Terrain and Foam Cutting

I received my hot foam cutting tool and got to using it as soon as I could. Our group at my old office really needs terrain, and I'm more than happy to spend some time making it. This article will be mostly about the terrain, but I'd also like to point out that it's a new Fire Warrior team there that I painted. So they'll help show case it. I know they're not hot women laying on shiny cars like most show case models, but hey! They're sleek and fancy alien men! That has to count for something? Right?

So let's review the hot wire foam cutter I used. It's the Woodland Scenic variety. It's not a terrible tool, but for the cost I think I could have been given something far better than what they gave me. You'll note on their web page, it's 40 dollars. That's American, because in Canada you double that price. That's "insane." I purchased it assuming it was in the price range of a power tool. The few reviews I read, said it was an extremely useful tool and everyone said it was worth the money for the power supply alone. Apparently other versions use batteries, and you chew through them like candy. So, ok... Picked it up.

Now my version was faulty, I hope. I've sent it back to them and hopefully they'll send a new one that works properly with out a lot of fidgeting. This one however, the fork wasn't connecting to the power properly. So it would be useful until the fork was pulled enough that no more connection was made and suddenly the tool stopped working in the middle of a cut. Grrr.

The other gripe I had with it was that yellow button. Now, it's there for good reason. You push it, and it turns on. You let go and it automatically shuts off. Fine, safety, I get it, that's actually fantastic because I can definitely be a ditz and leave things on by accident. The spring though is brutal! You really have to push hard on that switch to turn it on, and keep it on while you make the cut. Further more the plastic is incredibly hard and has sharp ridges that cut into your thumb! I felt this was unnecessary.

Anyway, for an 80 dollar tool, I'm disappointed. As a 30 or 40 dollar tool, ok, that's easy enough to throw away and not care that much. I am just a bit disappointed because I was expecting the comfort and ease of a power tool at that price range, compared to what I got. [Because it certainly doesn't have a lot of functionality!]

Before I sent it back though, I was able to complete two simple terrain pieces, and that's cool enough. These were fairly easy to make. I just cut the ridges with the foam cutter when it worked. Easy... And used a sharp knife to make the stone henge. They're hot glued together, which was an adventure as the glue literally melts the foam. It glues solid, but I was definitely a bit worried after working with it.

Painting is easy too. For the rock I airbrushed the grey on and some black wash to darken it in spots. Then I took a dry brush and went over all the edges. Extremely easy. I used model paint for the grey, but everything else is a mix of much cheaper paints that I can't thin enough to go through my airbrush.

I'm looking forward to making more. I'm going to make some impassible rock formations when the foam cutting tool gets back to me. I also have some more interesting impassible terrain ideas I'd like to put together that will use bits and bobs from different armies in hopes to create some cool looking, darker themed terrain! We'll see how that goes. I'm pretty excited about it through =D