"Inexpensive terrain ideas for a solo wargamer" Topic

Just seeing what's out there in the way of inexpensive terrain for someone who is interested in solo ww2 war gaming. I'm thinking 6mm or 15mm scale.

Not sure how much I'll get into this (I'm an avid PC war gamer) but seeing all these pictures of tables with tanks, gun and infantry mulling about has got be all jazzed up and PC gaming, while nice and pretty with all the fancy graphics, just cannot replace the handling of tanks, etc on a battlefield.

This would also scratch that "I want to paint little tanks and have them displayed in my man-cave" urge I have too :)

Card stock terrain is a nice looking and cheap way to it.
paperterrain.com

More paper Terrain (free but you have to print it out and they eat ink…)

Go back and forth a couple pages through this thread
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And the bottom links on this page
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Scifi Buildings (I think these need rescaling)
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Making bocage
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Cheap Trees (purchased from them, was fast and the trees are sturdy)
auction

Depends upon what you want for scenery.

They can be as simple as hills and trees.

You can make the former, if you have a fabric playing mat, by placing objects underneath for hills, e.g. foam pieces, blocks of wood, wash and dish cloths, etc..

For the latter, Woodland Scenics sells some nice, tree kits which work well, and are less expensive than pre-built trees in many cases.

Use their clump foliage stuck onto the end of round toothpicks cut in half to represent trees. Glue the toothpicks to pennies, or other bases. Painting their "trunks" gray will make them look more realistic. Very inexpensive for 6mm trees and forests.

Some excellent ideas, thanks gents!!

Cloth to cover the table -- try yard sales, the remnants section of the fabric store, and even the painter's drop cloths at the hardware store. Get the cheapest flat finish spray paint; do your comparison shopping between the hardware store and the big arts-and-crafts store.

Spray-painted cloth looks pretty good, is easy to make, doesn't take up much space, and total cost is low.

I did a post about cheap homemade terrain items from bits of cheap stuff – it is hex based so may be not your cup of tea, but the ideas are still valid.

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There is a lot to be said about making loads of easy to do and cheap ruins for WW2. Depending on scale use thick card, foamcore or what-have-you for walls. Oil absorbent/wood or foam off cuts for rubble. Very quick to make and usefully generic.

Much depends on which theatre you want to do. Normandy or Arnhem will take a bit of coin. The western desert or Russian steppes less so.

For trees that work for 15mm-28mm, look for cake decorations. Decent looking and cheap.

Branch
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Evergreens
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