I was reliably informed that volcanoes are made with rum, brandy, pineapple juice, orange juice, and orgeat syrup. Oh and of course topped with a cherry! Nope not the right one?

Big Ben on Heard Island, Australia’s largest volcano.

Volcanoes are openings in Earth’s crust that release ash, gases, steam, and hot liquid rock called lava. When lava cools and hardens, it forms the cone-shaped mountain we recognize as a volcano. Most volcanoes are located around the edges of tectonic plates, on land and in oceans.

Volcanoes on land form when one tectonic plate goes under another. Typically, a thin, heavy oceanic plate moves beneath a thicker continental plate. This causes the ocean plate to sink into the mantle.

Mine were a bit easier than that. Hex hills cut from dense foam board and polystyrene cones.

Undercoated in ochre and then “painted” with a sand, brown poster paint, and PVA glue mix with a toothpaste like consistency.

Sloped on matt black paint.

Dry brushed with yellow orange red and magenta poster paints. Painted all over with a water based gloss varnish (to avoid foam melting) and then some various coloured fibre wool placed in the volcano crater to simulate eruptions.

To make the volcanoes fit into the modular hex terrain, I needed to do one last adjustment. The foam hex hills had tricky edges, so I had to find a way to ensure the terrain fitted together perfectly.

I decided to glue 6mm thick mdf hexes on to the bottom of the volcanoes. These fitted perfectly into the modular board and raised any imperfections above the adjoining 2mm thick mdf hexes to avoid any problems. I will do the same with all other hills.

So volcanoes now extinct!