"Hills That Lie Flat" Topic

I really hate my hills, cut from styrofoam mainly with flocking. They don't have the weight to lie firm against the table. That gap on some edges is really annoying.

Can anyone recommend a company that makes hills that lie flat or a good home recipe for them?
Thanks
Joe

Have you tried putting them under a gaming cloth? That will smooth them into the terrain more

My LGS has an in-store set of these:

link

They are my favorite, but they are currently out of stock. Maybe you can pick-up a set on the aftermarket. There are also a gray set that look easy to repaint. Good for 15-28mm.

Can you press fit some metal washers underneath, then glue them into the divots?

base them with 3mm mdf

How bout just mounting them on hardboard or MDF board. Should work.
Peter

I have no problem with my Styrofoam hills but do recommend the following.

Good home recipe.

I use the pink foam or high density material.
Cut and score hills to taste.
Paint the underside as this will reduce warping.
Paint the upper part next as this will be landscaped.
I do not cover the entire hill with grass, but apply a mix of sand/white glue in patches.
The areas not covered by sand/white glue cover these spots with grass.

Battlefield Terrain Concepts sells resin hills. They have a good heft so lie flat. He makes them in a variety of sets of varying sizes. One of my "go to" suppliers for terrain of all kinds.

Have you tried putting them under a gaming cloth? That will smooth them into the terrain more

I started doing this, partly for this very reason.

I've found this also keeps the hills from shifting around by accident. I cover the table in one of my old pieces of felt, place the hills, then drape the terrain cloth over the top. The hills are immobilized by friction – they actually stick to felt pretty well.

- Ix

If you want to make new hills, a couple words about that:

What I don't like about stiff hills (MDF, et al) is that they don't solve the problem. If the table is uneven, the hills still create gaps, because they're too stiff to conform. I got rid of my rigid hill experiments.

You could try carving your hills out of something denser but still flexible. The foam used for puzzle-piece floor mats is about the right weight and flexibility, and can be painted with latex paints, or flocked using latex caulking as a flocking cement.

You could also just keep your existing hills and cover each one with a slightly oversized cloth top matched to your ground cloth. If the edges of the cloth top extend slightly beyond the foam hill edges, they will drape over the gaps underneath and hide them.

- Ix

Various good ideas already. A couple of others:
--painting the underside is good for a number of reasons--not least making gaps less conspicuous--but felting the underside does that too, and also makes the hills less prone to slide.
--I've mostly bought them second-hand, but look for "hollow hills"--grassed hard plastic. They can be stepped on or leaned on heavily and split, but they can also be fixed. And they won't curl up at the edges.
--plain foam--not Styrofoam--cut in slabs is a little Old School, but a decent grade will hold grass and won't crush or curl, and you have the advantages which go with "wedding cake" hills--the troops stand upright, and you know what elevation they're at.
Me? I use everything--just not all at once.

I like wedding cake hills under my terrain cloth. I actually cut my hill contours out of half inch plywood with a 45 degree slant.

They are heave enough to stay in place, blend nicely as they are under the cloth, and cutting at a slant takes away some of the wedding cake look while leaving flat spac for troops to stand. I also don;t care of they get dinged in storage, as they are under the cloth.

Look for mattress foam as an alternate. I've had mine for many years.

I think the OP should have been hills that flat lie, "I always lay flat on the table, honest."

I use home made Styrofoam hills and don't have any problems as gaps. One thing I do is to take an "Aim a Flame" lighter and melt the edges until I get the slope I want. Also gives an irregular jagged effect to the edges. My gaming table is made of 2ft.X4ft. ceiling tiles to which I have glued a vinyl sheet of Woodland Scenic's grass mat. I push thumb tacks through a piece of mat board and glue it to the bottom of the hill. Keeps it from sliding. Hope this "Battles on a Budget" tip helps.

I indirectly use Yellow Admiral's idea of the foam puzzle pieces. I place the foam puzzle pieces on top of table as a base and then use toothpicks to pin the foam hills into the foam puzzle base. Then all of the terrain is covered with green table mats.