together.

Here are the pieces mixed in with the simple ruins.

The "logs" provide cover to troops behind them.

Here is a quick picture of the larger ruins that I am working on. Look for a full article and more pictures in the next couple of weeks.