First steps toward a playable bug colony

[Poison]

I would definitely use styrofoam or other foamboard. It's used a lot in miniature wargaming, and there are plenty of tutorials around for it. It's light, fairly durable and easy to work with. This is a fairly advanced tutorial, but I think for what you need something like this might suffice. If you google around a bit you'll find dozens of other tutorials.

If I were you I would mount the paper on a piece of sturdier material before you go any further though. The paper is flexible and that would make the entire board very fragile. Curious to see what you end up with!

[Ettrick]

A double post, but here's the first session of foam documented. Some of the shapes are roughed out; some are simple blocks I'll hack a bit and add texture on later. I'm thinking of rounding the corners of the paper so they won't lift up as much. I've also considered simply building the raised area out to the edges even though that would not look at all natural. A rectangle with rounded corners don't very often appear in nature.

[Coppermane]

Great idea! Especially for caverns and tunnels. Thanks for posting it and offering the outlines for creative commons. If I ever get a chance to use it with my group, I will take a picture and put it up.