Mordheim Board Plans - Advice Requested

Hello all,

I am planning on building a basic, themed Mordheim board.  It will not use a sculpted landscape, but rather a large set of buildings and risers to break up the height and make more variety.
I am planning on filling a 4x6 foot area, so that I may host multiplayer games.  The board will be 4x8, so that on the reverse side I can play Warhammer Fantasy.  

I would love all input advice.  Is this enough terrain?

Materials:
Cheap Acrylic Paint(question 1)
Sand
Foamcore
basing board? (Question 2)
Insulation board - not sure what its called, but i will make hills/graveyard
cork board
card
Lots of Glue
Balsa strips
cheap thin paper towels
28mm framed doors and windows (question 3)


Build List

1x Ruined Church
1x Ruined warehouse
6x generic ruined buildings
2x complete buildings
3 12"x12" "Risers" - Boards that look like brick, to raise buildings up
2x 12"x8x8 Triangular risers
Graveyard
Fountain
A theater if I'm feeling ambitious
Lots of road blocks
trees
statues (question 4)
4 x cardboard round towers
4x Curtain/castle walls - to be used in wfb as well (QUESTION 5)
1x Gatehouse
4x ladders
4x walkways


Questions

1. What paint do those in the US use for Terrain? And how can I make a Cheap "Ink/Toner" so that I can shade these buildings?

2. What do you use to base buildings?

3. Who would you recommend for 28mm Doors and windows?

4. I was planning on using old WFB miniatures, but what do you recommend for statues?

5. I am planning on buildings castle walls and towers in the same dimensions as the old WFB fortress.  Does anyone know the size of them? Or recommend dimensions?


All help appreciated

JqP

I've been pouring through the boards for answers to my questions...

First off, I will have to raise the number of buildings built, and the number of risers as well.

1. I believe taking black acrylic paint and watering it down may be my best bet for making cheap "ink/Shade"

Just some thoughts...

Firstly, how are you planning to arrange the boards themselves? One 4'x8' board seems impracticably massive, especially since a lot of games only need 4'x4'. Four 2'x4' boards might be the best way to go. & personally, I wouldn't texture the boards themselves. I find it gets quite messy & easily damaged for a surface which will mostly have terrain over it, especially if you plan on using both sides of the board.

I also heard a really good tip a while ago -- use house-paint for large areas of scenery. It's cheap and hard-wearing, & you don't need the detail of finer paints on terrain. As I recall, what they'd done was base-coated in house-paint, picked out a few bricks in a different colour to give a sense of texture, then washed the model with diluted paint. That's in this video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQU7GipJcA

Foamcore/Builder's Foam is also good for terrain, hills or rough walls particularly, but I think you need a special cutter to get proper use out of it (a heated wire thing, looks like something from Aliens).

I'd look at MDF terrain for some buildings & risers. I think trying to build all of it from scratch will drive you mad. But hey, maybe you have patience that I don't.

Good luck!

Quote :

1. What paint do those in the US use for Terrain? And how can I make a Cheap "Ink/Toner" so that I can shade these buildings?

Paint--I use whatever is cheap at Hobby Lobby or Micheals's--Apple Barrel?  Or the sample pots you can get at Lowes.  

Shade--Water down black or dark brown acrylic paint. Green is nice too.

2. What do you use to base buildings?
1/8 inch plastic sheet, 1/8 inch masonite or hardboard, 1/8 inch MDF


4. I was planning on using old WFB miniatures, but what do you recommend for statues?

Christmas village statues, angels, old plastic toy knights, junk you find at a dollar store or garage sale.  Anything but a classic mini.

My own planned Mordheim table will be using 1'x1' MDF squares on which to base clusters of buildings.  This makes for shelvable segments for storage, and when placed on the table, arrangement and rotation of the squares should allow for a differing variety of terrain, while the size of the sections should allow for some more elaborate scenery elements to be constructed [yards, alleys, cemetery, etc].  Each square having between one and two inches of "street" border all 'round should allow for some varying street widths, but definite streets and alleys [the difference between a 2" wide resulting alley and a 4" wide resulting street].  And the MDF squares should be solidly durable basing, and heavy enough to make the setup pretty stable as well.

Using your list:
Materials:
Cheap Acrylic Paint(question 1): Americana, FolkArt, CeramCoat, & Craft Smart. I also use these paints for my miniatures. Cheap does not necessarily mean it is inferior in quality.

Sand: available at Hobby Lobby & Michael's. You can also get sand box sand in BIG bags from places like Lowe's & Home Depot. I would avoid using beach sand; re, fleas.

Foamcore: I have never used it. It seems like you are paying extra for the paper exterior, which you wind up peeling off. I use 1/4" & 3/16" Fan Insulation Foam.

basing board? (Question 2): see below
Insulation board - not sure what its called, but i will make hills/graveyard: it's called insulation foam or extruded styrofoam. The 1" sheets are good for the base as well as hills & such. You can get it in 2' X2' boards at Lowe's. I get my Fan Foam at Lowe's as well.

cork board: seems popular in Great Britain. I have never used it myself.

card

Lots of Glue: AND a hot glue gun; HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Balsa strips of all shapes & sizes: Hobby Lobby & Michael's are good sources

cheap thin paper towels: why other than clean up?

28mm framed doors and windows (question 3): these are make it yourself stuff

There you go.
Choice of buildings is a matter of taste. Your buildings will tend to get larger & more complex as you progress on the gaming board.  

Another thing you might find useful for texturing large areas of cobblestone, you can buy cobblestone texture wallpaper:

https://ukwallpaper.co.uk/products/seriano-pietra-wallpaper-silver-1102.htm?fbclid=IwAR29pozfNrv36bSXZNHmR49eZfdPjR4XyyYfLDVMSMuF95rrHMbuWIm8vvs

Should save literally hundreds of hours of carving insulation foam, and according to the people on the Mordheim facebook group it's right in scale for 28mm.

DarkLordDaniel wrote:

Another thing you might find useful for texturing large areas of cobblestone, you can buy cobblestone texture wallpaper:

https://ukwallpaper.co.uk/products/seriano-pietra-wallpaper-silver-1102.htm?fbclid=IwAR29pozfNrv36bSXZNHmR49eZfdPjR4XyyYfLDVMSMuF95rrHMbuWIm8vvs

Should save literally hundreds of hours of carving insulation foam, and according to the people on the Mordheim facebook group it's right in scale for 28mm.

As someone who's currently doing this, I can personally attest to that ^^^^ If I could do it over again, I'd use wallpaper.......

For one T-Section road of a 2x2' board, probably took about 2.5-3 hours of carving cobblestone just into the road. You've to take breaks, lest your hand gives out on you!