MDF Terrain 2025

 I've finally put together some MDF terrain that's been sitting in a box since 2023. At least I can testify it doesn't warp!

MDF terrain aka glorified cardboard is a kind wood fiber mixed with resin/glue. Laser cut terrain is extremely cheap - I considered buying my own laser cutter but it's not really worth it as you can get a table full of pre-cut terrain for $60 or so, making storage more of a factor then price.

Now I have mixed feeling about MDF terrain. It's cheap, but the assembly and prep time have me thinking I may as well just have scratch built stuff out of cardboard. Unlike punching out cardboard cut outs from a boardgame (a very quick, satisfying experience!) this table of MDF took me about ~2hrs to merely push out of its supports - a fair bit of filing/trimming was needed to get rid of 'hairy edges.'

You do get plenty of buildings for your dollar - I think this was ~$30 which would be plenty for say a Kill Team board. However it is very 'flat' - I am adding lots of straws (pipes) and random bitz/greebles to make it look less like a 3D cheap puzzle. While the details are etched and will come through paint, it looks even flatter when undercoated black. 

Besides paper straw pipes, I'm going to get some of those stick-on nail jewels for rivets, corrugated cardboard for sheet iron and some of that plasterer's tape for mesh, to add some flavour. Unfortunately the long assembly time has kinda killed my enthusiasm for decorating and artistry. I'm a dad not a Youtuber so I tend to prioritize 'table ready' and 'time'...

I feel MDF is in a weird zone where it does not have the instant 'set up and play' of pre-printed cardboard, nor the polished ready-made-just-paint-it finish of more pricey options. Some other examples:

This Carnevale terrain was ready in 5 minutes and can fold down flat. It's not as sturdy long term of course. 

 

 The Terraclips(?) terrain doesn't look much more 'flat and cardboardy' than MDF. It's remarkably tough.

It does take a while to set up a table each time though - maybe 30min or so - so while it is easy to store it is not easy to transport and I tend to use simpler setups that I could actually create. It's also 3-4x more expensive than MDF. It's good if you can leave it set up for a few sessions.

 My completely scratch-built (cardboard and coffee stirrers) Mordhiem village took about the same time to build as MDF and cost $5.

 

Yes it's just black, but I use little tea lights (you know, the disposable ones that are used at weddings) to give a weird internal light. The tea lights can also be placed inside cotton wool for cool explosions. I had planned to paint some minis black-and-white to play in it; like a kinda Schindlers List palette.

That said, my previous MDF (Wild West) was simpler - probably because the designs are just boxes and I am at most going to linseed oil them at best and not bother paint them. 

I've PVA glued my MDF together and undercoated with rattle-can primer from Bunnings - another hour or two. Apparently a coat of watered down MDF is suggested but screw that. I've already spent hours and am nowhere near even undercoating it.

Then I found another box... Ever had this happen, when you order just too many minis and then you don't start painting them cos you made the job too big? I had 1000 LoTR minis that sat from 2013 til COVID because of this...  ..and still have several hundred samurai, Quar and ECW that languish for this very reason...

My MDF came from TTCombat - the guys who make Carnevale and Dropfleet Commander. My main criticism is some pieces are quite hard to push out and need to be cut out. I think an advantage of cutting your own at home would be to cut all the way through making this easier but burning MDF resin would be pretty toxic; and the cheapness of pre-cut stuff makes it hardly worth storing and investing in a laser cutter.

PS: I've swapped jobs and since I'm not spending hours 'reinventing the wheel' on a computer, I hopefully will have more enthusiasm to post....