"Ambitious terrain" Topic

Hey guys! So I've been playing a lot of Wargame: AirLand Battle and I love the maps. Love them love them. I want to build a large terrain board (for 6mm) that is based on the maps from the game, stylistically. For those of you who don't play the game, I'll post a link to my reference album at the end of this post. What I'm asking for is tips and ideas on how to create what I'm striving for. I've read up on using matte board for hills/mountains and I'll use balsa wood for buildings, but there are two things that I'm mainly worried about:

1. I'm ambitious and okay with that, but even in 6mm, is a map that size just unrealistically large?

2. Dense woods and grass are the things I feel that I'll struggle with. Often I look at boards and they look like old videogames- really nice looking buildings, placed on a bland 2D texture floor. Something like this imgur.com/gallery/syB1J Now obviously it will take me a long time to get to that level of detail, but it's consistent and that's what I'm looking for.

Tell me I'm crazy, if I am. And thanks!

link

I'm also okay with dumping weeks into this to get it done. That's the fun part!

For 6mm, dense grass can simply be normal carpet cut into whatever shape you want. If you want to make it a little more "grassy" then use a wire brush and tease it a bit. Shag carpet (not sure what they call it in the UK – may have an entirely different meaning over there) or fur is going to swallow 6mm figures.

For dense woods, I've seen a few options that work. You can take upholstery foam, cut it into irregular spheres, spray paint them green, stick it on a stick, and stick several of them on a base. They look like a stand of trees, and you can move several stands close together for woods.

Another option for woods is to cut the shape of the woods out of foam board, glue your foliage clumps to that, the add a few trees around the perimeter. The woods should stand up by themselves. I think this works better for 6mm figures on a stand, because individual vehicles can be hard to move under the forest.

The other idea is to throw down clumps of foliage or that green moss you get at a hobby shop, and just sweep it back in the bag when you're done. It is easy to move your figures through, and no work other than buying the stuff.

Remember the limitations of different mediums.
I would like to play AirLand battles on my iPad….
Anyway, tabletop gaming is a different experience. Line of Sight, pretending you don't know a terrain contains enemy, artillery resolutions…oh the joys of the tabletop game.
Different mediums, different set of fun.
I've used a ground/ piece of felt/ painted terrain on material- to represent the terrain, then placed the terrain pieces on top- moving them away when a unit moves through it.

Thanks! Those are all great ideas. I think what will help me do what I want is to build the maps on hexes. Who is a good manufacturer for those?

Here are some links to different examples:

Put foliage directly on the table link

Foliage on foam board on "stilts"
link

GHQ has 4" hexes:
ghqmodels.com/store/tm1.html

Geo-Hex has returned but is on Facebook. 12" hex terrain system:
link

Litko has stencils to draw smaller hexes:
link

Those GHQ hexes look to be just what I want! I think if I get one pack of each, I'll be able to do what I want.