Materials for Area Terrain Bases?

[Jolemai]

I'm looking at putting my group's ruins, etc, into bases to not only mark out the boundaries, but also to make them more sturdy. We mainly have GW plastics.

With that in mind, I'm after something solid and thin, but lightweight (and cheap!). Any thoughts?

[Arkhanist]

Sounds like 2mm or 3mm plasticard is what you're after (3mm is sturdier and what I use, 2mm easier to cut). Cheap, stiff, robust, yet still pretty easy to cut out with a craft knife or sharp scissors, doesn't warp with PVA, and lightweight. Can be bent with heat. Larger terrain pieces (walls etc) best stuck down with superglue (or poly cement if also styrene, e.g. GW terrain), but you can use PVA for scatter/rubble. There's a ton of plasticard sellers on ebay, matt will take glue better than gloss.

If you need it even cheaper and lighter, there's expanded PVC, also known as foamex (it's a dense plastic foam) that you can buy in bigger sheets; 3mm again probably best. This tends to be ideal for scratch built walls etc as it's easier to bend, score and shape than plasticard (2mm good for detailing) - but it also works fine for terrain basing, though not as robust as plasticard if it's going to travel around etc. If you want really big sheets, it's usually easier to get from craft shops etc (it's often used for sign boards) than through the post.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Arkhanist

[Jolemai]

Thanks, will go and have a look 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Basically, what @Arkhanist said.  The "traditional" answers would be plasticard, or thin plywood/MDF, but plasticard is likely the more sensible/less problematic choice.

On 10/6/2022 at 12:30 AM, Arkhanist said:

matt will take glue better than gloss.

I assume that taking sandpaper to gloss (if that's all you can get) will fix that problem?