Use TERRAIN to Stay Motivated in Your Hobby? 

This was a well-conceived, thoughtful, and beneficial video for everyone in the hobby. Well done. Thanks.

I have one bit to add to using terrain as a soothing side project: excellent way to dump paint from your pallet. Even on a wet pallet, you end up with paint that is getting useless, or you're finished with the colour. Have a terrain piece handy and slap it there. Waste not, want not.

Since I've accrued a fair number of painted models in my fledgling (Fallen) Dark Angels and Dark Eldar armies, I've started doing terrain projects in between sets of models. You know, so I have an actual board to set games in. It's been great fun. I made a pool of radioactive waste out of a dollar store picture frame (the glass panel creates the appearance of liquid for very little effort). And I built a bunch of cargo pallets out of wooden blocks, wood craft sticks, paper towels, gauze, copper tubes, and some 3d printed bits I bought off the internet. Currently I'm painting 4 Hesco barriers, made of dollar store floral foam cut into 2x2x3 pieces, wrapped in duct tape and dry wall tape, and some sand in the top. The paint is just some discount paint + primer jars they sell at the hardware store, that were in colors I could work with. I'm just sponging the paint on, it's easy. Like Real Life hesco barriers, these will be very flexible as terrain pieces. My only problem is I'll probably need to craft a whole lot more of them. But, again, it's an easy project, so I can crank them out fairly quickly.

I've been working on three hobby projects per year: Building an army, painting an army, and building and painting terrain. I first started doing this back in 2019. I first rebuilt my Imperial Guard army. Once they were built I would focused on painting the army one unit at a time. From there I would regularly switch from painting Guardsmen to either building a unit for my Beastmen army, or build and paint a terrain piece for my jungle table. As my focus was divided on three separate aspects of the hobby throughout the entire year, I was able to paint 2000 pts of Guardsmen, build 2000 pts of Beastmen, and build and paint an entire jungle battlefield complete with ruins, a river and even a waterfall. A couple of tips: If you build an army before painting it, keep the army in a display cabinet but keep it out of sight. Focus on painting 1 vehicle/monster/character or a unit of 5 to 10 models at a time. You'll find that your unpainted army gradually becomes fully painted as you're not staring a horde of miniatures at the painting table. And tip 2: I highly recommend building and painting your army one unit at a time. You'll find you won't be overwhelmed with a horde of miniatures to paint. If you want to play games, use one that is already built and/or painted while you work on getting the new army completed.

My man, spot on right there: it is getting the feeling of achievement quickly without too much thinking process.

I think wylok has some of my favorite terrain videos, I built a pipe organ and stained glass windows using his videos for a cathedral I was making and I get complemented on it all of time

Great advice, I try and paint tiny buildings almost everyday. Steady bricking y'all!

'3D printed by a friend' - reference to the legend, the awe-inspiring hero, the one and only Milk Can/GameFor GamingMattR

Terrain is cool, but what makes a battlefield come to life is SCATTER terrain, little nothings all over the board that don't actually provide anything game-wise, but makes it look like a real place. I just made a bunch of dead cadians to scatter over my 40k boards, it's always strange to see HUMAN cities and buildings being fought over by aliens and I thought adding them would add some more story to the board.

I use this technique often, no pressure , I relax more while doing terrain. I've been painting minis for a solid 4 months. I am messing with cans turning into canisters.

I build most of my own terrain due to a tight budget and also to scratch that crafting itch. I'm taking a break from mini painting (painted up a few new members of a Peacekeepers team and some wasteland creatures for This Is Not A Test) and RPG work this week to paint some scratch built post apocalyptic terrain as well as some store bought stuff from Reaper Miniatures and Pegasus Models (got some nice gothic stuff like ruined buildings, pillars and statues) for Reign In Hell. Most of the terrain will have a nice, basic color scheme of greys and browns. Just want to sit back and bang out some stuff. Its very therapeutic for the hobby to just paint something that doesn't take a ton of work and you can get a lot done in a little amount of time. It's a really good way to cleans the modeling pallet so to say.

Can 100% agree. I usually take longer breaks from painting, like Summer, etc. and I often get back into it with doing terrain, so rewarding!

So awesome you posted this, last year making terrain boosted me back into painting minis again. I spent two months making rivers trees farms etc and it really energized me. Thanks for the post!

Building and painting terrain is like a blessing for the soul

The cool thing about terrain of the sort you showed is that it's pretty easy to build just with crap one has lying around. No need to buy or 3D print anything: just get some cardboard, a cutter and glue and go to town. Easy to scratchbuilt a scifi bunker, a fantasy house, some ruined walls, etc. Some base colors, drybrushing and presto! A satisfyingly serviceable piece of terrain.

Mel the Terrain Tutor keeps the mojo going. Helping improve my MDF stuff. It definitely keeps the hobby going.

Thanks for this. I just purchased a huge Dungeon Saga Kickstarter pack and another huge Drakerys Kickstarter pack for an absolute song. The Drakerys pack alone was worth nearly $700 US. They are going to keep me busy for months and what I would like to do is construct a massive 3D dungeon for them in modular form. They came with a lot of terrain stuff so this video was really well timed.

I often switch to some terrain when I want to make a thing but lack the focus to do something 'important'. It is also good to remember that hobbies happen after the bills are paid, homework is done and all that stuff. It is also ok to let yourself be unmotivated for a while or motivated in a non-hobby direction. A great man once said..."Just walk away." Take some time to read that book or watch that show. Get some air and touch grass. Take a nap even. These all clear your head from the stuff we bring home from work and school and let you see the hobby from a fresh perspective.

This is exactly what I do. I haven't finished my army in a year, but I have been creating 2 terrain "masterpieces" which have inspired me to continue my army painting, when I'm done with these. Altering focus is always good.

👍👍Great advice and great examples 👌 At 11:40 my mind's eye says stalagmites 👍

This video helped me a lot! I have a lot of anxiety about painting my more expensive minis as I'm a new painter. I don't know why the thought of practicing techniques on terrain never crossed my mind. Thanks!

I'm starting to proactively paint bases before making a start on minis and it really helps having the base ready for them once you fill in the little details. That being said, I currently have 10 Zephyrim who need flying bases, magnets and backpacks sorting out simultaneously, bleurgh!

I LOVE this idea! I do something similar that I just kinda call hobby warmups. Just doing anything to get paint on a brush and get your brain into hobby mode. It’s seriously an invaluable method!

Props and terrain always tell a visual story and provides context which connects with out imagination. That is how I personally get excited about the necessary work.

Watching Uncle Atom is always a strong motivational tool, too! Thanks, my friend!

It seems I keep bumping into these types of videos of yours after I hit a wall! I was feeling burnt out after my first set of saurus knights and was feeling a little overwhelmed with the rest of my boxset. I decided to start on some terrain, (something I've never done before!), and sure enough I'm totally pumped up to start my next model again. I've been binge watching a lot of your content while I hobby and I have to say it's been helping a lot. Thank you!

I'm pretty new to the hobby on the whole but I know I like making my own terrain (partly because it's fun, partly because I'm not rich), and I find having a terrain project on the go helps you fill up your workflow while sometimes you are waiting for paint/primer to dry on a mini. Making better overall use of whatever time you have to paint and build things is a definite positive.

Very helpful videos. Also terrain adds much to the miniatures when playing. Keep up the good work.

I love, LOVE, (like, not eros) making terrain. Weathering is my favorite part of models, and....yeah.

I liked a lot that you talked about it and also showed examples of resourced and your own successes and trie-outs. Thanks!

Very true. I am currently working through my pile of terrain (before KT Space Hulk comes out and I go all ham on new modular 'build your own spaceship' sets), and I keep building warbands/kill teams/units in-between without even planning to, because when you have cool buildings - you really want to put someone inside. Painting is fun for me, so it is never a problem, but building miniatures is the most tedious/unfun part for me. So during this winter I literally ran out of built models to paint and could not bring myself to build anything else for couple of months. And building terrain somehow triggers 'I want to build models too!' So since my terrain project started, I got two KTs and a Warcry warband built, and I feel like there will be a unit or two of necron warriors in upcoming weekend for me as well.

I believe this. When I was waiting for Necromunda 2017: I blitzed a MDF terrain pack to get a tables worth painted. Then during Covid when I lost a lot of motivation for anything, I went back to that terrain to add more details and weathering. Doing terrain used to be something I wouldn't do but last couple of years I think I've painted more terrain than I have models.

This Video is my philosophy. Terrain is what sustains me in the hobby and is my favorite part of miniature Wargaming. I'd never get any armies done if I couldn't intersperse miniature painting with making terrain. Good advice for Bones terrain also. I made sure to base the Dragons Don't Share Tower sections on pieces of hard board and years later they're nice and flat.

Give your minis a world to live in - Even just a few thematic terrain pieces base coated and dry brushed with 2 lighter highlights will be a great break from detail painting and can motivate you to populate this little world with more finished miniatures.

I feel you on this. As an Ork player, I see 90+ of almost the same model, then a nob once every 30 or so boyz. I've focused on some of the orky barricades I have found from various companies as well as the Octarius Orky terrain from recent releases. Palette cleansers like terrain really help with keeping the motivation, especially if you are working on very clean models that require precision.

I have these large bursts of hobbying.

This video just came out at the perfect time, i was not enjoying painting up entire armies, i finished a few warcry boards worth of terrain and really enjoyed it, im not working on a 6x4 40k table worth of terrain and enjoying the process, it's really satisfying to create a good looking battlefield.

Yeah I tend to switch around between miniature painting and terrain crafting all the time. I simply go where inspiration takes me. It also keeps the hobby interesting. Thanks for the vid. I really enjoyed your little showcase of your terrain.

I really appreciate when content creators like you and Vince make videos like this. Motivation is the biggest problem in my busy life and these videos give me hope, thank you.

Having terrain around to work on can also help with those times when you spectacularly over-estimate how much paint you needed for something else and are too cheap to let it go to waste. Sci-fi/cyberpunk terrain in particular is good since just about any colour can be justified somewhere.

I totally agree with this: I often scatter about between projects if I get bored or start to dread the next steps, and come back when I'm excited about it again.

Starting on Kill Team recently, I had some terrain from my Star Wars Legion that I can use for now, but this reminded me I really need to sort some that suits what I will be playing 40k wise soon! Great video!

This video was so helpful. I got burnt out painting the same shade of blue on my Chaos Marines, but I need to do something. So I painted my Killzone Chalnath terrain and it was so satisfying. I am much more motivated to work on my minis more.

Great advice! I'm in a bit of a painting slump at present and I do have 2 terrain pieces I can assemble and paint and see ifithelps. Ones a small mdf ruin for Frostgrave and the other a Reaper Bones portal which I also plan on using in Frostgrave too. It's made from clear purple plastic and has some Chinese dogs on either side.

Totally agree with this and a big believer in the power of terrain! Terrain building is an aspect of the hobby I enjoy on its own, playing on a full board can really add to narrative of a game. I tend to alternate between figures and terrain and the broader strokes of terrain (cutting day, paint day, drybrush day etc) is far easier to dip in and out off as you wait for big stuff to dry but isn't so demanding and helps me combat burnout

I've been putting off painting a bunch of trees for a forest themed Kings of War Vanguard board I started a while back but this has motivated me to get them finished.

That is a great advice! I use terrain or Sylvaneth to paint when "waiting for the paint to dry" on other stuff. Currently I am painting some barrels and chests while listening to this video and it is amazing how much terrain and Sylvaneth can be done that way.

This video is bang on and mirrors my own experience balancing mini painting with terrain. Terrain is easy to craft, much quicker, has wow factor and amplifies the aesthetic of your minis along the way!

I really appreciate these vids, Uncky A. It’s great to hear practical ways of keeping the hobby fresh and engaging. Thanks mate. 👍🏻

I nearly always have a terrain side project on the hobby table as like you say its easy to crank out a "!win" if you aren't in the hobby zone, and you can use the cheap paint from the art shop, the stuff that comes in tubes $1/£1ish a tube, goes a lot further than mini-paint and if just fine for terrain (and Ink and Medium can make a passable wash, not as constantant as the magic of Earthshade etc but again good enough)

Great video! Always love your motivation videos. I've started to see how fast I can set up and eventually clean my airbrush. It sounds odd, but the "fear" of how long it takes was taking away my motivation. Your terrain idea helps so much. I need to work on terrain and bases. Thanks!

I love that you made this video. I've recently been going crazy making terrain and actually like it better than mini work, but it's also becoming the catalyst for going back to my minis. Where some people make the terrain for the minis specifically, I'm finding the opposite is true for me and it's really helping my motivation. Cheers!

Literally working on terrain while watching this! Some raised road bridges that I put together during lockdown in online hobby sessions with my students, and I'm finally finishing up. Plus, I've spent this summer working on ten new modular gaming boards for the school club. Hard bloody work, but I agree that it's well worth doing! I like the pieces you showed us here - and I also need to check out some of the suppliers you mentioned, thank you.

I've found that talcum powder helps counteract the problem of sticky Reaper Bones. Talc it, leave it for a while, if still sticky, talc it again, until it's dry enough to re-prime (with anything other than a rattle can).

Some leftover resin supports might look like cool scaffolding for that Mantic spaceship repair piece!

😆 So true. I have a few projects on the go at the moment and couldn't get up any motivation so decided to do some cleaning and tidying in my hobby shed. Usually put a RU-vid video on in the background and guess which one I happened to play! Very topical 😁

I've never scratch built anything or used MDF but I love Plastic Terrain and have a bunch of it after 7 years in the hobby. Problem is storing it!!! For now most of my terrain lives in shoe boxes under my bed and I pull them out when I need them.

I have also used terrain to motivate myself to hobby when I just could not get started with miniatures. Maybe the next step is to paint a handful of miniatures that can be posed thematically on and around the terrain pieces to boost my motivation, or play a game with the terrain just to spark a sense of overall accomplishment .

I appreciate the suggestions. I've not painted anything for 3-4 weeks now, hit a motivation block due to work/lfe and being tired. I've got a few terrain pieces that have been sitting in the wings. Maybe I'll break those out and get some paint down.

Always a pleasure watching your content! Cheers!

Perfect timing. I've been in a terrain mood.

Holy shit, uncle Atom was calling me out in this one

Painting the scenery from octarius got me super motivated!

MDF is a wonderfully dimensionally stable material ... just don't let it get damp! Surely the Mantic space plane(?) should be half submerged iin a swamp? 😀 Re corner ruins - my gut instinct is that corners will be stronger than walls and more likely to remain standing longer. Need to look around and find more about how buildings act when subject to destructive force.

Building this new warcry set has made the hobby even more excited for the hobby. It just looks amazing on the board.

Described me. Look forward to painting all day, then by the time work is done, kids in bed, etc, I am always tired and end up doing nothing.

really cool video, lately what im doing when I get bored, of minis, is I paint the measurement sticks and movement ranges for my Star Wars legion army xD its easy, and super rewarding to see cool rulers when you play :)

Nice to see your in progress stuff. I totally agree with the idea of doing terrain when you're just not feeling it. I'm actually way behind in the amount of terrain I need but it can be messy with the big stuff. I have a few things on the shelf, like a set of walls that just need drybrushing and I think I'll be doing them tonight as I've lost my motivation recently because of just being too tired to focus after work.

yeah! Finally! I think Terrain is the most important part of my motivation. Building "worlds" or windows into "a" fantastic world where our minis battle it out . Thanks for the Video! Agree totally! One of my healing moments when I do not want to paint "minis"

Nice take on painting options. Agree that painting models consistently burns hobbyists out sometimes and terrain's faster and easier depending on the scale. If wanted can also revisit small pieces from time to time and add extra detail also. If you ever want a selection of Support Free 3D Printable Terrain look up Sacrus Mundus. The only thing I didn't care for with their Patreon is they typically release the models towards the end of the month. They do hit all genres though and to date haven't need supports on any models of theirs yet.

Good video Atom, been working on a bunch of mdf terrain to build a Shanty town as a break. I like to think of it as a holiday where you build the destination.

Terrain can be extremely cheap to make. I have found large coffee creamer containers work great for all kinds of things from windmills to hills to grain silos to bunkers and watchtowers.

I recently got back into Painting after a long Break (my Son got born) and I started with Terrain (Kill Team Octarius) This way I got back into a weekly Paint schedule, reactivated the muscle Memorie an didn´t got frustrate when something didn´t worked out right away - terrain is more forgiving ;)

Terrain projects are also great because I want to use a piece in a game after I finish it. Which then motivates me to paint more minis for the game.

Totally agree. My son and I are going to start our first scratch made Killteam board this weekend.

Love the vid, I also use terrain as a break between models to relax. If you’re taking topic suggestions, I’d love to see a video where you go over different types of models good for different paint styles. I find robots/skeletons/necrons being excellent for practicing dry brushing, or orks and tyranids great models when I want to test bold color schemes

Thanks for this video. I love building terrain as a " pallet cleanser" of sorts, between miniature painting projects. Creating the " enviroment" for my games is something that increases the enjoyment of the game experience. Terrain need only " look right" to be an excellent addition to your battlefeild, so you can put as much or as little effort as is practical for you. A well stocked spares box is essential though, don't throw away those leftover bits on the sprues,as they can also be used in your terrain projects. Thanks again, always helps to inspire me!

This is a great take. Any time I feel really discouraged with building or painting my minis, I can just go slice up some pink foam or get something that was printed painted, or what have you. Terrain building is easier than it looks and massively rewarding, definitely a great tool for getting out of the hobby dumps!

been there lately, powered me thru painting 5 different kill teams and motivation got at an all time low for the last one so I just made a bunch of scatter and a couple larger pieces. Back on track now!

Something I find interesting about having a piece or two of finished terrain laying close by is that when you place a miniature next to it, it becomes an instant diorama. I feel it really helps get the inspiration back when you have a mini next to terrain... It starts to come to life.

I agree. I have terrain, scatter terrain and a couple of different types of mini's going at the same time. Currently I have going 4 hills, 1 cave entrance, 13 sci fi fantasy trees made of rope, an owl bear, Aeronautica Imperialis Avengers, a Frostgrave wizard and some treasure for Silver Bayonet. Get tired of one, move on to another. I get way more accomplished this way.

Terrain is one of my favorite parts of hobby.

Terrain is nice but personally like painting bases really helps me out

“Every building eventually falls down in ruin… and leaves a corner. That’s how it works.” - Uncle Atom

This was perfect! I haven’t touched my paint area in almost a year. Now I want to drag out some terrain items and get them moving towards the table. I have those same Reaper items

Ya they do balance each other out nicely. I can't chip away at projects. I'm more all or nothing my self. I wish I was more the other but we can't chose our hobby habits. I did paint 144 figures in one day though so there is that.

It's definitely just like Shawshank Redemption! I started the mini hobby with building terrain for DnD, and I still really like painting up terrain. Gotta agree that it's a nice palette cleanser in between projects

Excellent video! I'm planning to build a 3D board for Riot Quest, and I think I'll have fun doing it.

I was just working last night on my red harvest terrain. It's been primed for at least 4 or 5 months now and I'm finally starting to dry brush it. Not sure if I like where it's at right now but any forward step is progress. Think I might try a wash next.

Great video, literally just finished painting original warcry terrain yesterday after buying a bunch of deathguard a month ago that ive been too unmotivated to paint😂

This video is indeed motivating and inspiring :) how thick is the mdf board you use for basing the terrain, though?

Made like 5 terrain pieces this week, definitely got me to play some games

My favorite terrain is mystic circle (stone henge) by Reaper

About every 10th mini, i get bored and switch to terrain. As synchronicity would have it, I was painting some kegs while I watched this. lol

As kids we are more fascinated by miniature scenery, diaromas etc, than we are the idea of miniature soldiers. So I guess terrain awakens a bit of that inner child spark and that we're building a 'world' rather than just some dude with a weapon

Assembling/cleaning minies, making tinny bases and ofc doing terrain pieces... those are help clear the mind...

Nice vid .I'm having real trouble with motivation right now , terrain is fun to do it's true

Absolutely this, 100%! Top video! - Annie

Agreed. I've been working on terrain during the working week, it's a totally different pace using a big brush and coating everything, far more relaxed. Especially working at 12mm scale for Heavy Gear Blitz, working on buildings is far easier. Love the floor boards at 11:01, very authentic :)

get into kings of war where bases is a "terrain" project on its own. really upped my motivation for painting which Warhammer FB never gave me.