Building a Board
- Thread starter Mac V
- Start date
Iain McGhee
Mongoose
Don't know which one(s) off the top of my head, but at least one of the older downloadable ones has an article on boards. Should be in the contents. There's also a guide in the Starship Troopers painting guide book. If you only need something fairly basic, at least to start with, you could use MDF as a base (either one piece or in sections) and use textured paint or Plastikote-type sprays (matt emulsion and a few handfuls of sand work well enough too) and use polystyrene or foam blocks to create hills and such (you can pick up expanded poly sheets intended for insulation dirt cheap, although it'll be necessary to seal them with watered-down PVA glue to prevent them shedding chunks). Any DIY shop should keep these materials. Some companies do prebuilt stuff but these can be quite expensive for the better quality ones. Just type "wargames terrain" into google and you'll get a list.
You can see a small section of the board in the gallery (SST MI, TAC UAV bomb run) although this is in it's 'raw' state before texturing.
You can see a small section of the board in the gallery (SST MI, TAC UAV bomb run) although this is in it's 'raw' state before texturing.
What Iain McGhee said, and I'd add to make it modular in maybe 2'x4' sections. Three sections gives you a 4'x6' board and this will work for all but the largest of battles. Otherwise if you have the room get a full sheet of MDF (medium density fibreboard) and leave it intact. Any individual terrain objects can be made as separate pieces for maximum optional placements. I've chosen to go the route of making my boards from styro insulation boards of 2'x4' and detail them with textures. Then I place them over an MDF or plywood base. To limit players from placing their weight directly on the boards I have added a vertical frame around the board edge for them to lean upon. I wouldn't need that if I had done it like Iain McGhee suggested, but I really like to make my boards with topographical layers of 3D features. Then I still add separate terrain pieces onto that to block LOS. Some players that have a billiards table just toss a green blanket over the surface, add a few LOS objects and play away. It's a matter of deciding how much time you want to invest for the visual rewards you might get out of it. I finished this last summer and call it my "sandbox". It's 4'x6' standard table size.
Mac V said:
I do know that the roads are 5" wide, and the board foundation appears to be a hardboard such as MDF. I'd guess that they textured it by adding some sand and ground stone to the paint. By laying out a grid of streets and areas for structures, they can reposition the structures as they need to.
Though many here won't know it I did have an old "show me" on some terrain building when I was asked how I did it for a participation game. I'll dig it out and put it up somewhere.
(And amend this post!)
Amended: Quick and cheap terrain link
(And amend this post!)
Amended: Quick and cheap terrain link
Thanks - and that's always the problem.Mac V said:Thanks for the link Halfbat. [...] I've got no time.
They don't take too long if you can keep them going and can put them on one side, touching them when you have a free half-hour or so. But you need that half-hour to an hour at least otherwise it's not worth starting!Paladin said:
Why, alien flowers of course. I like accuracy in my terrain. :lol:
More seriously, these are probably my favorite "Exo-tree" design. They are made from dried Mahogany seed pods. I added the custom base to them using an oven-baked mache material. My other favorite seed pod is Lotus pods, because they can be used for the Arachnids as nest material. Just visit your local craft/floral shop. They have some rather interesting pods, but the Mahogany and Lotus are the "best-est". :wink:
