Hellscape Hills - Back to main Hellscape page.

There are so many ways of making hills, and so many styles to choose from. I find that I like to keep the hills with flat tops and short slopes on the edges, so that it is easier to keep figures standing on them. The downside to this approach is that the hills all look like mesas when they are done, not like realistic hills. Also, though the slopes are narrow, there is no way anything has a chance to stand on the slopes without tipping over.

I usually make a hill level slightly higher than the standard size of the figures I'm using, such as 3/4" for 15mm and 1.25" for 28mm. I decided to make these high hills to go with my 25mm Doom demon army. I've ended up using them with 15mm figures too though, without any issues.

I used good quality styrofoam for these hills. For real durability, nothing beats wood, but it is heavier, harder to cut, and more expensive. These hills were coated with wood putty, which has held very well to the styrofoam. The hills were then textured to match the texture of the terrain boards.

I decided to texture the hillsides differently, to indicate which slopes were easy to climb and which were difficult. The difficult edges got crevasses cut into them with the back end of a paint brush.

The hills turned out very durable, but not perfectly so. One got a crease in it from a lid being closed on it, and someone who thought they were invulnerable leaned heavily on one and put a slight thumb mark into it. Fortunately, wood putty repairs easily with more wood putty.

This used the same lava technique described in the Terrain Boards section. When pouring the red base coat into the large pool, I poured it into the center, and used a toothpick to move the material up to the edges. This works much better than trying to pour up to the sides, because you risk either getting it on the sides, or pouring it too thick and getting material "creeping" up the sides when it shrinks during drying.