Building Hills

Some examples of hills you can make.

LANDSCAPES: HILLS
Throughout history, great generals have pored over maps and picked their battlegrounds
with care. When formulating their battle plans, generals would consider carefully the lay of
the land, as this dictated how they deployed their troops. In particular, hills were a critical
factor they offered commanding positions on which to set up cannons and gave cover to
reserve formations of troops.
For practical gaming purposes, hills are traditionally built so they are 12"x8", but you can of course
make them whatever size you want. When it comes to shape, you can't go wrong with the versatile
round or kidney-shaped hills shown in the diagrams near the bottom of the page.
Example of a Three-Tiered Hill

Stepped Hills
The most convenient hill for gaming is a stepped hill. This stylized approach imitates the slope of a
hill while it still offers flat, open areas where you can put models. The idea was developed from the
contour lines used to represent elevation on topographic maps. From this concept, it is easy to
imagine that each contour line represents a level or tier on the gaming hill.
You can vary a stepped hill's appearance by how you position the tiers, and what angle you cut for
the outline. As a guide, we suggest you make each tier the same height as the miniatures in your
collection, and that you cut the angle somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees for the edges.
Example of a Half Hill

Round Hill

Kidney-Shaped Hill

Three-Tiered Hill

Half Hill

Making a Stepped Hill

When planning this hill, we decided that we would construct it with Warhammer games in mind. The very top of the hill is the size of
a movement tray to allow the deployment of regiments and war machines. The bottom tier has enough space to deploy a line of 10
archers.

Trace the outline of the Warhammer

movement tray onto a sheet of 1"-thick
insulation foam and then draw an oval
guideline 1.5" around this. This defines the
outer edge of the top tier. Cut out the top
tier.

Once you've cut out the top tier, shape the

sloped sides by slicing away thin slivers of
polystyrene (you can also use a foam
cutter). Try to make a rounded, 45-degree
angle without cutting into the movement
tray outline.

To make the bottom tier, trace the outline

of the top tier onto another 1"-thick piece
of insulation foam. Next, draw the outline
of the bottom tier by tracing around a line
of archers. Cut out the bottom tier and
round off the edges just like the top tier.

Mark the Masonite by tracing around the

bottom tier. Cut out the base with a
beveled edge try to make the angle fit
with the curve of the bottom tier. Glue the
three pieces together with hot glue or
white glue and leave the hill to dry.

Apply filler to smooth over the gaps

between the steps (spackle will work).
Glue patches of gravel and sand onto the
hill to give the effect of patches of stony
ground. Give the whole model a coat of
textured paint.

Hand-paint the hill with Chaos Black to

seal the foam. Next, basecoat the model
with Scorched Brown. For the rocky areas,
hit them with Graveyard Earth, then a
drybrush of Kommando Khaki, and then
Bleached Bone. Lastly, apply a thin coat of
white glue over the model and sprinkle
with static grass (don't put glue on the
rocky areas). Ta-da!

There are many other types of hills you can make just by altering or combining different scenery techniques. Here are just three
ideas.

Cliff Face
A cliff is basically a hill with a sheer rock face modelled onto one side. From a gaming point of
view, a cliff is particularly useful as you can place an artillery piece right up against the edge of
it, and enemy troops can't attack over the Impassable Terrain!
A simple way to make a cliff is to begin by constructing a stepped hill in the normal way and
then break it in half. As counterintuitive as this step may be, you'll end up with a natural break
that you can easily finish by sculpting and texturing the break to look like a rock face.

Caves, Barrows, and Mines

An interesting addition to a hill is a cave opening. To make the cave entrance, you can simply
cut out a hole into a side of a hill and sculpt and texture the sides to make the rock look as
natural as possible.
To give the cave character, you can add skulls and bones scattered around the entrance. To
turn your cave into a barrow or mine, you can add a ceiling support and sides to the entrance.
A good way of constructing this is to use pieces of slate. By adding decorations such as runes
or totems, you can create a theme based on a Warhammer army like Dwarfs or Skaven for
your cave.

Mounting Trees on Hills

When setting up your battlefield for a game, why not place small bases of trees on top of your
hills? This combination looks very natural on the tabletop for both stepped and sculpted hills.
If you really like this approach, you can go a step further. Why not attach trees to a hill
permanently! All you need to do is glue the trees in the same way as you would to a normal
base, except that you have different levels to attach the trees to.

Here are a few examples of hills. Whether they're gentle slopes or caves, cliff faces or tree covered, there are all sorts of hills
available to the terrain builder. Hopefully these examples will spark your creativity.

Hill Examples

Rocky, Forested Hill

Barrow

Sea Cliff Face

Desert Cliff Face

Dwarf Carved Hill

Desert Hill with Ruins

Hill with Cliff

Boulder Hill

- Original Article written by Rick Smith, with material from How to Make Wargames Terrain