Scenery
| Rivers | Buildings | Trees | Hills | Piping |
| Water tanks | Brush | Fencing | Oddball stuff | Painting tips |
| How to make a simple building | Premade Cutouts |
Here, I will attempt to help you to make better looking scenery for a better looking and hopefully more enjoyable battle.
Also, there are some premade cut-outs that I have collected from the web. Most are fantasy buildings, but there are a couple 40k buildings. If you have or know where I can find more, let me know.
Rivers are easy to make- First you need to make two templates, (these are for tracing the other river sections) a straight section and a curved section. You may want to measure both ends of both templates to make sure that they are the same width. A good width for the ends is about 3-4 inches. The templates, which can actually become part of the river itself, can be made of most anything, the easiest and most common material is card board. The middle doesn't matter as far as width of the river, just as long as the ends are the same. Now you can use your template to make as many sections as you want. To get banks on your river, cut strips of card board about half an inch wide and the length of the template, you will need an inside and outside bank for your curved sections. Once again, make sure the ends are all the same width. You will need to do this with all the sections you made. Then glue the banks to the river, about half an inch from the edge, you don't want to glue them to the edge because your rivers will have drop offs on each side. Now you are ready to paint your river, paint the water first, start with a deep blue, then add a light blue for the currents, make sure the currents leave each side of the section at the same distance from the sides. To make the water reflective, there are two ways, number one, the easy way, take gloss spray enamel, and coat the painted water, or use white elmers glue, just a thin layer. For the banks of the river first paint them green, then take either some flock or lichen or you can make textured paint, this adds weight to the sections, for making textured paint see the oddball section.
Buildings are a bit more complicated, you can get some good ideas for basic shapes of buildings in white dwarf magazines, model railroading and many others. First you need to get an idea of what you want your building to look like. Is it going to have sloped sides? Peaked or flat roof? What is the building, smithy? church? etc. The next thing you need to do is to sketch out the sides and roof, plus any extra extensions you may add, this is the basis and helps you to get an idea of what you're going to be doing. Then you need to measure each section and make sure it matches the dimensions of the rest of the building. Now you need to figure out where your doors and windows are going to be. For fantasy buildings I like to make a frame for the windows and doors, thin card board strips work great. Then glue a door or window into the frame. As for 40k buildings a simple door with hinges works just as well. If you have a brick building then cut out little rectangles, you don't need a lot, just enough to make one or two groups of three or four bricks on each wall. For wood, again thin strips of card work great. The most difficult ones are the flat plain walls, try not to let this happen, if it does, find something to paint rust dripping from, or a section of damp wall, or, if it's a 40k building cut some odd angular shapes to glue to it, then paint buttons and dials on them. Shingles are easy but tedious, take a thin card the length of the roof and cut them into strips about half inch wide, then every quarter inch or so, cut out a triangular piece. Glue them on starting from the bottom and over lapping as you go up. When adding little bits here and there, for fantasy buildings look for stuff wherever they sell doll house stuff, for 40k, plastic car, plane, and boat models work great.
Trees are the easiest thing to make, I buy the plastic kits of like 14 trees for about 10 dollars. The only bad part is you have to twist the trees to make them 3D then glue on the leaves. I usually put most of mine on a base with about 3 or 4 trees then add foliage to the base.
For the alien cactus plants, you can go to a craft store and buy styrofoam balls about 6 for a dollar, and for a dollar you can buy the round tooth picks, enough to last a long time. All you do is cut the tooth picks to length, poke then into the balls, glue the styrofoam to a base paint and add foliage.
Hills are also fairly easy, you can buy sheets of good compact styrofoam, like a 5x2 1/2 feet sheet for roughly 2 or 3 dollars, 99 cents on sale! You can also get sheets of green felt 4 for a dollar. When cutting out my hills I like to make two or three stackable three story hills, this let you arrange them as the need arises. Once you got you hills cut out you need to angle the edges, I use an exacto knife, and cut your felt to cover the top. Once the felt is glued into place, all that's left is to paint the sides. (of course, the sheets also come in green, if they have them in stock.)
Piping is also fairly easy to make. All you need are some straws and black and silver paint. The bendy straws work best. If you don't have bendy straws then you need to cut a 45 degree angle in the straw, rotate one section so that you now have a 90 degree bend in your pipe, and glue together. With the bendy straws you can just simply bend to a curved 90 degrees (or whatever angle you need). Once you have your pipe together give it an undercoat of black (simply put- paint the whole thing black). Then drybrush silver over the black (once it's dry!) This creates a simple but effective used metal look.
What you need for these is: some thin cardboard, like a cereal packet, and those used up toilet paper rolls. the hardest part of this is cutting a good circle from the cardboard to cover the ends of your water tank. The simplest way is to try and trace the ends on the cardboard then cut as carefully as possible. Once this is done, you can glue the ends on, then paint a base coat it can be just about any color. Then drybush silver, not too much, just enough to make it look like painted metal, then with a little more paint (but not much more) drybrush a copper color, this will give an effect of rust. The final step is to add, rails, ladders, platforms, or whatever. Balsa wood works great for sturdy platforms and is fairly cheap. Tooth picks or little craft sticks are great for making ladders and rails. Bits from model car engines make great addons for controls and the like.
A simple yet often over looked way of adding texture and scenery to your battle field. All this consists of is putting lichen of any sorts on a base, wether it be a large clump for a bush, or a thin line for hedges.
For a good wood fence, once again the craft sticks come into play, the craft sticks look like square toothpicks but don't taper at one end. Simply glue these together in small sections of whatever type of fence you want. For a more modern look, try adding piping along the bottom. You may also want to put some flock around the bottom.
Some oddball stuff may include: wall sections, crates, ponds, swamps, etc. If you want wall sections to match the ones that came with warhammer 40k 2nd edition, you can either color copy the ones from that box set or scan them into the computer, (then you can mirror the wall and have both sides) you then take the little green berry baskets and cut them to the shape of your wall, (make sure to leave some of the grid hanging out to paint as the inner support structure. For more midevil looking walls, it's easier to use thin sheets of styrofoam, painted and with bricks added on.
Crates you can make simply by cutting 2 shorter equal length pieces of card board and 2 longer equal pieces of card board and glue them together to make a box.Then fill it with extra weapons from 40k sprues or whatever you want.
Ponds are made in the similar way rivers are.
Swampy areas you can make in the same way rivers are, but with a slight twist. Add modeling grass in small clumps for weeds, reeds or whatever. The grass comes in about 1-2 inch length so you may need to cut it to scale. You can also use this same technique for grassy areas, without the water though, or the gloss sealer.
Some techniques I use are as follows:
For painting regular troops, most of the time I want a dark colored army so all my miniatures get undercoated with black. For shading I use a black wash, this gives a simple but effective look. Weapons are almost always undercoated in black, drybrushed silver. Hair and feathers, stuff like that, are undercoated black with a drybrush of the color you want, or you can paint the area fully then give it a black wash, this looks much better. A wash is simply extremely watered down paint.
For large troops, characters, and vehicles/war machines, I outline edged areas with white or you can take the time to mix up a lighter color of the area. This is actually a more difficult technique as you need to be very carefully as to not get too much paint on an area. Wipe most the paint off your brush, not as much as drybrushing though, and use the edge of the brush, if you can, to lightly go over any and all corners and edges. I also take the time to not only give them a proper wash (a darker color than the one on the area to be painted) but also drybrush the entire miniature, properly.
| Construnction | Design | Detail |
| Painting | Shopping list | Why Scenery |
If you want to make a building from scratch, you'll need some sheet plastic to build a basic box out of. Ask the plastic supply store to cut your plastic into 3"or 4" wide strips. Then, cut the strips to your desired length and use them to make the walls by filing the edges smooth and gluing them together. Make sure your strips are paired off in length, or your building won't be square. You can use Necromunda bulkheads as walls if you want- just use 3" high strips for your other walls.
You can add extra strength to your "box" by gluing 90 degree V-shaped plastic
on the outside corner, or square plastic to the inside corner. If you want
open doors or windows, don't forget to cut these out before you assemble
the walls. Then glue on a roof, and add some detail, and presto! Remember,
by making a box shape to start with, your scenery will look more solid and
massive, and therefore realistic. Try to avoid having walls that can be seen
from both sides, as it will not usually be thick enough to be convincing.
A Box shape conceals the inside of the building, and leaves no wall edge
visible to give away the fact that your walls and roof are not really
thick.
HOW DO I CUT THINGS APART?
You can use Scissors for your paper thin sheet styrene and thin sheet lead. A Hobby Knife or Diagonal Nippy Cutters are perfect for trimming and cutting small model parts, solder, or strip plastic. For larger pieces, use a Razor Saw (a thin, square saw blade available in hobby shops) or a jeweler's saw. For thick sheet plastic, use a paper cutter or tin snips. You can also score sheet plastic by scraping the back of a hobby knife along the plastic (use a ruler to get a straight line), then snap the plastic along the score line. Remember that if you are constructing a building from scratch, you want to size your wall sections exactly and get the straightest cuts possible! Use a T Square or a CD case to make sure all your right angles are true and mark your lines with a permanent pen before you cut, otherwise you'll have a hard time assembling your building. By careful cutting and sawing, you can get your parts to just the right size. If you get seriously into building, you can buy a Moto-Tool. A moto-tool is a small, hand held, high speed drill like those you see dentists use, except it can also fit small grinding or cutting wheels and other bits (similar to a Router). Dremel is a popular brand of moto-tool. You can use a cut-off wheel or cutting bits to cut holes into walls, or cut up darn near anything (even metal). Be sure to wear safety glasses every time you use a Moto-tool! You can find Moto-tools in fine hardware or hobby shops.
HOW DO I MAKE THINGS SMOOTH AND FLAT?
Metal files are good for shaping small plastic parts. You can make a sanding pad by clipping a sheet of medium sandpaper to a clipboard, and put a rubber band around the bottom to hold the paper in place. Then press your part against the sandpaper, and rub in a circular motion to get a smooth, flat surface suitable for gluing or painting. Use small squares of sandpaper to smooth curved or uneven surfaces. Large, flat surfaces glue best, so be sure you always flatten out any surfaces you intend to glue together. You can also use a Moto Tool with a grinding wheel or sanding drum to quickly smooth things, or even sand curved shapes into things. Remember to wear safety glasses if you use a Moto-Tool.
HOW DO I GLUE IT ALL TOGETHER?
You can easily assemble your scenery using two kinds of glue: solvent cement and CA glue. Both of these glues dry pretty fast, so you can hold the part in place by hand while it glues. Solvent cement usually comes in a glass bottle with a brush attached to the cap. It will glue a number of different plastics together, including ABS (often used in toys) and Styrene (used in every plastic model kit). Just brush a little on both surfaces and press together. Then touch the brush to the edges for capillary action to soak around the edges.
CA glue(short for Cyano-Acrilate, also known as superglue) will glue just about anything- metal, rubber, wood, plastic, etc. You can buy CA glue from your local hobby store. Some brands, like Zap-A-Gap, have a filler in them that makes them thicker, so they don't run so much and will fill gaps (well suited to gluing chunky things like scenery). Be sure your surfaces are filed or sanded flat, then put a drop or two on the smaller surface and press onto the larger.
Now for a helpful trick: if you use too much, CA glue can be very messy and take a while to dry. To make it dry quickly and to help fill gaps, use a little baking soda. Fill a squeeze bottle full of Baking Soda to blow gently on the glue, "dusting" lightly with the Baking soda to cure the glue quickly and help fill gaps! This may leave a slightly grainy texture, but that just adds to the realism! This is a great way to make strong joints on pieces that don't fit together perfectly. Use an old toothbrush to brush off excess baking soda, and be sure to vacuum when you are done.
Okay, so now you have a room filled with parts and bits. What do you want to make of them? For your first piece of scenery, I recommend starting with something small. It's easier to build, detail and paint a small piece of scenery, and you can field it that much sooner. Also important is to select something you really have an interest in -that interest will help you complete your model. Is it that refinery, with loads of pipes, drums and tanks? Or that Imperial bunker, with firing slits and sloped walls? Or even a simple pile of drums and crates to loot or hide behind? For ideas and inspiration,You might look at the scenery that appears in Games Workshop'sWhite Dwarf magazine. Owen Branham has done a nice job of making detailed, interesting scenery that really captures the war torn, gothic feel of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Second, grab a camera and watch out for real scenery that you particularly like- the local Church, the back of a warehouse, that auto factory. Travel by rail if you want to really see the gritty, industrial side of your surroundings. Then put your Gothic Reference and Industrial Reference photos in an album, so you can refer to them for ideas (and to prove to your friends that buildings really DO have giant ventilators and pipes and gargoyles on them).
Third, check out the set dressing in almost any Sci-Fi, Horror, or Fantasy film. Some of my favorites include: Judge Dredd, Fifth Element, Blade Runner, Brazil (and 12 Monkeys), Matrix, Robocop(1 and 2), Escape from New York (and LA), The Crow, Mortal Kombat (1 and 2), Max Headroom, Alien, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Batman, Road Warrior (and Razorback), Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). Once you are inspired, start gathering materials that are appropriate. You'll want a basic shape to start with that you can add detail to, usually a rectangle (though any shape will do). Draw a few quick sketches if you want to plan ahead before you start gluing things on. Also, remember these four basic guidelines for any good scenery design:
1. FLAT ROOF- always put a flat roof on your
buildings! You'll want to put models and markers up there, and a pointy roof
is only going to cause trouble. Flat roofs also allow you to design modular
scenery that can be stacked on top of each other to form multi-story buildings.
Catwalks are also easier to set up if you have a flat surface for them to
rest on. You can make a roof just by gluing a sheet of plastic on the top
of your building and adding a few bits of detail like pipes, vents, or edging.
2. COVER- Make sure your building has at least
a couple of bits that stick out an inch or more away from the walls, preferably
at ground level. An open door, a fuel tank, a stack of crates, or maintenance
box can provide side cover that will protect your miniatures when they are
near the building. Also, assume any models placed on the roof are inside,
and grant them full cover.
3. PLASTIC MARINE- keep an assembled marine
handy at all times during construction (it does not have to be painted),
especially for unusual outdoor scenery, like barricades or rubble. You want
to create as many areas as possible for your marine to fit into or be able
to stand on. Provide waist or chest-high cover from as many directions as
possible. Add solid railings and floor plates where needed. Remember, if
your scenery doesn't provide enough room or enough cover, no one will use
it!
4. AVOID LARGE CURVES- if you want to make a
huge fuel tank or water tower, be sure to add some supporting buttresses
that stick out or a square base to it at least 1" high. Large curves make
it extremely hard to draw line of sight and determine whether a model has
cover or not , so be careful.
A WORD ABOUT SCALE:
GW's models are about 30 millimeters in height for the average man- and bases
only make them look taller. The figures are not proportional
though- everything's much chunkier, especially weapons. If you plan
to use real models for anything (particularly military models), be aware
that although 1/48 scale is most accurate, it is extremely hard to find-
you're better off starting with 1/35 scale and selecting smaller vehicles
(World War I and II tanks are smaller than modern tanks, for example).
Ideally, an unarmored figure(Imperial Guard or Necromunda) should look
good in one of the doors or hatches of a vehicle. You may have to replace
the existing doors or hatches with your own (the hatch on the Vehicle Accessory
Sprue is great for this job!). You will almost always want to replace
personal weapons with 40K bolters, etc, and bulk up vehicle weapons with
larger tubes to make them look right. For accessories like gas cans
and oil drums, 1/35 is slightly oversized, but it looks great (and provides
more cover!).
| SCALE METHODS: | Historical Figures | Model Trains | Military Models |
| WARHAMMER, WH40K | 30MM (not 25!) | "O" scale is almost perfect | 1/48 (hard to find though). |
A plain, smooth plastic box is not a very convincing building. You'll need doors, windows, trim, winged skulls, pipes, vents, boxes, rivets, etc. to make a building look right. Most of these can be added just by cutting them to size and gluing them on. Some are more specialized. The best way to make a building look like brick is to use brick wall sections! Some train supply stores carry complete or modular brick building kits, just remember to get wall sections that are at least 3"high.
Detail is usually added to a model after basic construction is completed but before the model is painted. The quick way to add lots of detail to a model is to use Texture- something that covers large surface areas quickly with detail. Fine Detail like Rivets or Gargoyles can also be added, but requires a bit more patience. Combining the two can make a very effective model. Be sure to check out the SHOPPING section for tips on where to find cheap, effective detail bits.
Imperial scenery tends to have a lot of skulls, gargoyles, and Imperial Eagle icons on it. For gargoyles, check out GW Mail Order for epic scale demons, arcane architecture, chaos familiars, and other goodies- especially the sprues from Mordheim! You can use plastic bats from Warhammer Quest also. Be sure to check in with the local Gothic shop (or if you live in the US, check around Halloween) for plastic novelty Skull rings. Just clip the ring portion off, sand them flat, and glue them on! For nice looking wings, check out your local airport for Airline Promotional badges (often the airline's logo with wings on it). You can even combine the plastic skull with the airline badge for an impressive looking winged skull!
A quick way to make nice looking ladders is to use HO scale railroad track. Use a pair of pliers to gently twist the metal rails off the plastic ties. Then clip the outer ende of the ties off with a pair of nippy cutters and sand the edges smooth. Now just glue the ladder into place and paint it with metallic colors.
You can simulate corrugated steel panels by using ribbed floor matting, or scored sheet styrene (available in most model and train shops). For large pipes (chimneys or drainpipes), glue a small square of sheet plastic(or a small round plastic shield) to the building to act as a base plate. Then drill a hole through the plate the same size as the pipe you want to install, push the pipe in, and add a bit of glue to hold it in place.
For small pipes, like conduit and drainpipe, Drill a small hole and glue in the end of a piece of thick plumbing solder. Then bend the solder as you see fit, going around windows and corners until it re-enters the building or hits the ground. Then glue the solder flat against the building. To make brackets that look like they're holding the pipe in place, cut small strips of sheet lead and bend around the pipe so they are flat against the building on both sides and glue in place. Then glue rivets on the flat ends.
For convincing vents, cut a small square hole in your wall and glue some grill or screening to the inside of the wall. Add trim around the hole if you want by gluing short strips of plastic on, and add rivets on the corners. For air conditioning boxes, use any unique small box shape and attach to your wall over a window. You can use vehicle hatches on any small box shape to make a convincing power box or water meter, especially by adding a couple of pipes to it that go into your building.
Add I-beam plastic or model picket fences around the top of your building
to make a nice rimmed roof- this not only looks good, it helps keep your
miniatures on the building. Don't forget to attach power boxes, oil drums,
stacks of crates, and other refuse onto the back and sides of your building
for extra cover and to give it that "lived in" look. Don't worry about putting
detail on the inside of your building unless you have really large windows,
or you really want to do the extra modeling.
Once you are satisfied with your building and have run out of places to glue on detail, you are ready to paint it. Personally I like to use Enamel based paints (like the flat Testors stuff) because it makes a better wash and the metallics are nicer, plus it is more resilient than water base paints. However, you must use paint thinner to make washes and to clean your brushes, so I don't recommend enamels to everyone.
PRIMER
Much like miniatures, a building is much easier to paint if you prime it first. Unlike miniatures, you want to prime in a dark color, ideally black. That's because the fastest way to paint a large object like a building is to drybrush it! You can buy flat black spray paint or primer from from a hardware or DIY store, or your local Games Workshop. Make sure you spray outdoors, and be sure to lay out a disposable drop cloth or newspapers to spray on. If your building has windows or holes, you'll want to spray the inside first. Be sure to get your inside surfaces fully painted so they don't show up from the outside (especially if you didn't add detail to the interior). This is easier to do if you don't glue a bottom on your building. Don't worry about getting every little crack and gap painted- if you put too much primer on, you'll start to gum up your details! Wait at least a couple of hours for the primer to dry. Now, fill in those little gaps and cracks that your primer missed with some thin, flat black brush paint. Once this is dry, you are ready to begin dry brushing.
DRYBRUSHING
Get yourself a few cheap, large brushes (even those nasty nylon bristle ones will do) with a head about 1/2 inch wide, and preferably a flat (not round) head. You only want the bristles to be 1/2 to 1/8 of an inch long, so if you need to, use a pair of scissors to cut your bristles shorter. This should make them nice and stiff.
To drybrush, load your brush with paint, and brush it against a scrap of cardboard or paper until it starts to thicken, and is barely coming off the brush. Now you can apply it to your model, rubbing the brush back and forth just hard enough that the paint rubs off on the high points of your detail. Be sure to test your brush before you paint your model-paint that is too wet will streak and smear, ruining the effect. If your brush starts to dry out, you can press harder, or just repeat the process of loading your brush. For best results, go "against the grain"- brush such that the bristles run perpendicular to your detail.
For your base drybrush, you'll want to use colors appropriate for a building-rust, blue, green, brown, or gray. You can even use different colors for different parts of a building (like rust for the bricks, blue-gray for the metal bits, and brown for the roof). Textures like mesh, grid, brick and corrugated metal drybrush best, but even smooth surfaces can pick up a bit of shading and color. You'll notice that the dark primer makes your drybrushing really stand out. You can drybrush a second coat or a lighter shade to really emphasize detail.
WASHES
Now that you have some color on your building , you can make it even grungier looking by doing some washes. To wash, use a small, round brush, and mix up a small batch of really thin paint. (If you use water base paints, Inks work well for this). Soak up some thin paint with your brush, then just dab it onto your model. It will soak into the cracks, and will even streak downward quite naturally (if you hold the model right side up and give it a bit of help by blowing or brushing downward). Washes are great for simulating rust -use a reddish brown color around and below metal bits. You can also simulate grime and dirt with a dark brown wash.
To finish off your paint job, you can use some "detail" drybrushing. Wait for the washes to dry, then get a small drybrush ( about the size of a normal brush, preferably with a square head) and drybrush over small areas of detail that you wish to highlight. Use metallic colors like silver, gold or copper to highlight your metal details (rivets, pipes, plates). Use lighter shades to highlight the edges of your building (highlight brown and rust with tan, highlight blue with gray, gray with white). You can even use darker colors (dark brown) to simulate streaks of grime (under windows, around vents).
Now if you want, you can add transfers, decals, or stickers to your scenery. Use arrows, skulls, caution stripes, numbers, even blocks of text to make machinery look more realistic. To ensure they have a flat finish, apply a coat of flat lacquer over them after they have dried or are firmly attached. You can even make little storefront signs out of paper and glue them onto the front of your building. Now is also an excellent time to pull out that tiny brush and add small markings or even graffiti to your scenery!
Here's a list of places to look for materials. Once you start looking, you never know what you'll find!
Many of the larger Toy, Model, and Train shops carry materials for making Train scenery. Look for 90degree V-shaped plastic ( strips of plastic with a Right-angle cross section). These are usually made of Styrene or ABS (Plastruct is my favorite brand). These are excellent for putting on the corners of your buildings, giving them added strength and making them look more industrial or gothic. Add Rivets to their surfaces, and you'll really have something! You may find other useful cross sections too (like I-beam), as well as narrow strips of flat styrene (much easier than cutting out your own). If you can find sheets of paper-thin styrene, pick that up too- you can cut or punch useful shapes out of it with pinking shears and hole punches. Also plastic tubing can be found, in a wide range of sizes (even interlocking), perfect for making that elaborate piping system. Lastly, HO scale Train Track itself has a use- Carefully pull off the metal rails and use them for I-beam, then take the plastic track and clip off the outer edges of the ties to make a great looking ladder!
Watch for cheap train cars (HO scale cars can be found reasonably cheap). These can be cut up for all kinds of interesting details. I like to take the tanks off of tanker cars, and cut them in half, then mount them on their ends to make standing propane tanks. HO scale trestle bridges are another great source of detail, perfect for Necromunda catwalks. HO scale track can be cut down to look like nice ladders. Ask for picket fence packs- the HO scale plastic picket fence kits make nice spiky detail for your rooftops. If you're really lucky, you'll find some O-scale model buildings that are reasonably priced. O scale is almost exactly the same size as 40K and Necromunda miniatures. These make excellent starting points, as you don't need to do any construction, and can start adding detail straight away.
Some toys are about the right size and shape for making buildings out of (one of my favorites is a toy car crusher, which I stripped down and made into a Forge by adding loads of detail bits and an industrial paint job). Just remember that a typical building should be about 3-4" tall, and 4-8" wide (a rectangular shape is best). Visit second-hand shops or clearance centers, where you might find action figure playsets or vehicles with nice detail and shape, or even cheap model kits that can supply all manner of detail (Tank kits are the best- LOADED with useful bits, especially the wheels!).
For a really nice piece of scenery, you want to work with plastic(styrene and ABS are the best to work with), either flat sheets that you cut up and assemble, or a pre-existing toy or model that you convert. Plastic is easier to cut or drill than metal, and is much stronger and has a nicer look than cardboard or foam core. You can buy plastic sheet from some Hardware or DIY shops, but specialty shops are the best (like TAP plastics if there's one nearby). Ask for1/16" thick Styrene (or ABS if they don't have Styrene). You may also find some nice texture or detail on Light Diffuser Panels (even 1" grid with diamond texture inside, perfect for those 3D Space Hulk boards you always wanted to do). Be careful with these, though, they tend to be very brittle and can shatter if not carefully cut out and glued on.
Plastic tubing comes in a wide variety of sizes. If you want to model extra-huge pipes, or you need a base to make a nice water tower or sewer entrance, PVC or ABS pipe works nicely. The couplings often have interesting shapes too, so be sure to check them out. Sheet lead (the thin stuff)can also be found here- it is easy to cut and bend, and CA glue will stick it to most surfaces. Buy about a square foot of it, and cut it into thin strips which can be used to model banding and brackets around odd shapes (like pipes and beams, or even boiler and fuel tanks).
You can also make pipes for your buildings very quickly with thick solder (check in the plumbing department). The solder comes as thick as 1/8", and is easy to bend into those awkward shapes you wanton your buildings. Watch for rubber floor matting- it is cheap, and often has a nice texture (ribbed) that can help you quickly add detail to your roof or other large building areas. Window screening is a cheap source of detail too .The cloth stuff is easiest to work with, but you can find extremely fine mesh in brass if you want nice screening for vents, etc.
Electrical appliances are full of great bits, especially if they have moving parts (like a tape deck). Keep an eye on those trash bins and don't be afraid to ask "Do you want that?". You can also buy some interesting bits in computer supply stores, especially the empty cases or boxes for speakers, power supplies, etc. Wire tie wraps, switches, fans, motors, ribbed electrical tubing/sheathing, connectors, disk drive doors, even the little feet an appliance rests on can all be nice detail at the right price (cheap or free).
Disposable razors often have nice grippy detail. Just cut the heads off(careful not to nick yourself), and glue the handles against the side ofyour scenery for that extra-reinforced look. If you can find no-slip bathtub tile in strips, these often have a nice diamond-pattern on them for extra grip that simulates textured steel plating on the upper surfaces and walkways of your scenery! Also, plastic coat hangers make nice pipes, and will bend easily without kinking if you heat them up a bit.
The greatest detail you can put on scenery is rivets. Ask for 3Millimeter diameter 1/2 round beads- they are often used for little "eyes" on dolls. (Westrim is the only brand I've seen that makes these). If you finds some, they make PERFECT rivets- just glue them on! A small bag of them costs a few pennies. You can make your own rivets by buying the smallest hole punch you can find, and punch your thin sheet styrene that you bought at the hobby shop. Then just glue these punch-outs onto your scenery. You can also use small brass nails with round heads (called "brads"), or small push pins, but these are hard to drive into plastic unless you drill a tiny hole first.
Ask for Sculpey (or Fimo or any other oven-curable clay). It's great for making detail bits like sandbags, stone walls, and anything else you can carve out of clay.
Watch for fancy paper scissors that cut out interesting shapes (like the zig-zag shape of pinking shears). You can quickly make gothic style arrow- point trim by cutting zigzags out of a thin sheet of styrene, and punching holes in the "valleys"! Then just glue your trim right onto a smooth surface like a wall or a water tower. Next, ask for wedding cake trimmings (if you aren't too embarrassed)-some of the plastic columns are nice and cheap, and can add that extra bit of gothic feel to your scenery. Ask for cross-stitch Grid (plastic)- a cheap, sturdy source of grills and grates!
Check with wood crafts, they may have little bottles, barrels, and drums sold in packs (cheap because they are turned on a lathe) that will add a lot of character to your scenery. Check in with the beads and charms every once in a while- you may find something interesting. (I found a bead store that carries little skull and crossbones charms! If you live in the SF area, call General Bead at 415-255-2323). Even plastic silverware handles may have that "gothic" shape.
If you didn't get a copy of Necromunda, you're missing out on great plastic bulkheads! (You can buy a Stronghold or Firebase kit to get a couple sprues, or call GW Mail Order and they'll set you up...). In addition to just plastering bulkheads onto your scenery wholesale, you'll want to cut some up into smaller bits for more directed detail. If you are only using one "side" of a bulkhead, be sure to shave the rivets off the back side (Don't let them go to waste if they aren't going to be seen). Use a hobby knife with a chisel type blade, and push gently away from yourself. If you do it right, you can shave off an entire backed rivet, or even those cool skulls, ready to be glued onto another piece of scenery for instant detail.
Games Workshop's upcoming Gorka Morka game includes a new sprues of oil drums, gas cans and tank traps that will be a fine addition to any industrial scenery. Mordheim is an excellent source of gothic detail sprues. Be sure to pick some up before making that temple, fortress or mausoleum!
Citadel plastic shields also make a nice addition to any scenery. Even the plain, round shields are useful- glue them to the ends of your pipes to make pipe couplings (already trimmed with tiny rivets), or drill a ring of holes in the center to make a nice crank wheel for your big machinery or pipe valves. If you feel really daring, you can even cutup a Lemann Russ or Chimera kit for an arsenal of detail. Many of the newer kits come with extra bits that you can use to dress up your scenery after you have assembled the basic vehicle.
Finally, be sure to peruse the UK GW Mail Order catalogs for interesting bits... The Fantasy artillery pieces have some nice crank wheels and levers, and the vehicles have nice plates and hatches. Banner pole tops are an excellent source of Imperial icons. Don't forget Epic-many a potential gargoyle or statue there!
Scenery is even more critical in a Warhammer 40,000 or Necromunda game than Fantasy Battle, since nearly everyone carries a ranged weapon. Without some cover to hide behind, your games will be over very quickly! Tactics like flanking maneuvers, overwatch, and infiltration become a lot more exciting when you have cover to move into or around. Buildings make great objectives for a battle, and they help establish the look and feel of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Here are a few ideas you can flesh out into full missions once you have some appropriate scenery:
RAID- The building contains supplies that you must capture from the enemy.
DEMOLITION- You must blow up a building critical to the enemy!
DEFEND- You must protect your building from invading Orks,Tyranids, etc.
SHUT DOWN- The building contains a device that must be shut off .
CLEAR OUT- You must recapture a valuable building from the enemy,intact.
PRISON BREAK- You must rescue allies from an enemy prison complex.
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The Tavern