As a preface, I have tried looking for this on dakkadakka, blogs, and youtube. Having trouble finding some help on what im looking for.

I have a lot of the old ruin terrain from the box set I put on some thin hardoard and based/painted up, along with forrest terrain and hills/mountian pieces.

Id like to make my 6x4 insulation foamboard look like a wasteland without carving it all up (as I could lay battle mats on it for different games)

How could I texture and paint it to look like a wasteland for this effect? Or is that stupid to do and better to get a battle mat? (bought the pink foam insulation because I can cut it to 2 4 by 3 sections and lay on the table since the table is only a 3x5.5)

How thick is the foam? It'll likely have to be 2" thick so you don't have to worry about it warping.

You'll obviously need paint. I'd lean towards getting some mixed at a hardware store as you'll use a lot. You'll also want it to be flexible and durable, so likely latex paint. I'd get three colors (base, shade and highlight). You'll use the shade the most, and highlight the least.

After that, fine sand. The stuff they sell at a pet store for terrariums is cheap and fine. Make sure it's actually silicon sand though. You can probably get it even cheaper at a hardware store, but every time I looked I couldn't find the really fine stuff you can get at a pet store.

Get a paint roller, and put down your shade. Do it in 2x2' sections and before it dries put the sand on it. Don't put the sand completely to the edge of the paint, leave 3 to 4" of paint showing so you don't get lines in the sand. Then expand the area, and sand again. Repeat until it's covered.

Once it's dried get the excess sand off. Hitting it with a spray bottle of watered down white glue at this point wouldn't hurt either. Once that's dry, I'd go over the sand again with the shade color. A spray gun would be good here, as the roller might take some sand with it. Let that dry, then start dry brushing with the base color and a 3-5" brush. After that, do the same with the highlight.

Foam won't stand up well if people are leaning against it. Hopefully it sinks down into the table so the edges are protected. If not, duct tape around the edges will help a little.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17