TINFOIL-MOLD WARGAMING HILLS: QUICK, CHEAP & BETTER DETAILS

Tinfoil Rock Mold, Reusable

Model railroaders have been making cliff faces by pouring plaster of Paris into rock molds since the start of the hobby. A popular hack, was to make a tinfoil mold by gluing several sheets together, wrinkling it in random patterns, then pouring the plaster into it to make thin pieces that could be then broken into whatever shape was needed to construct the rock faces. I used this technique on several terrain pieces, gluing the broken chips to a white Styrofoam base, then using spackle or more plaster to fill in the gaps between the ‘rocks’. This makes amazingly functional and realistic looking pieces for the gaming table and I loved the end result, but gluing all the pieces was time consuming. I experimented with this alternative technique and it proved to be an incredible time saver for these very detailed hills. I have estimated the cost of materials to be less than one dollar for each hill. This is the new technique that I wanted to share.

You start by creating a tin foil mold. They are reusable again and again. Lay out a tinfoil sheet about 18 inches long and smear Elmer’s style craft glue on it. Add another sheet of foil and repeat until you have built up four to five layers. Ensure good surface contact by placing books while it dries. Fold and wrinkle it to simulate a rock face. Long diagonal creases at different angles will appear like elongated cracks or fault lines in the slabs. You can crease up the edges to hold in a quarter to a half-inch deep pour of plaster, or you can continue with the next step.

Choose a piece of Styrofoam that will form the center of your hill. Hills are seldom perfectly round so form it into an irregular shape with slopes for sides. The Styrofoam edges will be covered by plaster so there’s no need to use the good expanded insulating foam. Feel free to use that crappy bubbly white stuff you were going to throw away. Then pat yourself on the back for helping save the environment.

Shape a Styrofoam Core and Weigh it Down in the Center of the Tinfoil Mold

Of the two hills that I made for this project, one Styrofoam piece was two inches thick, the other was a single inch, (I play Battletech with mine, so these are perfect for level 2 and level 1 hills respectively).

Pouring in the Plaster Around the Core

If you want ‘flat-topped’ hills so your miniatures can rest on a relatively level surface, you can save some cleanup time later by pressing some of the creases out of your foil in these areas now. It can also be done by pressing hard on the Styrofoam core to flatten the foil mold beneath it. It doesn’t need to be perfect as you will see later. Press the Styrofoam against the top and weight it down with a heavy object, (I used a brick,) to keep it from floating in the plaster. Now shape the foil up and around the Styrofoam but leaving a gap between the core and the foil walls for the plaster. Remember the plaster is heavy, so crease the edges of the foil together so it doesn’t collapse your mold and leak out. I also put several supports (using various objects) all around under the foil edges to help support the mold’s walls which will want to give under the weight of the much heavier plaster.

Mix the plaster of Paris in accordance to the instructions on the packaging and add in the space between the Styrofoam core and the tinfoil mold. Fill up the mold until it is slightly past the edge of your Styrofoam core. Tap the Styrofoam and the outside of the mold to help release air bubbles in the
plaster. Believe it or not, you can remove your hill from this mold in about an hour. This will assist in drying. I let it sit overnight for good measure.

Pour the Plaster Just Over the Edge of the Styrofoam. Curl the Edges of the Tinfoil so it Doesn't Collapse. It Dries Quickly. 

I used a serrated edged steak knife to chisel off high points on the bottom and carve out the few little air bubbles I had into longer ‘cracks’. Set it on a flat surface and find the high-points that need trimming. I also cleaned up the top surface, fully exposing the Styrofoam core because I knew I was going to cover that surface with flock. Rub the piece down with your hands, and break off the tiny brittle edges before you paint.

Use a Knife to Knock off any Brittle Bits or High Points.

Remove Unwanted Portions and Sharp Edges that are Likely to Break Off Later.

First Coat, Level 1 Hill

Don't Forget to Coat the Bottom Too

Plaster of Paris needs to be sealed or it will leave white, chalky marks where ever you place it. I painted it with 1 part black, 1 part brown (cheap craft paints) mixed with 2 parts Elmer’s glue (PVA) and a very tiny bit of water to make it spread easy. Apply with a large brush. PVA is famous for making hills warp but the plaster will remain ridged so use it liberally to protect your hill. Make it very dark and be sure to get all the recesses which will represent the ‘shadowed’ areas. Don’t forget to seal the bottom with it too. I place it in front of a fan to speed up drying time. It should be done in 10-15 minutes.

Other Coats are Dabbed with a Sponge 

Add some white paint to the paint mix you already made, lightening up the color just a shade. I use a cut up kitchen sponge and dab the slightly lighter gray over 90% of the surface of the hill. Set in front of fan to dry. It should be done in 10-15 minutes. Add white paint again, lightening up the gray, but this time sponge on to approximately 80% of the surface. Don’t try to get the recesses, leave them darker. You are targeting only the higher points. Dry in front of the fan. Keep repeating this process with a lighter shade each time until only the very highest points on your hill are receiving the lightest shade of gray. By the time you are applying the final shade of very light gray, you will only be trying to cover about 5% to 10% of the surface. You could get a satisfactory result with just a few coats but it will look much better with the recommended 6-8 applications. If you use a fan to speed up drying time, you can keep the same paint mix going in between coats, adding just a little white between each one. This will speed up the process and your hills will be finished extremely quickly.

Six to Eight Coats Later, Each Getting Progressively Lighter, Our Gray Hills are Nearly Finished!

There are other painting techniques for plaster of Paris hills using washes. I feel that if you are going to be handling the hill, transporting it to the club and traipsing your minis all over it, the paint really needs the PVA mixed in with it to protect it and keep it from leaving chalky markings.

Add glue to the top surface and flock. If there are any horizontal creases or cracks in your surface where you can imagine grass or weeds growing from, you can place glue there as well and sprinkle with flock. I choose these spots by imagining seeds blowing in the wind and landing on a particular location on the hill. If the seed would take root and grow, I flock that area. If it would roll down the hill and perhaps get caught somewhere else, then I flock that spot instead. This really makes the hills ‘pop’ with eye-catching detail. Water down some more PVA (50/50) and a few drops of dish soap to help break the surface tension and drip or spray it onto your flocked surfaces to seal them. It may appear a bit milky at first but it will dry clear.

Two Finished Hills. Less Than One Hour of Crafting, Not Including Drying Time.

Battletech Miniatures, Trebuchet and Spider for Scale. 

Battletech Miniatures, Trebuchet and Spider for Scale.

Pathfinder Miniature Gnome Summoner, Surrounded by Warhammer 40K Orks

Here's is a Hill I Made by Gluing Plaster Chips to Styrofoam, then Spackled and Filled Between the Gaps. Loose Rocks Added for Rough Areas. Nice Result, but Very Labor Intensive (Over Four Hours of Work, Not Including Drying Time).

The advantage of the tinfoil mold method is that you can create very nice-looking hills with rock details exceeding that which is usually achieved using the expanded polystyrene foams. The finished product has a bit of heft to it and stays in place nicely on the table. I find they helped weigh down my grass mat as well. I can make a pair of hills like the ones seen with less than one hour of labor (minus the drying time, of course). The only disadvantage is that plaster of Paris is a brittle medium when compared to insulation foams and if the terrain is dropped from a significant height, it will probably break, (though I have never broken any). You are also restricted by the size of the foil mold you can make, though larger molds could be made by gluing the sheets accordingly and I plan to experiment further with 'foil skirting' on larger pieces.

None of these techniques are new, but I haven’t seen them combined in this manner which is why I wanted to share them. I may be mistaken, so feel free to post links to your findings or if you discover similar builds, place them in the comments below!

My cost breakdown for these hills was approximately one US dollar each:

4-5 sheets of tinfoil at $0.26 (reusable for several plaster projects)
2 lb plaster at $1.36 (enough for two hills)
Cheap craft paint (black, brown & white) under $0.30
Elmer’s Glue under $0.14
Approximately 1 ounce of Woodland Scenics Flock $0.24

Finally, no one accomplishes anything by themselves and without the help of teachers and
mentors. Gamers are a community and I must recognize that the foundation of my (very limited) terrain building and game craft knowledge comes from the list of amazing Youtubers below. If you have any questions regarding terrain, dungeon crafting, tabletop wargaming, models or dioramas, you will want to check out these channels and support their efforts!

Mel the Terrain Tutor:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_aro8CTHw7ZD5H661hC6Q

Lukes Aps:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmD5774MOQhjYBkXqu3Jdw

The Crafting Muse
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC92IlSbAqZY-TQv5pa4V1nQ

Kathy Millatt
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-tzXpJ-rgXugc-eJfCtxg

Luke Towan
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjRkUtHQ774mTg1vrQ6uA5A

Digging Deep for an NPC: The Murder of Trini Bezz

Role players go to many places to find inspiration for their characters. Movies, books and Pinterest, or heroic idealized versions of themselves. I knew a guy who only played characters based on his pets, (the Tabixi bard was particularly interesting). But what if these still fall short? Have you ever modeled a character after people you know?  With a bit of research, actual people and other real-life encounters can be crafted into the best fantasy characters. The following is a story of one such journey.

"Trini Bezz" by artist Rick Harris as she
appeared in Royalty and Rogues, FASA 1994. 

Trini Bezz first appeared in Royalty and Rogues, a Mechwarrior 2^nd edition scenario pack for the Battletech universe published by FASA in 1994. I played the module (many) years ago and I wanted a similar Non-Playing-Character for our current Battletech campaign.  We needed a regular jumpship captain that would transport the characters around from star system to star system and, I had been creating a murder mystery as a break from the normal ‘contract work’ the mercenaries usually received. I expanded the Trini Bezz character with some additional details:

Born on An Ting in 2972, Trini was a brilliant mathematician and technical engineer. She and her lover, took positions on an interstellar jumpship, Inception VII, she as the ship’s chief navigator. They saw the stars together and eventually married. In an effort to save a group of noble passengers from a pirate attack, her partner was killed. Trini was heralded as a hero, and backed by new and gracious noble investors, was awarded a captain’s share in aging jumpship called the Distant Apogee. However, she made the difficult choice to leave Alexi, their one year old daughter with Trini’s sister to be raised on An Ting.

In 3028, while performing routine repairs on the Hephaestus Station, Alexi was killed in a terrorist attack. The mastermind was never caught and Trini spends the rest of her free time tracking down her daughter’s killer. Trini wasn’t very present in Alexi’s life, (this created tension between her and her sister on An Ting,) but she saw even less of her granddaughter, Aurora.

In 3049, Trini Bezz is diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. She puts up a good fight, but because she has spent so much time in space at zero-G, she can’t receive proper medical attention on gravity normal worlds. Her treatments on remote hospital stations threaten to put the ship in the red. With only a short time to live, she wishes to reconnect with her granddaughter Aurora, who has followed in her mother’s footsteps as a promising aerospace engineer.

3051, (present). Trini has tracked down her daughter’s killer, and fearing that the authorities won’t consider her evidence compelling enough, plots to frame him for her murder. Furthermore, she has a life insurance policy, (with clauses that exclude suicide and her pre-existing condition of cancer,) which she wills to her granddaughter with hopes that she uses the money to pull the ship out of arears with the creditors.

This model from the Advanced Style 

blog inspired our ‘modernized’ conception 

of the Trini Bezz character.

Trini Bezz is a wonderfully flawed and tough character. Fragile of body, (not just because of age and deteriorating health, but also because of muscular atrophy from a lifetime spent in microgravity,) yet she makes up for it with a hardened will, focused mind and a laser tongue. She keeps her crew in line with her foul mouth and by staying one step ahead of everything. Yet, with age comes wisdom, and she was reaching out in ways unfamiliar to her, trying to ready those few that mattered to her for her impending death. I fell in love with her character concept.


We have all had players simply ‘not care’ about plot hooks before and go off on tangential threads of their own. I blame this on poorly conveyed NPCs. There can be a dozen other reasons of course, but at least this answer puts some control back into your hands as a game master. You want your players to WANT to pursue your story line, and since I was enamored with this character’s story, I needed to do her some justice. I wanted it to be as real as real can get.

Some of the players already had several endearing experiences with her aboard the Distant Apogee. A couple of years ago, (both in game and out of game), the characters had brought onboard cute furry pets called kooz-kooz they purchased from a shady merchant. The fuzzy creatures mimicked whatever they heard like parrots but they looked like a ‘Furbie’ toy with feathery antennae. Like the classic Star Trek episode, Trouble with Tribbles, the kooz-kooz had a knack for escaping their containers and rapid reproduction. Before too long, they had infested the entire jumpship. After the characters made several failed attempts at population control, Trini finally ordered everyone to suit up and space the entire ship. The characters spent the greater part of a day push-brooming the asphyxiated fur-balls out an air lock. Yes, it was some comedic relief, but the point was made: Trini Bezz doesn’t mess around.

Now, with two new women playing at the table, I really wanted to make Trini resonate, especially with them. Trini was dying and suddenly willing to share some deep wisdom. I wanted them to have some ‘Trini-time’ and heartfelt discussions with her. Something important, no, crucial. Nuggets of wisdom to pass along to young women, up and coming in the galaxy. What the hell would Trini say?Where was I to go when my own life experiences have been so different? There’s a million blogs articles on “Three Ways to Make NPCs your Party Will Remember.” That’s all good and fine for those quick, impromptu NPCs you need when your party spontaneously decides they want to put on a wedding or open a shop rather than explore the dungeon delve you’ve spent three weeks detailing. Do I simply copy a humorous movie grandmother? Use a prop or practice up a new accent? Certainly, I could do better than that. This will sound mawkish, but I wanted to find the REAL Trini Bezz. I searched my friends list to see who I could interview, starting with family.

My mother drives an old clunker and I’ve been trying to get her into a new car for years. It’s not the money, she’s just stubborn because it reminds her of dad who passed away. I’ve listed off all the logical reasons for a new car, safety, reliability and modern aesthetics. She just smiles at that one:

“I don’t care what other people think about me.”

It’s a simple declaration, one we all make from time to time but don’t really mean. Mom, however, does, and she lives it too. It’s probably the strongest statement I’ve ever heard, and from a woman that IS ‘resilience’. I watch people’s opinions wash over her like salty waves on a jetty. That is her independence, her freedom and her strength.

I was told by an older friend that she experienced a moment in her life when she realized that most men had stopped listening to her. On one hand, she found it refreshing, that her looks were no longer always being scrutinized, but conversely, her opinions and requests were now ignored. Men who used to look her in the eye and hung on her every word, now belittled her with ‘terms of endearment’ as if she had reverted to childhood. Older men, by contrast, are carefully heeded due to a perception that with age, they have unlocked secrets to wealth and power. Your mileage with ageism may vary, but as I observed the world around me, I found this phenomenon to be absolutely true. Her testimony affected me for many reasons and on various levels, but it makes you realize that other people’s life experiences are not just dissimilar, they can be fundamentally different from our own.

I used to play cribbage with my wife’s grandmother between classes at college. She’s gone now, and I really treasure those moments I got to spend with her. She was an amazing card player and could peg the living hell out of you. Didn’t matter where she was on the board, you were never safe. She was also an incredible shit-talker. I had summoned some courage (maybe it was the hand?) and zinged the old woman. I honestly can’t remember the exact jab, but it challenged her ‘wholesomeness’ if you will and I’m sure a descriptor similar to ‘tramp’ was used. As usual, she never missed a beat:

“Oh please. I was giving blowjobs in the parking lot of a McDonalds long before you were a twinkle in your father’s eye.”

Wow. She even removed her oxygen tube to accentuate the delivery. She snorted and laughed hysterically, (word choice intentional). It’s a retort you don’t try to answer because you can’t beat it. You just lost, and you probably the card game too. Fact was, GG just doesn’t keep up with the big dogs, she IS the big dog – and don’t forget it.

A few years later, after she had passed, I related the story to some of the family. The grandkids loved it and they had some similar, tales of lewd remarks made by Grammy, but the aunts didn’t believe me and didn’t want to hear it. I tried to explain the context: that we were talking smack, bantering back and forth and that maybe that was just her way of pulling one over on me. They told me I was lying and remained pretty upset by the whole thing. Whatever, I was there and I know what she said, and now I was feeling even more honored because I got to see a side of her she didn’t always share with everyone.

Time to dig again. I interviewed a couple of female friends and explained my situation, how that I, a middle aged male, could have no idea what this veteran jumpship captain would tell someone, (not just anyone, but a group of young women, who were newly up-and-coming heroines of the galaxy). Were they willing to share any truths or advice they received from a grandmother or another powerful woman that profoundly changed their outlook or positively affected them somehow? My friends do not disappoint.

One woman was surprised when her grandmother abruptly started advising her about sex:

“Keep your tits, pits and cooch clean, and always keep a new pair of underwear in your purse. You just never know.”

My friend confessed, “In hindsight, I shouldn’t have been shocked, and I hope my reaction didn’t offend her.” This wasn’t some ‘cute thing’ Grammy said, (and nothing would be more insulting to her grandmother than to frame it as such). Just because sex changes for us as we age, our need for affection doesn’t, and to devalue someone’s knowledge of a topic based on their age is preposterous. She was very touched that her grandmother was thinking about her wellbeing, and it was an important lesson: you don’t always know when the opportunity for intimacy will pop up. You may not have expected it, so you got to be ready.

Moving on.

Another friend related a story told by her mother who had passed away when she was in her teens.

“Find your dreams and let them take you wherever you want to go, but do it because you want it. Don’t chase someone else’s dream.”

It was difficult for her to tell me this story because she feared her mother was relating some regret. It takes time for some of us to sort through what other people want of us and what we truly need for ourselves as people. Whether we realize it or not, this is a dilemma we all face. Maybe some only realize it fully, after it’s too late. Actually, it was something I needed at that exact time to hear.

Trini could swear with the best of them. How do you keep a seldom paid crew, working long hours, and lightyears from their homes from becoming mutinies? Intimidation. Her voice and accent was inspired by another [unnamed] friend. She’s a southy from Boston and she knows cuss words that can cut the paint off a battleship.  It’s frightening and endearing, all at the same time. The crew of the Distant Apogee was quick to remind guests to mind their manners while travelling with Trini Bezz.

             "Don't let her size fool you. The Captain can kick the balls of a bull in zero-G."

No one wants to be labeled, or have the broad assumptions applied to them that go along with those labels. Belonging to an age group, says nothing about a person as an individual, and it is just as unfair as making speculations about a person based on their race or ethnicity. The players stumbled over this more than once. Unbeknownst to the heroes, Trini had orchestrated the passage of the man suspected of killing her daughter: the destroyer of the Hephaestus Station. She excused herself from the breakfast table after grabbing an emptied plate and juice cup from him and headed towards the kitchen. One of the characters followed her, trying to be helpful but full of inaccurate assumptions.

“Is there anything I can do to help with dishes?” He said.

“Dishes? Shut your whore-mouth! I’m the captain of this fucking ship, you think I’m doing the dishes?” She snorted.

“No, er… I’m sorry Captain Bezz. I just wanted to help.” He stammered.

“You wanna help? Don’t fucking patronize me, kid.”

She stomped off with the plate and cup towards her private quarters, (a clue). She had taken them to get a DNA sample of the man she suspected to be her daughter’s murderer. One last confirmation before she made her move and sealed his fate.

In the end, Trini lured the man to the gravity deck where she confronted him with a data disk of military records, traced bank accounts and a DNA profile. He denied everything of course, and though the evidence was convincing, it was still largely circumstantial. She swallowed some pain meds and played the ‘kindly old lady’ one last time. “Could you adjust the gravity down a bit? It’s hard for me to breath.” As the security cameras later showed, he moved to the console to work the controls. Instead of lowering the gravity, the system had been cleverly rigged. The deck spun faster and faster, increasing its RPMs and the centrifugal forces grew stronger until the killer was 4.2 times his normal weight, pinned to the floor. Trini, frail from a life in microgravity, lost consciousness and was soon crushed. Murdered, as it appeared.

Minutes later, the grav deck stopped spinning and the destroyer of Hephaestus Station fled the bloody scene with the data disk in hand. Of course, he was later discovered trying to destroy the disk and after an exciting attempt at escape, the party took him prisoner to be handed over to proper authorities.

There were other suspects on the Distant Apogee that needed to be investigated: repossession specialists from the Bank of New Avalon, a jealous 1^st Mate and mysterious Comstar personnel, but in time, they were cleared. Though it appeared he had worked the controls to sabotage the grav deck, the players eventually realized that Trini Bezz was not murdered, but carefully orchestrated her own suicide. What to do now? Do they tell the truth about the ‘murder’ or allow the insurance money to be collected by Aurora? What would you do for a friend?

I was able to pull off some nice moments with Trini and the characters before the incident on the grav deck occurred. Most of the real life conversations above occurred in some form or another plus a few others when the party asked questions. I had spent so much time thinking about Trini, it wasn’t hard to deliver impromptu conversations in harmony with her many difficult life events.  

“I left her on An Ting because I wasn’t good enough to be her mother. I ran to the stars because I wanted to be.”

‘The Murder of Trini Bezz’ arch took three sessions to unravel, a bit long for a murder mystery but the players remained engaged. After she was gone, the party was pretty shaken up and eager to right an injustice. In the end, I think the character of Trini Bezz filled her role in furthering the plot, but also came across effectively in a manner that touched the party. Of course, you can’t spend hours researching every character in your game. They don’t get enough play time to warrant it, and there’s only so much energy in your daily grind for NPC creation.  

It’s a cliché perhaps, that it’s about the journey, not the destination, but in the case of creating Trini Bezz, nothing could be truer. I would like to think that all of these remarkable real life women I spoke to or learned about through the voices of those they touched, all shined through in some way. Certainly they impacted me as I learned about them. As creators of the gaming experience, we don’t get to portray a character as a player. Our NPCs are our outlets, and the process of writing their story really feeds my creative urge. Learning and exploring their world gives them life, and I believe I learned something about the real world as well.



Image Sources:

"Trini Bezz" by Rick Harris as featured in Royalty & Rogues, FASA 1994 

2011, December 6. DO WE LOSE THE LONGING FORSELF-EXPRESSION AS WE AGE?