Finishing the Sci-Fi buildings and some foam hills

I have finished making all the terrain I currently need for my Star Wars project, which included one final building and a few hills. For the hills, I decided to try using upholstery foam. It is dense enough to support the weight of the models without any sagging. I have used foam for hills before, but that was for my smaller scale 6mm WWII armies (see here).

A completed foam hill with Rebels taking up position.

The upholstery foam I purchased for $30 was much thicker than needed at 100mm (almost 4 inches). So the first step was to slice it in half, bringing the height down to a more suitable 50mm which will work well with the 35mm Star Wars Legion figures. I did this using a sharp kitchen knife. After the hills were cut out, I then shaped them with scissors. In all I made two smaller hills and one larger one.

After shaping all three hills, they were all given an initial coat of watered-down sand-coloured paint. While the paint was still wet I added a darker sand colour around the sides, followed by a purple-brown wash at the base. Doing this while the paint I still wet allows the colours to be blended. The hills were left to dry in a warm spot for around 24 hours. It takes the foam takes a very long time to dry out thoroughly. Once fully dry, I finished them off by dry-brushing them with a light sand colour.

The 100mm upholstery foam, far too high to be used as a hill for the Star Wars Legion miniatures which stand 35mm high.

The foam is cut to size, then sliced in half using a sharp kitchen knife.

Preparing for shaping the hill.

The hills are shaped with scissors.

The hills are painted a sand colour using watered down paint.

The hill sides are painted with a dark sand colour and the bottom the hill a purple-brown colour. Once dry they are dry-brushed with a light sand colour.

The large hill being defended by Empire forces.

The final building for this project is now made and painted. I generally try to finish all the buildings in one go, or at least over a few painting sessions, as this helps with giving the buildings a consistent look. I have found that coming back later to add more buildings often results in slight variations in style or colour choices as I always seem to forget one step or colour that I originally used.

All the buildings have flat roofs, allowing me to swap in different rooftop features using the scatter terrain made from old down-lights, parts off an old lamp, and leftover piping from our house renovations.

The final building is completed.

All the buildings and scatter terrain.

The flat building roofs allow the features to be swapped and provide a different look.

I found a cheap Empire TIE Fighter online. While it is 1/72 scale, smaller than the Star Wars Legion figures, which are closer to 1/48 scale, that does not really matter. I generally prefer to use slightly scaled-down aircraft, as they look better on the tabletop because they do not overwhelm the other miniatures.

A recent purchase of a Star Wars TIE fighter.

And finally, I am starting to get a few more games played. I have been using and modifying scenarios from the One-Hour Wargames book. 

All this terrain modelling and painting has meant I have not been able to write up a battle report this week as I had hoped.

A game underway.