How I made the Trenches

   The trenches are just boards of green extruded polystyrene found in the floral section of my local Hobby Lobby (a big hobby store), it's not floral foam (that absorbs water and is kinda dusty) this cuts cleanly, no dust :) You could also use styrofoam - they sell it in flat sheets in home repair centers like Lowes or Home Depot etc, it's in the insulation department. Anyway, I cut out the trenches then hot glued to sections of foamboard as a base (but YOU should use thin wood or masonite boards - the foamboard actually warped a bit!). I used several pieces each is one foot long by four feet long. After your floral foam is cut into the right pattern, use your trusty hot glue gun to set things in place. Then a layer of paper mache spread on top (shell craters sculpted in). The paper mache stage takes the longest - when you mix the paper mache just put some paper mache in your mixing bowel and add some water - then add more paper mache unitl it's nice and thick - thick paper mache makes the most textured terrain (and dries the fastest) which reminds me - when you're don treat yourself to a couple of days away from the project - for the paper mache WILL take THAT LONG TO DRY! :-)

Afterward (come to think of it) I did then paint on some Elmer's glue (white glue) in a few areas and then sprinkled sand over it (let it dry then shake off the excess). This just adds detail to areas that were kind of bland, and the floors of the trenches (for these trenches I cut all the way through the polystyrene so the very bottom of the trenches is really foamboard (with some sand sprinkled on it!). 

Then the whole thing is painted with black latex paint (go to your local paint store and ask for a gallon can of black indoor paint - it's cheap and works great! also get grey while you're there - you'll need it!) so paint the whole thing black (let it dry)- then drybrushed with grey latex paint (this brings out the detail and suddenly your project is starting to look really cool! :-) - and the last step is for the shell holes to be repainted with black blast marks :-)   that's really about it! :-)  oh - the depth of the trench is a tad over the models so that once in the trenches they are truly out of sight - in some of the firing positions we put little steps (like benches) for the minis to stand on so they can fire over the lip of the trench :-)

   for patterns to trenches - try looking online for info on WWI trenches - you;ll find all kinds of stuff! :-)

Also check out the Hobby Forum on the GW website - they often have posts about how to make great terrain :-)
 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

an even MORE detailed description!

making trenches - mine are made on several one foot by four foot sections of carboard (foamboard from any hobby store works fine too). Cut these sections out and lay them out before you - get come of your minis to help keep the size right - keep a ruler handy so you can be an evil genius and make sure the fixed positions are appropriately far apart to make life miserable :-) 
     get a pencil and start kind of near the center of one board - make a box big enough to stick a tank in (just a size reference) now imagine that's your position - looking across the battlefield - wish you had buddies there nearby eh? me too :) so sketch out some narrow trenches to go out some nearby positions. Make these trenches have some sharp angles so you don't have a killing ground in your trenches! also make these larger "positions" be far enough away that it's not easy to jump out of one fixed position and run to assault another - difficult terrain helps here, but still let's try to act as if the people who planned these trenches knew what they were doing! :-)

     have the trenches be deep enough so that your minis really can't be seen at all if they are walking on the floor of the trench, make a little bench for the minis to stand on so they can see out of their positions (this is called a fire step if anyone wants to get technical).

    the hardest/most fun part is laying out what goes where - but use your minis to help you - and go make sure you've seen all the pics I have there in my terrain section, that should help :)

    the next step is easy (if time consuming) you get a nice big breadknife and your styrofoam (the big crunchy variety - extruded ploystyrene) and start cutting out the shapes of the "not trench" sections! This will take a bit, play some music, listen to a movie, but eventually you'll get it all done :-)  break out your hotglue gun and start anchoring your pieces into place. By the time you're almost done you'll be a total expert on this and you'll be using all the extra pieces you;ve got lying around to glue in together to make it all come out as you want :-)

 here's a peek of what it will look like (we were so excited that we played a game before they were finished!)
http://www.dragonrealm.com/exlibrismortis/ExLibrisnewTheGreatBattleGalleryGallery12.html

    at this point sit back and congratulate yourself - you've done the hardest part :)

     next step - carve out a few big blast craters, if it's smaller than an inch don't even bother - I mean the two to ten inch craters :) done that?

  okay.... the rest is easy (still takes time though) go get some paper mache and a bucket - put some water in the bucket and add paper mache until it's a kid of sticky consistency (I'd wear a dust mask too - paper mache is dusty in a way that's just evil!) so now you begin putting the paper mache onto the tops of the trenches - I made mine all rough like churned up earth - also be sure to be careful with your craters - make the earth in there smooth (blasted out like) and build up little rims of paper mache  around the lips of the crater - helps to define them :)

  leave the floor and insides of the trenches alone for now, when you're done get a fan and go watch movies for a couple of days (takes that long for this stuff to dry - DOH! :-)

     now you're really almost done :)

     go to the lumberyard and buy a gallon of flat black latex paint (water based), also get some semi gloss grey paint (yes, another gallon) now go to those trenches and paint every inch of it black - tops of trenches, floor of trenches inside walls of trenches - everything BLACK.... since it;s latex paint there's no need to worry about fumes, it may smell a little funky but no headaches, no health risks :)

    now here's the fun part - by the time you're done with the black, it's quitel likely that the part you started painting (with the black) is very likely mostly dry now - and for us "mostly" dry is just fine :)  bring on that grey now, and get come paper towels - the paper towels are for blotting the grey paintbrush on - we're going to drybrush grey across the "surface" of the trenches now... this will go SO fast - and things will begin to look SO COOL just as soon as you start doing this :-)

    when this is dry you're actually pretty much good to go :-)

    I got a little compulsive and got some water thinned white glue and added some grey balast (teeny scenery rocks like they use with train models) and sprinkled some in here and there throughout the trenches for detailing, and if memory serves I think I added a pinch of the grey (all streaky like) along the trench floors just to add a little detail...

 and THAT my friend is how it's done! :-)

  wow - who knew I'd write so much! I think I'll go paste this into my terrain display on my site so it will be there for the next person who is crazy enough... er I mean BOLD enough to make trenches! ;)

    good luck my friend!

    oh hey - next time you need anything feel free to post both here and in the message boards on my website - we cover BA tactics mostly, but we do have a terrain board too :-)

hope this helps! 

Glory to the Emperor and Sanguinius ~ Brother Edward
http://www.dragonrealm.com/exlibrismortis
 
 

about making small trenches....

++++ making one line of trenches will be great oodles of fun for you for things like take and hold and bunker assaults - but later when you feel up to it DO consider making more - having an entire field of trenches makes movement nasty for all involved, and if you put a section of flat terrain inbetween the trench systems (no man's land) it makes for all kinds of interesting battles - for if any unit jumps up "over the top" alone they will almost surely be gunned down by the enemy before they get within charge range (I made sure that the trenches were far enough apart that ANY unit has to endure one round of firing before they are close enough to assault the nearest enemy positions! :-)

   This leads to a well coordinated "everyone over the top" kind of a rush which is really interesting to do and to see! the nature of the trenches allows for very interesting defensive tactics as well - even if the enemy have breached your front line, you very likely have many troops in other postions all around - things just became VERY interesting! :-)

~ Brother Edward