DESERT TERRAIN - Making A TABLE OF TERRAIN From JUNK And Recycled Materials.

Nice work, Dave. These turned out great and look nothing like the ones that i did and Health & Safety Frog didn't tell me to say this.

I work in IT and we get a lot of foam packing from the hardware we order. I grab any that have unique shapes that will lend well to a sci-fi or near future build (I play mostly those types of games). But even some basic shapes are nice and usable to cut into walls, pillars, are just sliced up as ruins or hills. Even snag snack packaging. One man's trash is another man's treasure ; )

I love Health and Safety frog's choices of ultra 90's wrestling entertainment.

There's no better foam than found foam. Nice paint job - the red over black looks sweet.

Love the vid mate! For your smaller rocks that looks like "stacks of foam" just shave some layers a bit here and there, they'll look like shale rock. Pretty common and once you put a bit of filler here and there, it'll look completely natural.

I use acrylic sealant as a coating on foam and paper mashe pieces. I make a lot of hills using cheap kitchen aluminium cooking trays and metal chippy containers bent to shape and covered in 5 layers of paper and glue - I save Xmas wrapping paper and apply that in alternating layers with newspaper so I can see which bits I have done - It warps a lot but I leave a skirt around the edge so I can glue it down to a flat card base (if you cover the bent tray with a layer of wet kitchen towel the paper doesn't stick to it so you can bang out a set of hills with just one tray). I leave it a day or two to dry out then apply the acrylic. I mainly use a wet finger for smoothing it out but you can dilute the acrylic and smooth it on with a brush, just wash the brush in hot water and detergent before it dries. I use dried tea leaves (tea bag stuff for grass 'texture' and loose tea, which is larger, for 'foliage' with fine sand elsewhere and both stick very well if applied to the still wet acrylic sealant and tamped down. For paint I use domestic paint tester pots, I use a lot of Wilco's Chocolate Dream for desert so the people I give a set to can find the same paint to add more. Thicker corrugated card (not really the flimsy stuff supermarkets use these days) is okay for walls, cover the edges with newspaper to hide the corrugations, the newspaper seems the most 'flexible' of the available papers. For stone walls I have a roll of blown vinyl anaglipta-like wall paper with a suitable pattern that looks the part in 1:72 and 1:32 with a coat of paint and a drybrush. My sets are given away to less well off folks, mostly carers as they get crap pay, and they get a set of notes on 'what's in the box' and 'how to make more'. As an example for a knights and knaves set I make just one long hedge (strip cut from coir doormat with teased out pan scrub added to the top to produce an uneven profile, add some flock and some trees from twine soaked in glue with flocked teased pan scrub as foliage and paint in various shades of green using cheap paint). Back then a village would typically have just a couple of very large fields fenced or hedged off in which everyone got a strip or two to farm. Hedges back then were similar to the bocage, an earth bank covered in assorted bushes and trees, hedges on the flat are really a post-railway thing, but for toy soldiers the advantage of the flexible strips outweighs the need for absolute historical accuracy. The hedges work well for 20mm scale (the cheapest toy soldiers you can get) but they are too small for 1:32 (which I use for kids from 3-7 years old).

Gorkamorka! Couldn't be happier someone giving this old game some love, it's still my favourite and this terrain will work perfectly for it.

I have a tip if you would like to try, I use a vacuum and scrape it across the foam. this does two things one it rips out the foam with the scraping and it cleans at the same time. you can put as much pressure in as you like. I have attached gouging tools to the vacuum hose nozzle with tape too. it also helps stopping smaller particles flying off to be breathed in

I'm a big fan of the recycling route. Personally I tend to asked more for tutorials on using cereal packet card than anything else. I must admit showing people how to build virtually an 40k vehicle out of the stuff is quite rewarding. The first resin Eldar prism cannon sold at games day was made and cast in 12 hours. It was made from a wooden flower display and an Asthma inhaler. ( I made it) We did 40k scale Titans with expanded foam and plant pots. The Ork versions were 80% cereal packet ,a plant pot, (The smaller ones had Mr Potatoes Head's feet) . So I'm expecting you to think out side of the box as you charge into your Ork project. If its of interest I could pass on some useful quick and easy builds that would be easy builds for people with physical restrictions.As they'd require nothing more complicated than the basics of a ruler, pencil, knife, ruler,scissors, emeryboards,and superglue. Plus a the odd cereal box.

Great looking terrain you made there. Just need an Ork Fort and a Mine working and your GorkaMunda ready! 😁

I think you did an outstanding job! Well-made gaming terrain made by hand is much more enjoyable than the insanely expensive stuff from GW and not everything has to look like a Gothic cathedral!

Amazing results, those will look great in any game. I can't imagine cleaning up those foamy 'dandruff' bits. I've worked with foam for stuff (not on this scale) and it seemed to take forever even then. Me: 90 minutes for paint and wash? Who has time for that .. Also me: watches 3 hours of youtube while doing nothing productive.

Your videos just make me happy, keep doing you.

Love it pal, the pit falls of crumbling foam... as they say thats how the injected foam insert crumbles!killing it mate.

Awesome a new MS Paints video building terrain from recycled rubbish. The paint work absolutely popped Dave.

More lens flares than a Michael Bay flick. Sweeeeeet.

Double glue! The man is a genius.

Use thicker eps foam. Carve its basic shape inside a box. For the rock surface cover it with thin layer of caulking or plaster of Paris applied with your fingers. It’s less messy. Also it’s more realistic looking and faster than paper mache. Paint with 50/50 pva/acrylic black (bit of water for a wash), then more PVA/acrylic brown, the glue sinks into the plaster to harden it. Drybrush mid-grey, lighter drybrush magnolia (never white unless you want snow effect). Can use blue-grey for colour if gray is too bland for your taste.

I'm very glad I had put my drink down when the makeup brush arrived for its scene.

Great work Dave, the build looks awesome. As you say 40 million tons is a frightening amount.