Difficulty: Beginner
Materials: Thick honeycomb center cardboard (IKEA uses it in their packaging), thin styrofoam or foam core, hot glue, PVA glue/water mix, thin napkins (no texture is best), tin foil Cost: < $5 additional materials Packing materials are some of my favorite things to build terrain with. It reduces the amount of waste from shipping boxes and the cost to make each project is essentially free. This build came about because I was peeling back the thin paper top of a piece of cardboard from an IKEA box and saw the honeycomb design inside. The majority of the structure is made from materials from that IKEA box, plus some standards I have lying around at all times.
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Steps:
1) Peel the paper layer off of one side of the cardboard, exposing the honeycomb interior. Leave the other side intact.
2) Cut your foam core or styrofoam to the desired shape for the cavern system. Don't worry about any rough edges, they will be covered up.
3) Attach the honeycomb pieces to the desired locations using hot glue. For my build, I had them spaces along the edge with some in the center of the floor to break up the room.
4) Make additional walls using crumpled tin foil. The crumpled texture will give a basis for the paper mache to adhere to later. Use hot glue to attach the walls to the foam base and to the backs of the honeycomb. If you created any central structures, use the tin foil to also fill in gaps on the top.
5) Dampen your napkins with water and lay them onto the tin foil walls. Paint on your PVA glue/water mixture (50% PVA glue, 50% water). You should only need a single layer for full coverage, as the tin foil provides most of the structure.
2) Cut your foam core or styrofoam to the desired shape for the cavern system. Don't worry about any rough edges, they will be covered up.
- Note: For large cavern systems, save storage space and make it modular by cutting the shape into segments
3) Attach the honeycomb pieces to the desired locations using hot glue. For my build, I had them spaces along the edge with some in the center of the floor to break up the room.
4) Make additional walls using crumpled tin foil. The crumpled texture will give a basis for the paper mache to adhere to later. Use hot glue to attach the walls to the foam base and to the backs of the honeycomb. If you created any central structures, use the tin foil to also fill in gaps on the top.
5) Dampen your napkins with water and lay them onto the tin foil walls. Paint on your PVA glue/water mixture (50% PVA glue, 50% water). You should only need a single layer for full coverage, as the tin foil provides most of the structure.
- Optional: If you are planning on using spray paint for your base color and are using styrofoam as the floor, paper mache the floor as well. The layer of paper will prevent the styrofoam from melting from the spray paint and can add some interesting texture as well.
6) Add hot glue drips inside the honeycomb openings, letting the glue drip and form piles on the floor.
7) Once everything is dry, paint as desired. I used black spray paint as the base color and then air brushed the honeycomb itself. For the stone, I used multiple layers of heavy drybrushing with a variety of grey tone colors.
7) Once everything is dry, paint as desired. I used black spray paint as the base color and then air brushed the honeycomb itself. For the stone, I used multiple layers of heavy drybrushing with a variety of grey tone colors.