This page has some reasonably simple terrain making ideas for 6mm games that I have discovered in the net or in books, or created over the years. I often look at larger scale terrain making articles as they will quite often work for 6mm scale terrain.

There isn't a lot of specialist terrain out there in this scale or the stuff that is available isn't always well suited to everyones requirements, so sometimes you have to make your own. Hopefully these ideas will help you with some ideas or inspire you to make your own or get someone else to make it for you.

Click on each image to see a larger version.




Fire Station











I had some fire engines from Irregular that I wanted to use so I decided to scratch build a fire station. I figured it would be a pretty basic shape to build, and I had some spare plastic card offcuts lying around. For the building I used 0.5, 1 and 2mm plastic with some cladding sheets for the roof. The building could also be used as a garage or a workshop.

Construction steps

  • The sides. I measured how much space 3 vehicles would take up and then cut out the sides and back pieces. Then realised the building was too low so I added a thicker lower section, and before I glued it all together with plastic cement, I cut out some small windows.

  • Next I used some 0.5mm offcuts to help reinforce the interior walls and a strip along the top to reinforce the front. The roof was made from some textured plasticard and a couple of square pieces were add (to represent skylights) and a piece of wire for a drainpipe. I wanted the fire engines to be removable so I drilled out the base and glued some rare earth magnets in there and made them flush with the floor(these match the magnets on my fire engines).

  • I added some detail to the base including a CNC lampost and a small side shed with some offcuts of plasticard around it. Next I used some modelling putty to fill any gaps and joins and to give the smooth plasticard some texture and then painted the building. It still looks a bit unfinished so I might add a couple of sliding doors to it.





Town Square










I usually have a town square in each of my town as I find them helpful to park vehicles in or to fill up space. This is a very simple scratchbuild and you could make it look better by using textured plastic card to represent cobbled roads.


Construction steps

  • The base was made from 2mm plasticard and the statue is from an old H&R Napoleonic Hussar figure which I glued it to a block of balsa.

  • Then the base of the statue was made from a piece of plasticard, which I scribed some stone work onto.

  • Next the base was textured with a very thin layer of Selleys no more gaps and the whole thing was painted. Another option is to scribe the base similar to the base of the statue or use textured square plastic card as cobblestones.





Gardens










This is another simple feature to make and adds a bit of colour to your towns and cities, or it could be part of a garden from a chateau. I also used the same flock mixture around the base of some buildings to represent flower gardens.

Construction steps

  • First I textured the base and painted it and them mixed some flock in with some of Woodlands scenics flower flock (3 different mix of white, yellow and red). Then I glued each pacth onto the base leaving some gaps for pathways.

  • The fountain in the middle was made from plasticard scribed to look like stones and the center part was from a roadwheel off a 1/72 Marder IFV.Just use whatever appropiate peices of scrap plastic you have around.

  • After that I thought it still looked bit plain so I added some hedges (made from pipe cleaners covered in flock) and brass etched gates.





Paddock and fields












This is another terrain feature which can be adapted to fit with your terrain. I made these to be used this on the outskirts of a village or as part of a farm. Obviously these can be much larger or made as separate terrain features with different shapes/types of fields and tree lines etc. I still need to add another picture here of some finished fields and hopefully I can do that soon.

Construction steps

  • The fields were made from a leftover piece of Noch field which I glued to the base and a scratch build shed. You can also use standard flock for fields but I prefer the fields that they make.

  • The sheep on the paddock are from Irregular and so are the fences and gate. I filed down the bases a little (as they are pretty thick) and then glued them onto a piece of plasticard.

  • Finally I added some filler to the base and painted and flocked them.





Stone walls











While there is a good selection of commercially made walls available, it is also useful make some of your own walls as the commercially made ones don't always fit onto your bases or around the buildings how you'd like. I wanted a quick and reasonably easy method to make some nice looking walls en masse.

Construction steps

  • These were made from 1mm thick plasticard which I cut into strips (each 5mm high) and glued to the bases. This is a bit higher than the wall should be, but by the time you add some flock they are only about 3-4mm higher than the ground, and it looks right next to based figures

  • Then I added some thin pieces along the sides of the walls as supporting columns. Next the walls were coated with a very thin layer of miliput putty. Then I rolled a very thin strip of green stuff out and stuck it along the top of the wall and shaped it to fit the wall.

  • Then I left the green stuff for a few minutes and then I pushed the knife blade into the green stuff at regular intervals (At right angles to the wall) to create the tiles (see the picture for more details). Sometimes it is worth using a thin PVA wash or other glue to hold down the tiles better as they lift off sometimes when they harden.

  • Once the putty had hardened I painted the walls. I prefer to paint them before I mount them because it can be hard to get the brush into where you want once they are based. The downside of this is that you sometimes need to fill and touch up some of the corners or joins.





More stone walls











This construction is a variation of the stone walls above and in some ways is easier to make. I think it is good to have some different wall styles on your table.

Construction steps

  • Using the same 5mm high strips, then bevel the top edge to create a slight angle (or if your like me you usually cut it crooked and end up with a bevelled edge anyway) by scraping it with a sharp modelling knife.

  • Next I added some thin pieces along the sides of the walls as supporting columns. Then cut a strip of .5mm plastic about 2mm wide and glue it to the top of the wall. It should sit on a slight angle (see pictures for more details). Then the walls were coated with a very thin layer of miliput putty.

  • Then using a sharp knife, score the top of it at regular intervals to create the separate tiles. You can also cut small pieces out of the top piece to represent broken and chipped tiles. Note it may be easier to do this before you glue the strip on as the pressure of scoring with a knife may break the strip off!





Stone walls with iron railings











I got some of the lovely brass etched fences from Scale Link a while back ( see here for the review) and I decided to see how they would look if I mounted the pieces on top of a piece of plastic stone wall to look like a stone and cast iron wall. I used both halves of the brass etched fence and each half will create two different styles of fence railing (also I was trying to not waste too much of this as its not that cheap).

Construction steps

  • To begin with I cut some 0.5mm plasticard into strips (2 strips 4mm high and 1 strip 2.5mm high) and glued one of the taller sections to one of the lower sections, leaving an overlap along one edge.

  • Then I cut a etched brass fence sections in half and glued one half of the brass fence to my plasticard section onto the overlap part of the plastic card (this part was very fiddly) with superglue.

  • Then I glued the other plasticard section onto the other pieces to sandwich the brass etched fence in the middle and to form a U shape around the brass fencing piece (see picture for more details).

  • For the wall end pieces and columns, I used 1.5mm square pieces of plastic. Finally I smeared the wall with a thin layer of Milliput putty to give it a rough texture. Instead you could use 2mm square instead to make thicker columns.





Garden shed or Lean to











This was a quick shed I knocked together to add some detail to the back garden of a house. I remember seeing somewhere on the web a similar idea but in a larger scale. It was made from plasticard rather than balsa to make it stronger.

Construction steps

  • I used a piece cladding plastic card which I cut to size of the roof of the shed. Then I cut the main corner beams and glued them onto the underneath of the roof.

  • Next I added some strips of plasticard as support pieces along the side and back, and some angled pieces on the front.

  • Finally I painted it and glued it onto the base, near a couple trees so hopefully it won't get damaged. To add more detail you could also score the plasticard beams to get a wood texture but I don't know if you would see it in this scale. Also you could add farm machinery and boxes etc inside it to bring it to life more.





Minefields











I created these minefields for a 1980s attack defense game set in the Fulda gap. I needed about 30 so I had to come up with a quick method for making these.

Construction steps

  • To begin with I cut some plasticard into sizes suitable for the WRG rules which I play. The I got some wire and bent it into a U shape and glued 3 sections on each piece of plastic.

  • Next I textured the base with Selleys no more gaps and painted it and drybrushed it. I was in a hurry so I glued some flock onto the bases. Next time I would create more bare earth patches to make it look like it had been dug up.

  • Lastly I used some cotton and tied it around the stakes and wrapped it around all the stakes a couple of times and painted it with a gunmetal colour. Then I printed out the sign using about a 6 or 8pt font (the skull and crossbones is a wingding symbol I think).






6mm Wargaming

Useful links

Irregular Miniatures
Huge range of Naploeonic figures for 6mm

Baccus Miniatures
Very good quality range of 6mm Napoleonics and my prefered supplier




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Last updated

16th November 2009