Building 3D Heroclix Terrain with Foamular

I recently discovered thru my friend Jerry- the magic of Foamular, a foam insulation used in construction. It also works extremely well to craft into terrain and other board game pieces. Today, I'll show you how easy it is to use...

Behold, Foamular- or XPS Insulation

I purchased a sheet of Foamular from Home Depot in the insulation aisle. It's lightweight but more rigid than most foam you'd find at a craft store.

Available in 2' x 2' sheets, price may vary.

You'll also want to pickup a utility knife and metal ruler for safe and accurate cuts. I had a self healing cutting mat at home for my cutting surface- which I bought from Hobby Lobby years ago.

Tools at the ready.

For this project, I'm building a Bat Cave to surprise my son with. With the recent release of Justice League Unlimited Heroclix, I'll have a 3d map to battle each other. I measured out the spaces I'd need of foam and begin cutting. I cut several single cubes on an angle to create slanted staircases. 

The cave begins to take shape.

Next, I measured out the grid of the board onto the foam and score the lines slightly with my utility knife- then I drag a sharp pencil over the cuts to give the grid a tiled and beveled edge. This makes each square appear 3d and easier to see than a flat line.

Once all your tiles are scored, make a tin foil ball and roll it over the foam. This will give it a natural stone look. Making small jagged cuts also gives the stone an aged or crumbling look. Experiment and see what looks best to you.

Add texture to your cave tiles with tin foil.

If you need added height, you can glue the foam together with Alenne's Tacky Glue (Walmart). Be sure to put added weight on the two pieces for a greater hold. I let it sit overnight and the next day it was solid.

To give the foam even more rigidity and a black wash to pull out the details from the tin foil, you'll want to use non-glare Mod Podge (I accidentally bought gloss) and add flat black acrylic paint. Pour the black paint into the Mod Podge jar and stir- you'll want the mixture to be a dark gray- almost as black as the paint itself. Don't add too much paint as it will dilute the stickiness of the Mod Podge. Paint each piece and let it sit overnight. You'll notice the painted foam is more compact and weighted which adds to the longevity of the pieces for storage and use. Here's how my pieces look with Heroclix in place:

The final step is choosing the color of the cave. I used a light gray for the base and navy for highlights. I painted navy in the grid lines and then did a dry brush on the surface. For the sides, I did the reverse:

And there you have it. A 3D Batcave that looks and plays great. My son loved it. 

Welcome!

I've always loved board games. The thrill of choosing what to play, who to play as and the adventure held within shared with my friends, board games have captured my imagination ever since I was kid.

While board games have exploded in popularity, complexity, and component quality in recent years-there's still room for improvement. A little TLC can make it less cumbersome to play, thus extending the life of the game. One of the biggest contenders I see for board game blunders is the rule book. If I have to make a rules summary/player aids for it, the rule book has not done its job. Copious chits are a close second. Granted, chits are to keep costs low over that of miniatures, but sometimes you have to get creative. That's where my idea for this blog came to light- or rather by night. I wanted to share my modifications to my collection of board games with simple DIY steps.


Some of my board game mods take several steps, others are just a matter of swapping out items.  For my first post, I'll show you how I did an easy upgrade  for IDW's Nickelodeon's Splat Attack! board game.

Slime not included.

The goal of the game is to be the last Nick toon team standing in a cafeteria food fight with the most cool points. Cool points are represented by an ice cube token with the point value on the back.

While the tokens works for the game, the busy artwork 
of the board causes it to get lost

With miniatures on the board, I felt the ice cubes should be 3d as well. I was able to find a solution in the flower vase aisle at Michael's- a jar of clear plastic decorative cubes. The next challenge was finding a way to get the point value for each cool point on the cube. Luckily, I had leftover garage sale stickers in my junk drawer and put them to use. Application of one sticker with its value drawn in marker bled through- when you flipped the cube over to place on the board, you'd see the reversed number peering thru. I tried doubling up the sticker, placing one blank on the cube and the numbered sticker on top. That did the trick...3D cool points, much easier to see and grab across the table.

Success! 3d cool points that not only look great, but also 
function in the game with no issues.