How to make Foam Terrain for wargaming and dioramas - Part 3 -Detail, sculpting and finishing

In this part of the tutorial I will show you how I sculpt the foam to make the terrain look realistic. There are lots of different tools I use and you can improvise if you don't have hot wire cutting tools. All kinds of common tools can be used and one of the most effective things is plain old sand paper.

The important thing to think about when doing the detail work is that you work your way down to the details. Start with the large and rough work such as cliffs and hills so you get the major shapes right. Then you work your way down to the finer details.

The picture at left shows me using a wire foam cutter to rough out the major shapes of the landscape.

Once all the major landscape features are complete I begin doing the larger detail figures. I cut out a slot for the stairs then I sculpted the stairs from a piece of foam and glued it into place.

Foam terrain is flexible in this way. You can remove pieces, sculpt and cut away piece and sculpt pieces and add them in. Be creative.

In this picture I show how I use the hot wire cutter to detail the crenellations in the castle walls.

One of the best things you can do is to use sheets of sandpaper to sand down the surface (ground) of the terrain. This will give it a landscape like look with peaks and valleys. The extreme flatness of the foam is not very appealing and doesn't look natural so sand it down a bit to give it some curves, peaks, and valleys.

Once all the sculpting details are done you are ready to do the typical landscaping painting and detail adding. I don't show you how to do this in this tutorial but I do have plenty of tutorials on this process.

How to Make a Diorama

Here is a picture of the completed project.

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Miniatures
Table of Contents

1. Miniature Home
2. Making Miniature Trees
3. Painting Miniatures Tutorial start
4. The Paints
5. Close-up of the completed Warhorse
6. Adding texture to the base for realism
7. Tips and hints for painting miniatures
8. Diorama and Miniature supply Store
9. New Painting Miniature Tutorial: A Spartan Warrior
10. VIDEO TUTORIAL: How to paint miniatures
11. Miniature Paints and kits at Amazon
12. Ral Partha Miniatures
13. Links and info about manufacturers of miniatures
14. Explanation of Miniature Scale
15. Use foam to make wargaminr or diorama terrain
16. How to Cast Miniatures

Sculpting Fantasy Miniatures

NEW: How to sculpt fantasy miniatures

1. Part 1 - intro
2. Part 2 - Drawings
3. Part 3 - Making Wire Armatures
4. Part 4 - Your first miniature 6"
5. Part 5 - Make a 3" miniature
6. Part 6 - Sculpting the musculature of the 3" Miniature Viking
7. Part 7 - begin sculpting the armor by adding the helmet
8. Part 8: Sculpting leather and chainmail
9. Part 9: Adding Belt, bracers and boots
10. Part 10: Painting the Miniature
11. Part 11: 25mm Female Warrior
12. Part 12 : The basic shape of the mini
13. Part 13: Completing the body
14. Part 14: Adding the swords and doing detail
15. Part 15: Painting and finishing the miniature
16. Sculpting Fantasy Miniatures Video Tutorials
17. Sculpting miniatures store- all the supplies you need.
18. Sculpting tips
19. Sculpt a Dwarf
20. Sculpt a Treasure Chest
21. Sculpt a Raver and a GegenHound

Short Tutorials

1. How to Make a miniature ladder
2. Make a Miniature Hedge Maze (The Maze of Maddness)

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