What terrain can I make with my kids old toys?

For some reason we had two or even three packs of these floor tiled play mats knocking about. They lock together with their jigsaw like edges and were used to build dens as well as the more traditional use of providing a surface for tiny people to (more) safely fall over on. Perhaps they helped in learning to count too?

They were packed up in a cardboard box years ago and have been getting in the way whenever I venture into the over full shed ever since. I think they haven’t made it to the charity shop because we haven’t got around to sorting out one complete, not too battered set.

They’re made of EVA foam, which is an accepted hobby material, so that’s probably another reason why they haven’t gone to the the tip or the charity shop as I had it in the back of my mind that they could be useful one day.

Today is that day!

You can see this ‘4’ has been chewed and drawn on, plus it’s got a lot of useful straight edges; so I’m thinking “ruins for scatter terrain”. I’m not going to blunt a dozen hobby blades on cutting it up, so the heavy duty scissors will do the job.

You can see it’s got a very smooth side and a more textured side. I guess the textured side might pass as brickwork from a distance if it’s painted up appropriately. Maybe I’ll try at one point, however I want to try to give the smooth side some texture using a green stuff world roller. A quick test reveals that even pushing as hard as I can doesn’t really leave a lasting texture, but I remembered something about heating EVA up from a YouTube video. Now, it’s been a long time since I needed a hairdryer and I’m not sure my wife would appreciate me borrowing hers, so this is the perfect excuse to pick up a hot air gun.
Happily this worked a treat.

Most of the smaller pieces will end up as your traditional ‘ruined corner’ : stick a couple together and paint them to get them on the tabletop as quickly as possible. But I want to stretch myself a little with one building, so I got out the coffee stir sticks to build a broken wooden floor.

I also got the scissors out again to rough up the edges, trying to make them more ruined.

Painting is a couple base coat and then dry brush of craft store paint. Black and grey for a traditional fantasy look, brown and sandy for use in the desert.