Protecting Card Terrain

[captainventanus 5097xp 1]

I have never really been a fan of card terrain. Years ago when Battle Systems did their Kickstarter I did get a whole load thinking that this would be the best way for a Zone Mortalis table in terms of storage. Truth be told as soon as it arrived I realised it was just not going to work for me. And I prefer the plastic GW kits for robustness and to paint, convert etc..

A few weeks back though I returned to Infinity with Codeone and it comes with basic but good looking card terrain. Apart from the 5 minutes of sheer agony per building trying to get the steps and final fit right these are great. Judging by the latest CB battle report it looks like there might be more card terrain coming. I do hope so as I can’t see myself building and storing a whole table’s worth of mdf Infinity terrain alongside that for 40k I already have and enjoy working on.

But…. I know that this isn’t going to last forever, that’s okay. It did get me wondering how people go about protecting card terrain though.

Do you:

• seal up the open edges with a thin PVA layer?
• bother to use coloured pens to cover block out the open edges?
• varnish the card, if so with anything in particular?
• anything else?

 

 

[phaidknott 7256xp 1]

Got the battle systems terrain and I do pen the edges with coloured felt tips (don’t use black as it looks terrible), then if there’s a bit I think is going to fray (usually any sharp points and or “tabs” used in construction if you intend to break it down for storage after every game), then I use normal superglue with a brush applicator and “paint” the edges (not over the printed card). You need to do it after you’ve penned the edges, but it ends up setting like a hard plastic and stops any fraying (you can actually repair any fraying that’s already happened using the same method).

Looking at that infinity terrain however, it looks VERY sturdy (compared to the battle systems stuff), and you might want to think about just leaving it assembled all the time (should make it last a LOT longer). I know the earlier infinity cardboard terrain was designed so that you put the empty retail boxes inside to further strengthen them, not sure if the same technique is used on these.

 

 

[captainventanus 5097xp 0]

@phaidknott Thanks for the Superglue idea I’ll have to look for one with a brush applicator. The Infinity terrain is very very sturdy and I wouldn’t ever take it apart again. I’t reasonably compact too as the small buildings slot into the larger ones so the storage footprint is quite modest.

[collins 16606xp 1]

I also found superglue sorts the card terrain right out. just be careful of getting it on your fingers and touching the printed side of the card as it will rip off the texture/colouring etc making it very noticeably ruined.

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