Hey from me to you all
I'm here because I'm a Sandboard wargamer (there's a few of us out there with strong floors and a good hoover), WWI is especially good using this type of table- hence my first post. You can usually find me each year in the front foyer at TWWS Cavalier with a bunch of reenactors wargaming in kit making a lot of noise...if we're invited again next year. I'm also a scratch builder, oil painter and I sometimes get my name on the back cover of pc games software as an 'adviser'.
Hello Biffa,
Welcome to the friendly forum!
Please leave your sanity at the door. ;)
Hi Biffa and welcome
QuoteI'm a Sandboard wargamer
intrigued, any pics
Matt
Hi again Biffa ! ;)
Cheers - Phil.
Welcome on board :).
Hi,
always nice to see a new inmate .... forum member :)
In my experience there's a friendly, knowledgeable and helpful crowd here so I'm sure you'll enjoy being here.
Sand tables .... 8-> ... wow! 40 years or more since I had one of those. Oddly enough mine was used primarily for WW1 games with Airfix figures and their British Tank kit. It provided the original "destructible environment" gaming experience with incoming artillery stonks collapsing trenches and creating craters to hamper movement but provide cover!
Hello and welcome!
Also interested in pics of that!!!
Sand table!
Luxury! Though I always found the terrain a little bit too fragile with heavy handed opponents.
Hi Biffa, welcome to the Forum!
8)
Hello Biffa
I'd like to reiterate all the above and more.
Hugh
Hello and welcome :-h
Meirion
Hi Biffa! - and care to tell us more about the "grandfather that worked in the map room at Sandhurst"?
Hi Biffa (again). Don't you find the sand has a scouring effect on figure paintwork?
This is my sand table, it's the smallest of the two we use, might be able to get a picture of the larger one once our main campaign gets started.
First picture is the map test the other three are close ups of old 25mm ECW figures closer in on the board among some of my trees. I also find the tables great for siege battles usually 15mm medieval, they're perfect for growing siege lines, hence our obvious movement into WW1.
(http://i.imgur.com/w1xjIpU.jpg)
Again the test map on the smaller sand table, the final on the main board will be atleast twice this size, but it shows how faithfully you can recreate the topography (though I messed the river up a bit). I'll post an update as things develop, we've just put in another order of about 500 extra figures just yesterday, also hoping to add the new extensions before we start. I've also almost finished scratch building most of the town I'll show those as part of an extra update later.
(http://i.imgur.com/U55VK32.jpg)
I build my first Sand table in the late 70's in my room, my dad stopped me from making it any larger soon most of my mates had one, they were always a massive success and I know though most of them are now in their 50's they continue to use them but they're mainly housed in garages and outbuildings, I was always surprised that they didn't become even more popular, guess it's the weight in upstairs rooms but I have used some very large ones in attics and bedrooms.
Guess it's thanks to Pendragon and their range of great little figures that we are able to plan a wargame on this scale and with this much scope, we expect this won't be a single battle wargame.
Anyway I'll post back with updates on this Campaign.
@WeeWars - He was a miserable old bugger but he use to take me fishing at the college before the IRA forced it's closer to the public ofc he talked about war stuff and I was very young, his job meant that we lived in the area which was great for finding fellow wargamers (North Farnborough Wargames club) and reenactors some of who I still know today. He was a bit like the granddad in only fools and horses, only he was a marine but every ship he ever went on was sunk by the Germans, including the Hood, he also survived the sinking of the Royal Oak at Scarpa Flow, his body contained a lot of Italian shrapnel which gave him jip guess that's what made him miserable.
Quote from: Biffa on 11 September 2013, 10:02:20 AM
@WeeWars - He was a miserable old bugger but he use to take me fishing at the college before the IRA forced it's closer to the public ofc he talked about war stuff and I was very young, his job meant that we lived in the area which was great for finding fellow wargamers (North Farnborough Wargames club) and reenactors some of who I still know today. He was a bit like the granddad in only fools and horses, only he was a marine but every ship he ever went on was sunk by the Germans, including the Hood, he also survived the sinking of the Royal Oak at Scarpa Flow, his body contained a lot of Italian shrapnel which gave him jip guess that's what made him miserable.
Sounds like quite a life! He lived some real history.
Hi and welcome,
Great looking table, i remember my wifes uncle, bob conners setting up an El Alamien table using sand but unfortunately the cat decided to use it first ;D ;D ;D
kev
Hi Biffa and welcome. I played my first proper wargame on a sandtable back in 1968. I was also in a position to be able to have my own at that time and asked my mum to get me enough sand to make one. She returned from the local petshop with a couple of stones worth of budgie seed! ;D ;D
Hi Biffa
Welcome.
It would be great if you posted some stuff about how you addapt the table for non- desert enviroments
Mark
Back in the day we used to water the sand to dampen it then sprinkle green powder paint over.
Lightly spray painting it is the laziest way but if you over do it then it can form a crust, it's also expensive so is using flock unless you make your own. A local furniture makers near me allows me to collect up their piles of fine saw dust this I then die using very watery emulsion (or Latex paint in the US), I leave it to semi dry out then I pestle and mortar it. You can also get some very 'chocolatey' looking sand colours though we've tended to stick with what we know and are use to it's characteristics.
The trickiest part of using a sand-table is getting the dampness correct and timing it around when you are going to use it and then maintaining the moister level if the battle has to be reconvened at a later date, well apart from the cat issue of which I've had and have many, I won't include pictures for that bit.
Quote from: Biffa on 13 September 2013, 08:16:28 AM
The trickiest part ... well apart from the cat issue of which I've had and have many, I won't include pictures for that bit.
Wildlife! Deposits? I had a cat who used to bed down on phalanxes of painted and based 15mm spearmen when I wasn't looking. :o
Welcome to the Loony Bin forum.
I'm struggling to envisage dice rolling in sand.... How many cocked dice> ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: Nosher on 13 September 2013, 04:20:42 PM
I'm struggling to envisage dice rolling in sand.... How many cocked dice> ;D ;D ;D
At least figures wouldn't get damaged by over-enthusiastic dice-rolling. I used to play against someone who believed that the higher you threw the dice, the higher the number that would come up.
Sent from my HTC Desire X using Tapatalk 4
Welcome, Biffa :-h
Hi Biffa: love the sandboard; never even heard of that :o
Welcome to "sanity is optional" :D
Hello and welcome, just starting a WW1 Project with my friends, happy to see another noisy group, we tend to have a good laugh at shows, never tried a sand table, but it looks good.
all the best
Sean