Decent terrain covers the basics. Some woods, some hills, some rock formations. Those will get you by for quite a while, and I've got tutorials on how to make versions of each of them already. Themed terrain is the next step up when it comes to terrain, and it's really what separates Games Day tables from the rest.

Terrain can have a variety of themes, but unless you have a specific story or feel you are trying to evoke, your best bet is to use the theme of your army. An Imperial Guard army will look much better with some bunkers and razorwire and trench fortifications. Tyranids look better swarming over verdant terrain that is being overrun by capillary towers and reclamation pools.

There are 2 basic challenges to themed terrain. Having the basic idea and finding the right look. For the basic idea, take a look through your codex, and any other supplement you can find that mentions your army. For example, looking through the Tau codex, there are several pictures of Tau cities. Each of these pictures shows architecture that primarily consists of narrow towers that look like fins and domes, with a variety of high-tech looking structures thrown in.

Finding the right look can be a little harder. Some people are gifted sculptors and can simply make whatever they want, much like the original artists drew the pictures in the codex. For the rest of us, it really helps to have somewhere to start. For me, I often start in the trash.

I could talk about how we live in a wasteful society and how much stuff people throw away. What's really important for this article, however, is how much really neat-looking stuff gets thrown away. Most companies try to use the shaping of their packaging to help set their product apart from others like it. They may be doing this for a tangible benefit, such as making it easier to carry or lighter weight or using less material to hold the same amount. Alternately, they may be doing it simply to make their product more visually appealing than that of a competitor. Either way, it results in some very interesting items that end up getting thrown away. If you keep your eyes open, you can find some things that you can use for your terrain.

Recently, Arrowhead redesigned their water bottles. Instead of the classic straight shape that most employ, their bottle has a narrower waist. To strengthen the bottle (I understand that it uses significantly less plastic, so it has to be a stronger shape to compensate) there are a number of reinforcing lines of plastic running around the bottle. It was these lines and that "waist" that drew my eye when I saw one.

The simple curve and the rounded shape made me think of the Tau, so I started trying to picture how I could use it. I eventually decided that the top and cap looked too obviously like a water bottle, but the bottom of it would make for a good short tower of some kind. With that in mind, I grabbed a bottle and some tools and set to work.

First, I cut the top of the bottle off. (Note that later I saw a bottle without the label and realized that I could have used more of the top of the bottle, since the label area also has the reinforcing lines. I'll save that for later, though.) I did run into an issue while cutting. The bottle is designed to use less plastic, which is part of why it looks so cool. It also means that the plastic is much more fragile than most bottles, so it bends more easily when you try to cut it. Be careful that your cutting tool doesn't slip. You could very easily slide off the surface and injure yourself. Giving blood sacrifice to Khorne doesn't really help you make better terrain, so be careful, eh?

Next, I gave it a basic coat of paint. I used a spray primer for this. When spraying, remember to spray in light puffs to give an even coating without clumping or obliterating those cool details. Since the bottle was see-through, I also put a few puffs on the inside to give it a much more solid look. Then I left it to dry (in a well-ventilated area!) while I worked on the base for it. Below you can see the lines in my original concept for the tower.

I had looked for very thin MDF at a Home Depot, but couldn't find any. While wandering the aisles, however, I happened across some tile. I picked up a single tile for 69 cents and went with that.

Although the basic tile had some texturing to make it look like wood grain, I was confident that with some paint and a tower standing on it (not to mention the change in scale!) it would look significantly un-woodlike. I grabbed a couple of different cutters and went to work. I discovered that longer scissor blades worked much better than the short ones. (If you are cutting tiles or other heavy stuff, make sure you have the appropriate tools. Not only would this potentially break standard paper scissors, it will also dull them very quickly. If you are borrowing your tools from somebody else, that's a big no-no.)

My initial intention was to make a small, irregularly shaped base, much like I would for a patch of woods or a hill. After a little bit of cutting, I realized that I was making Tau city terrain. There wouldn't be anything irregular about that. While it wouldn't just be square, it should be fairly regular, and round wouldn't look quite right. I eventually settled on cutting the corners off a square, so I had an octagon.

The base got a coat of paint as well, and then I let it dry before gluing them together. I did have a few problems here, since my cutting job when I cut the bottle in half wasn't very straight. I probably could have saved myself some work here by simply re-cutting the edge to be more straight, but I decided to go straight to the glue and let it solve the issue. Lots of glue later, I got it solidly attached and covered up most of the uneveness.

Once the glue was set, I went about the painting. The whole object was already white (the main color of my Tau army) so I started adding some Enchanted Blue lines to bring out the interesting shapes on the bottle. The lines were initially rough, but I went back to smooth them out with white paint later.

Once the main painting and the touch-up were done, I decided it needed a little something extra to make it more interesting. Most towers have some sort of access point or door or window, and even if the entire tower is machinery, there is typically some sort of control panel and indicator lights so that our imaginary Tau can know if it is still working properly. Unfortunately, I didn't really have anything in my bitz box that could work, so I just relied on painting it on. A bit of Chaos Black, Blood Red and Shining Gold to match my Bork'an Sept Tau and the tower was ready. Now all that's left is to figure out what it does. I'm going to go with energy generation and storage, like a generator and a giant battery.

I had a good time making this, and I plan on making more of them in the future, especially since I've got some experience now and I'll be able to make them even better. If you are interested in these towers and don't feel like building them yourself, email me below and I can make some for you to buy.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

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