Market Terrain Bits

Most wargamers know that there's a lot of great terrain products, including small details(sandbags, barrels, crates, etc.), out on the market.  Although I am a consistent consumer of those items(love the Pegasus Hobbies pieces) myself, I sought to 'homebrew' a few bits myself to showcase some inexpensive alternatives.  Below are some pics of items I 'dressed up' for Warmachine boards, or you can visit my Youtube tutorial on these small items. If you are new to terrain-building, and looking for a simple project to "cut your teeth" on, here ya go...

The first item is my 'fruit basket".  The structure is basically an inverted cap to a spray bottle(such as cleaners, tanning spray lotions, etc.) with balsa bits on the outside.  I ringed these with cardboard to create the metal 'rims'.  I filled up the bottle cap with foam and placed my "fruit"(in this case, peppercorns) on top.  After painting, I had a nice fruit basket...

Second, I found some nice wooden crafts bits(Finial Dowel Cap) at a Michael's that were well suited to becoming "urns" or pottery for my market.  I painted them tan, washed them with a brown ink, and added a simple design.  I filled the urn with some bristles from a make-up brush(field grass would do as well)...

Finally, I've been looking for a while for wooden craft bits that resemble barrels.  Found 'em at Hobby Lobby.  These "mini pickle barrels" are to scale and just needed a little dressing up.  I tried to carve in the planks but that didn't work out too well- so I drew on the vertical planking lines with a paint marker(fine tip)...

So there you have it- I estimate that for under $7 dollars(including peppercorns!) you could have nine barrels, six urns and 3-4 fruit baskets- not bad!
For a video description of this project click on the video link below...


My next terrain project will be a Warjack Repair Shop!