Getting ready for my upcoming Frostgrave games, I had long before Frostgrave agonized over having to do and how to do a set of cobbletstone terrain for a frozen city.
First thinking that I needed a whole cobblestone mat or a whole cobblestone board, I became discouraged. I also did not want to permanently paint cobblestone areas on my generic winter mat as it would seriously limit what it could be used for.
But then after looking at my 4 x 6 gaming table area, I realized that the real solution was to create small pockets of cobblestone areas surrounded by snow that could be placed and then removed. Really wouldn't need more than half a dozen or so to be effective.
After thinking about materials, I knew that I wanted it to be as close to flat as possible, so that it would appear to be cobblestone actually under the level of snow. MDF and cork board wouldn't work, because the cobblestone would be raised up too much, it wouldn't look like part of a larger cobblestone area that was buried under the snow. Thin plastic modeling card would work, but I wanted to avoid having to put that much money into the project.
I really wanted something cheap and easy and efficient.
Finally found it. Craft felt! More specifically black craft felt! For a grand total of 1 dollar, I bought four pieces of it. I then simply cut random shapes out of the felt and threw the excess away.
Then I took some medium gray paint and simply painted random stone shapes on the felt, leaving the classic cobblestone seams and cracks in between the stones.
After painting them, I mixed up some snow paste with white glue, white paint, and baking soda. I applied the paste to the edges of each piece and to a few areas in the middle of each piece. Then I kind of lightly dabbed the edges of the paste to make it look more like natural snow that had blown away to reveal the stones underneath. Finally I sprinkled some snow flock over the wet paste.
And that was it! Easiest and cheapest terrain I ever made!
Some pictures of the results:
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ponders nirvana.
