D&D 4E Some 3d Terrain for 4e Campaign

[CodexofRome]

I'm running a 4e campaign for a group of six new players. I wanted to be able to complement the miniatures with some interesting terrain. So I built some 3d geomorphic map boards. These were based off the Skeleton Key Games Caverns sets. They were built on six inch square wooden boards. The boards were painted with greyish "stone texture" spray paint purchased at home depot. I then laid out 1" grids on the boards. And I'll admit straight up my lines and cuts were pretty bad! On the bottom of each board, I glued a felt pad.

I cut out 1" high styrofoam in the shape of the walls and glued it to the board. The styrofoam got a coat of textures plaster of paris. When dry, I washed it with diluted gray and brown acrylic paint.

I've got about 20 tiles done, and they allow me to set up a wide variety of caverns environments for encounters. In addition, I've been working on 1" and 2" square terrain pieces... pools, pits, stalagmites, etc.

I managed to keep the construction time to a minimum by doing everything in big steps. Priming, marking and cutting the boards in one fell swoop. Cutting and mounting the styrofoam. Then painting each board's walls.

My next venture in this direction will be to do some generic dungeon geomorphs.

I also built a 2 foot square 3d map of the city where the campaign kicked off. The map is roughly 1:400 scale.

 

[Foxen]

Wow....especially the city...wow.

 

[WampusCat43]

I'd like to be able to do something like that with the styrofoam walls. Curious as to why you glued them to the boards - why not just put some weight on the bottom of them (so they stay in place a little better) and place where required?

 

[Rowe]

That City is amazing. i am truely impressed.

I am working on a project as well. Taking the dungeon tile sets and making them into smart object PSD library files. where you can drag and drop peices onto a blank page, and have them line up. as well as being able to print of life size versions of your map, as well as a 1 page preview version.

here is an example

 

[CodexofRome]

I'd like to be able to do something like that with the styrofoam walls. Curious as to why you glued them to the boards - why not just put some weight on the bottom of them (so they stay in place a little better) and place where required?

That's an excellent idea, and one I've been considering. I'm trying to focus on building only what I need for the encounters I'm planning. The next session will feature a number of pieces that will be free standing as you suggest.

The reason I started with gluing them to the boards was that my original inspiration was the SKG tiles... I was literally using them as templates.

 

[WampusCat43]

This is something I've been wanting for a long time. We use a projector, and creating a map from scratch has always been time-consuming. This looks like it could be a big help. Please let me know how it turns out, thanks.