Terrain Project: Rocky Hill

For an upcoming battle report, I created a piece of terrain that will serve as a centerpiece for the battle. It isn't all that ornate, but it will serve to function as a strategically important landmark for the battle. Here I will detail how I made it and include some pictures of the construction process: The purpose was to create a rocky hill, terraced so that I could place various miniatures on the steps.

Materials used:

• 1" thick pink insulation foam
• white glue
• sand
• GW static grass
• Sheet rock filler

Step One: I carved out the basic shape from the insulation foam and made five separate layers of the hill, gluing each of them together.

Step Two: Using scrap pieces of the foam, I carved out various irregular rocky shapes and glued them into place. Some were strategically sized and placed so as to make little perches for miniatures.
Step Three: Next I used sheet rock plaster to fill in some of the spaces made when I placed in the rocks. I then used sandpaper to smooth off the roughest patches.
Step Four: Using watered down white glue, I spread the glue with a paintbrush over the entire model where I intended it to be grassy. I sprinkled sand over the glue and let it dry completely. After shaking off the excess sand, I painted more watered down glue over the sand to seal it in place. If you don’t want until the sand is fully dry before attempting to seal it, the sand layer will come off completely, so it’s best to wait several hours before putting on the second coat.
Step Five: I basecoated all the grassy areas with Goblin Green, the rocks with a 1:1 mix of Codex Gray and Chaos Black, and painted in some dirt patches with Scorched Brown.
Step Six: Finally I drybrushed the grass with Scorpion Green, the rocks with Codex Grey, and the dirt patches with Graveyard Earth. Finally, I glued some static grass in strategic places throughout the hill. Looks like this terrain piece is ready to go!