Standing Stone Tabletop Terrain

Nothing says you're in a fantasy world quite like ominous standing stones with runes carved into them. These pieces of terrain are really easy to make and can add a lot of atmosphere to your games.

I use to make these standing stones from polystyrene packaging but since that's being used less and less in packaging (which is great!) I have less of the stuff laying around the house. So I've come up with this method using cardboard instead.

Cardboard

Masking tape

PVA craft glue

Polyfilla/filler

Paint

Paint brush

Gravel/sand

Nails (optional)

Aluminium foil (optional)

Dried herbs (optional)

Draw out the shape of you standing stone on the cardboard. Cut out the first piece and trace around it for the other pieces. I found that five pieces was enough for the shape I was after. I also cut out four rectangle pieces of cardboard.

I used PVA craft glue to stick the rectangle pieces to the bottom of larger cardboard pieces like you can see in the picture. I then applied glue at the top and bottom and glued it to the back of the next piece. The rectangle cardboard pieces act as spacers and make the base of your standing stone wider. Be carful to line up the bottom of the carboard when you're gluing to have a flat bottom, this will make it easier to attach to the base.

Use masking tape to cover the whole piece. You could also use papier-mâché for this step but that's messier and takes longer as you need to let it dry.

For the base of the standing stone I cut out two circles of cardboard, one smaller than the other. Two pieces was enough to give the thickness I wanted and having one smaller than the other gives you a sloped edge when its covered.

You could just use glue and tape to attach the standing stone to the base but I like to use nails. It makes the connection between the base and the standing stone very secure and it adds weigh to the piece making it less likely to be knocked over during a game.

Trace around the base of your standing stone on the smaller circle of the base. Then push the nails through the base and into the standing stone. It is easier and safer to make the holes beforehand with a scissors or craft knife rather than push the nails through. Glue the larger circle to the bottom of the piece. This hides the nails and gives you a nice flat base.

Now use masking tape (or papier-mâché) to cover the base. Cover the edge between the base and the standing stone as well so it looks like the stone is buried in the ground rather than sitting on it.

Make a paste from PVA craft glue, black paint and Polyfilla. You want the paste to be quite thick so it covers the masking tape. The paint makes the paste a grey colour so it cuts out a painting step later on and also makes it easier to see if you've missed any spots. The Polyfilla gives a nice rock-like texture and PVA glue keeps everything together and prevents cracks.

While the paste is still drying, dab a paintbrush into the paste. This will pull up the paste a little and produce a really nice texture. It also gets rid of your brush strokes.

If you want to give the impression that runes have been carved into the stone scrape off some of the paste with the end of the paint brush.

Leave to dry fully overnight.

To add gravel or sand to the base simply coat the base in PVA craft glue and dip the base in whatever basing material you want to use.

As the paste was already grey in colour I simply went over the stone with a lighter grey to highlight the texture. For the rune I decide on a glowing blue magic rune. After the blue paint was dry, I applied a thick coat of PVA craft glue. This gives the rune a shiny look when it has dried. Gloss varnish would also do this. This is a good technique to make things look shiny or wet, a rune drawn with the freshly spilled blood of some unfortunate victim would be a nice alternative decoration for a standing stone....

I like the different colours of the gravel and didn't want to paint over it completely so the base was given a wash of diluted black paint and PVA glue mixed together. The diluted paint darkened the base but still let you see the colours of the gravel and the glue helped to stop the gravel falling off as the piece is handled.

Don't forget to paint the bottom of the base, a coat of black paint just tidies the whole piece up.

Another detail I decided to add was some creeping ivy up the side of the standing stone. The shape of the ivy vines was made with aluminium foil and then wrapped in masking tape. I recommend painting the vines before sticking it to the standing stone with glue.

To complete the look I added some foliage. You can get modelling flock or static grass from modeling shops but I've found that dried herbs look just as good. I glued some dried parsley as the ivy leaves and some patches of basil around the base

And you're done!

The same techniques used here can be used to make loads of different terrain pieces, like stone buildings and castles or rocky hills, caves and dungeons. As long as you can make the shape out of cardboard you can make anything!