Hi all,
I'm pondering how to make some simple terrain boards for war games - nothing fancy, but a step up from just bare mdf boards. Have people made any they could advise on, which don't require vast amounts of experience to do? I've tried YouTube, but all the videos seem pitched at top-level display boards.
Basically, I had thought about roughening up my mdf boards much like individual unit bases: by spreading sealant over them to texture the surface, paint it, then glue down some sand patches, bits of grass, etc. I did wonder if lots of sealant might make the mdf base become bowed, so thought I'd ask the forum for some advice.
Thanks in advance!
Craig
I have used textured boards before and they do tend to warp if painted, though this can be minimised by painting the reverse too. I painted the rear black then did all the sand, flock, paint, polystyrene hills, varnish etc. on the front side - once the back was dry of course!
They did seem to get minor chips and scrapes and needed touched up fairly regularly
These days I have three 600mm x 1200mm MDF boards. I sling them on the dining table, pop hills shapes on top, cover with one of the printed cloths and add roads, villages, trees and the like as needed.
Hey presto! 1200mm x 1800mm table ready to go.
Perhaps my standards have slipped. :)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ7Nizz1lNU&t=6s
I've tried this and it works great for the base texture. Then add just some flock or cut some grass mat on there.
Thanks Notku, I'll check that video out this evening.
Ithoriel, thanks for that. I actually have the exact same 2ft by 4ft mdf board setup! They're completely bare though, excepting only a coat of green paint on one side. I wanted to move things up a level, and maybe a printed cloth is the way to go. Would also let me do gridded or hexed tables too, I suppose. 👍
Quote from: Ithoriel on 11 March 2020, 11:55:29 AM
These days I have three 600mm x 1200mm MDF boards. I sling them on the dining table, pop hills shapes on top, cover with one of the printed cloths and add roads, villages, trees and the like as needed.
Hey presto! 1200mm x 1800mm table ready to go.
This is what I do too.
It looks as good as the effort you put in! For 10mm I think a good cloth is really important, as units are fairly small so a lot of the cloth will show. Then for terrain elements, I've found texturing these a bit like figure bases really helps.
Use game cloths of the kind available from Tiny Wargames or North Star Miniatures, or make your own from disposable table cloths. Put stuff underneath to produce the terrain you want. Cloths are much better than game boards for producing contours and hills etc., although the Geo-Hex terrain system is a very good board-based solution for realistic terrain. Frankly I wouldn't bother with making your own boards - too much time and effort.
https://www.deepcutstudio.com/
Got a couple of their mats too, with the mousepad material. Very durable and evens itself on the table.
However them coming from the eastern europe, their customer service is rather shoddy.
Very happy indeed with my TinyWargames mat.
I've tried making boards several times but keep coming back to
a gaming cloth thrown over the table with terrain dropped on.
Making fully 3d terrain boards always sounds like it should be one
of my 'wargaming objectives' (to borrow a phrase from work) but
there are several issues which put the blockers on every time:
- Where am I going to store them ?
- Maximising variety with fixed terrain..
- The hassle of getting them out of deep storage (the shed) where
they inevitably live.
A bit like 'campaigns with all the trimmings' - great to read about but
not sure I would want to take part. One day...
Phil
You do need a lot of boards to give variety. The BGMR comps had lots and lots of boards, with styelised terrain.