Terrain: Desert Stone Columns

Another exciting addition to the terrain segment of this blog! Pink foam meets its doom and finds new purpose! Desert Tables get a huge increase in play! Click the title or Read More >> below for more details!

   Exciting introductions aside, I started these as a test for the hot wire cutter against pink insulation foam. Not wanting the test sections to go to waste, I cut in roughly circular to oval shapes with the intentions of making stone columns. For the 40K players, we've seen them all over the place from the Big Rule Book to various codices. I wanted to try my hand at some as well.

   For those who don't know, the general principal behind a hot wire cutter is that it forces electricity through a thin wire causing friction within the wire to make it hot enough to melt the pink foam, as if cutting it. However it is important to note that when heated, pink foam will release a relatively toxic fume. Always work in a well ventilated space and always wear a protective mask, a rebreather is highly recommended.

   After I completed the first couple test columns, a demand for Necron themed desert terrain sprang up for a local campaign, so I set to work on many more. I intended for each one to at least be as tall as a floating Monolith, if not taller. I used the scrap pieces as stone barricades, to mimic constructed defenses as well as random bits of rubble to decorate the field. Unfortunately the campaign didn't raise enough interest and never got beyond the planning stages. However that does leave me with some cool terrain.

   I made these after I conjured up the paint scheme on the crashed Aquila, so I decided to reuse it on these to create a sand-withered, sun bleached desert and stone. I used regular house paint, chocolate brown and some beige colour in the place of Graveyard Earth and Bleached Bone.

   I get my pink insulation foam from the Home Depot, it's the closest place to me. I'm pretty sure most of those big DIY places will have the same materials. There is also blue foam as well, it is cheaper but it doesn't feel as sturdy as pink foam to me. Either way, a wire cutter is a really great tool for dealing with foam board and it's possible to make all sorts of interesting things with it. I've got a couple cool buildings planned for inch thick foam board that I have laying around. If anyone has any pink foam terrain tutorials or wire cutter tutorials, feel free to post links below. If you have some cool foam creations of your own definitely post links to images of them, I absolutely want to see.

Necron Tomb entrance

Signing off

Cursed13