46. The easiest, quickest and most versatile terrain pieces

The title is a little bit of a clickbait, but just a little bit… Because what I made lately is really-really quick and easy to make (took me maximum 10 minutes per piece), and its usable not only for different genres, but for different scales too! What could be more versatile than this? But what could this magical terrain piece actually be? Well, the solution is: a rock! Like a real rock!

I don’t want to claim the idea to me, that actual rocks can be used as terrain pieces in tabletop gaming. Of course they can, but the most of us still don’t use it. Because real rock is mostly too plain. It doesn’t really fit in the table, looking like it’s on the top of it instead being part of it. They can be sharp, and damage the gaming surface. And they are heavy. But with just a tiny-little care, all of this can be improved (well, except the weight, we have to take it as it is).

Lets go step by step:

1. If You want to be very strict, this step can take a lot of time, but a bit more loosely interpreted, it’s the point zero. You have to get the rocks. We go often hiking, so it was absolutely no problem for me to get some fitting pieces. But what rocks are fitting? The most important thing is, that one side must be relatively flat, and this flat side should be the widest/biggest. So when you put the rock with this side down, it looks like a little mountain. Another important thing is the size, but I will write about it a little later.
2. Rocks are mostly dirty, they have to be washed, and dried. Washing don’t needs to be very thorough, just get the dirt and any loose pieces off.  If You are impatient like me, and want to dry it quicker, use a hairdryer, or the oven. But be aware that porous stone can store water, and if the temperature is to high, this water can evaporate quickly, and the rock piece can explode from the steam pressure! So to be safe, please don’t use higher temperatures than 70-80 C degrees!
3. Theoretically You could stop here, because the rock are ready to be used. If You choose the right ones, the form takes care about the natural look (like the table would embed it). But it can be improved further! At first, it shouldn’t waggle, and shouldn’t damage the gaming surface. Therefor I made a stable and soft stand from hot glue: just put it on the flat, bottom side (in such amount, that no rock part should stick out of it), and then push it on a flat surface, covered in parchment paper (it shouldn’t stick to it). Unfortunately, the hot glue probably won’t stick enough to the rock. So remove it carefully, put superglue on the surface, and put it back (it should fit like a puzzle piece).
4. The last thing to improve, is the look. And that has to be done carefully, because, a rock is pretty scale agnostic, but to keep that feature, the improvements also has to be like that. That means, if You put anything on it, what the human brain can correlate a size to (like a tree or a house), this independency is gone. Of course, if you don’t mind that, You can do what ever You like. But to keep it, the visual improvements have to be like that too! So here’s what I’ve done:
• Glued some small chunks of coarse turf on the more horizontal surfaces. In small scales (for example 1/700 of Black Seas) they look like tree clumps, and in bigger scales (the usual 28mm), like small plants.
• I painted the lower edge and some other parts green, with smooth borders. I just purchased Moss Deposits from AK (its an oil based green paint with a very matte, and a bit textured finish), and with this, the process was very easy. But I think, that with diluted acrylic paint, similar results can be achieved. These look like in small scale, like algae-coated stone (on the lower edge), or grassy patches (on more horizontal surfaces), and in bigger scales like moos or lichen. Additionally the lower green size can help to blend the rock more into the table (if its not something like a desert).

Here are my results, at first with 1/700 ships.

And here some fun pictures with 28mm miniatures.

They may be not perfect, but for the amount of resources spent, its in my opinion an excellent result. Of course, there are a lot of ways, to improve it further (painting, basing), but I think, that’s the sweet point. From here on, much more work is needed to get a little better results (or worse, as I tried to amplify the little cracks with oil wash…). I hope I got You (and Your kids) new motivation to collect rocks!