Pics in next message below: I have been playing around a lot with high density foam - the kind typically used for foam mattresses - for hills, spires, and columns. It is a surprisingly easy material to work with, is hard to break, and super cheap. Having made a desert board already, I wanted to try whipping up a quick ice board as a prize for the upcoming Rose City Raid tournament. The board below I imagine to be a result of the super cold conditions on Svarlhiem or some other icy moon, perhaps the result of something like an asteroid impact or volcanic activity that super heats the ice, but the sheer cold freezes it before it can become vapor. The look was inspired by Borderlands 2. As for the technique, I can no longer find the website where i first saw it, but my thanks to that anonymous gamer for the idea. This stuff is easy to work with. I achieved this effect with scissors and fingers. Using the sides of the mattress as the flat base, I cut a rough diagonal triangle in the pillar's basic shape, then trim it down with the shears. You can pinch the foam together then snip off parts running up the body (so vertically going from our flat starting base) to get the feathered look. The larger cliffs were made by clipping around the sides using the normal flat part of the mattress (where you would lay) as the base and top level. I under cut one side and over cut the other so they would have the same lean as the pillars. After that, I spray painted with blue (it took two coats, and flipping them during the painting to get all the nooks and crannies), then dry brushed white, going super heavy on the tops. They are attached to linoleum tiles for weight. I avoided wood because of the added weight (weight becomes a weapon during transport). I'll post a step by step example of making these if anyone is interested. I would strongly recommend this as a way to get some cheap, easy to make, and hard to damage mountain or desert terrain on your board.
Very nice! One optional suggestion: Get some foam-safe high-gloss varnish for the ice, it will finish giving it the right look. I'm pretty sure there's high gloss stuff they sell for crafts (maybe that Mod Podge thing they keep mentioning?) that you can just brush on.
