I've just inherited a BUNCH of models and pre-made terrain from my old school club and so I have been scavenging all of the items I want to keep, and the ones I want to potentially sell. A few of the things included in this are:

40k Sandbags (could easily work with my WW2 miniatures)
The Old LOTR terrain set that had broken statues

I like all of them but for some reason i feel GUILTY when I use pre-made terrain. I don't know why I consider it cheating a little bit. I'm not directing this against anyone who does use pre-made terrain, this is just how i feel with my own collection. I also feel that it makes the rest of my terrain that I have scratch-built seem cheap. The only exceptions are:

The Mines of Moria Terrain
Trees
Ladders from the Uruk-Hai siege set

I only allow the MoM terrain because it perfectly fits with the tutorial book when I want to get others into the game. Trees are extremely difficult to make well so that is the only exception I have. I consider the ladders to be units of themselves so not really 'terrain pieces.'

But I really like the stuff I just got. The only way I can 'justify' to myself with using this is by somehow ADDING something to it or making it part of something bigger. With the sandbags I can add dead bodies, barbed wire or maybe even make them like an angel, but what to do with these other LOTR terrain pieces? Any suggestions? And what are your thoughts on the matter?

Build weather top or one of the ruined watch towers in arnor.
Use LotRO for reference?
Or Osgiliath?

Use them as part of your scratch-built stuff. For an easy example, one of the statues (intact or fallen) from the old LotR scenery set could be placed in the middle of some trees, as is seen at Amon Hen in the movies.

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See my WIP thread here. viewtopic.php?f=50&t=25624

The picture on the bottom right is a plastic fallen pillar that was added to my fairly basic Osgiliath terrain.



I see no reason why you can't mix and match stuff and you shouldn't feel guilty about using it when required. It might just set off your terrain nicely.

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Careful with that axe of yours... Dain!

Azog

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Thanks guys, I think i'll do just that. These pieces of terrain will simply be 'enhancers' of my projects rather than just by themselves.

I would use pre-made terrain if I could afford them, most stuff (or all) look better than my own, but they're low in priority for me to purchase.

I would like to make more of my own terrain but it's time consuming and to that I also give priority to my major backlog I have, there's no time to make things. Though I hope some day to create my own ruins and buildings, I could only imagine the sense of achievement one has to making your own buildings rather than buying.

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My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

I am very guilty because I have hundreds of pre-made buildings. I still like to build terrain more than I like to paint.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Pre-made terrain owns. Use it to enhance your own creations, use it by itself, whatever. imho it's great and there should be more of it.

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Talaan-u rûk-ir tor Urûk
Nauru-ir agh kragoru nûrsu grishûrz
Nork-ulu furtun agh goð
Mordor-ob bot-tuk

Any ideas of how I could make 6 lines of sandbags into a big project rather than have them just separate?

My friend Fred used to make sand bags for 20mm and 25mm WWI and WWII from the old fashioned white medical bandage tape. It had a texture that looked good dry brushed. Just make little pillows of folded tape and glue them down. You can do the same with green stuff or air dried clay.
For larger scales like 40K cut foam core into small blocks and rap them in the bandage tape. I don't see any reason you could not make them as strips.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Thanks for your help but I must have mis-typed my question. I meant I inherited 6 pre-made sandbags and I want to do something more with them (rather than just have them painted up) such as put them part of another project or enhance them somehow (maybe put dead bodies or barbed wire)

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

work them around a ruined building. Perfect for WW2 urban combat.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings