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I am currently basing an MDF board for a club. I've already gone to home depot and bought a massive bag of fitting gravel. Now I'm trying to attach it. My usual method was to water down the PVA, spread it around, then put the gravel over it. Wait until dry, then put another layer of watered down PVA over it. Wait to dry, then shake off excess.

I've done that for half of the board. It works okay, but it doesn't secure the gravel particularly well, and the wood is slightly warped due to the water. (Fixing by putting something heavy on it.) I haven't painted it yet though. Do I need to give it a basecoat of spray paint first? Will paint help it to seal?

My other problem is that I rarely get sunny days to work on. What's the best way to dry out a board like that? Usually I do it outside, but I guess I could put down plastic sheeting and bring it inside.

I'm considering painting it a red, Mars-like colour. Does anyone have a tutorial for actually painting a basic board?

Pika_power, I just recently made my own gameboard and here are a few tips for you.

1. Adhesive - I recommend using slightly watered down wood glue instead of white PVA glue as it should form a bit better bond with the MDF. I used this technique to put playground sand on one side of my board and sawdust on the other (for urban and forest, respectively).

2. Paints - regular latex house paint will do a great job of sealing the basing material and giving you a nice finish. For a 4x6 table I used about a quart and a half on the sand side and 3 quarts on the sawdust side (sawdust soaks up way more paint). Keep an eye on the "oops" bin at your local home depot, you can often get large quantities of paint for a dollar or two.

3. Painting technique - get a thick nap roller and just slather the paint on. You'll probably want to do two coats of the base and then one or two of drybrushing lighter colors. After I painted the first coat, I immediately went back over it with a cheapo 2 inch brush to fill in any spots where I could see the board showing through the paint. I used an up and down, stippling, sort of motion to get paint in the little crevasses that had eluded the roller.

4. Drybrushing - use a tiny amount of paint and do small areas at a time. You can always build it up as you go, but it is a pain to fix if you get a big streak from using too much paint. I recommend getting one or two sample size containers of a much lighter color. That way you can mix an intermediate color using the light color and the base color.

Here are some pics of my table effort. I did all the painting indoors where my parents kindly let me come back and monopolize their basement for a week. You'll want to let it dry at least 24 hours between coats.

Good luck!

Thanks for that Kolath, that's actually very helpful.

We're using foam blocks for our board (glued down to mdf board for stability). Any suggestions on the best ways to do basing or attach stuff to foam? I'm afraid certain adhesives will eat through and others won't attach themselves well enough.

Once your mdf has been warped by water damage it will not go flat just by putting something heavy on it

Svenn wrote:Thanks for that Kolath, that's actually very helpful.

We're using foam blocks for our board (glued down to mdf board for stability). Any suggestions on the best ways to do basing or attach stuff to foam? I'm afraid certain adhesives will eat through and others won't attach themselves well enough.

The best stuff i've found for gluing the foam to the mdf base is No-more-nails or equivilent (make sure you get the stuff for styrene coving), for the sand etc on the surface then you'll want to use slighty thinned PVA, or other water based glue like woodglue, as suggested above (you onlly need enough to get if flowing and wicking through the sand. I'm guessing that the OP overthinned the glue, or used too thin a sheet of mdf). Anything with solvents in it is right out, unless you want a deformed, globby alien landscape (by all means try it out on a spare bit as you may like the effect for future reference).

In the UK there is a company called PlastiCote that makes spray paints, Primers and decorative gubbins, available from large DIY stores. They do a great 'stone effect' spray, which gives a really nice rough texture, and is dead easy to use. The easy way would be to slap a load of PVA over your Polystyrene to seal it, and spray the stone effect onto it. You may go through a few cans of it, but it'll be textured (and a reasonable stone colour) in no time at all. I've even seen that spray used on foam board without dissolving the middle layer, so the PVA may not even be necessary. Then wait till dry and drybrush if desired.

I know the stuff. Had a few tins over the years for various projects (not gameing related). For tables it may seems like a good idea at first but it's relatively very expensive compared to sand and glue. You will need at least two tins to cover a 6x4 board sparsely (about £14), likely 4 tins for a good coat (£28), and the effect is naff compared to sand.

1 ltr of PVA costs about £6 and a sack of sand £2, and will last you years of modelling for various projects.

Also, if yer gonna drybrush it afterwards then it kinda deafeats the point really. And it would still a wise idea to seal the foam regardless of whether it melts it or not, as it will bond better to the pva for increased durability. That stuff flakes off easier than it looks.

You could also try painting the polystyrene with a standard white house paint primer to seal the surface. It might go on more easily than glue. Caution: I have not tried this, so try it on a scrap piece first and see how it goes.

I used white primer on my plywood to seal it somewhat before putting down the glue and sand.

Wrong way round mate.

PVA is meant for sealing, before you paint.

Has anyone tried masonry paint, its already got sand mixed in you could increase the amount easily enough and there's no need to seal the mdf first (which led to warpage in the original post) then if you feel the need to add more texture you can spread more of the stuff or pva and sand, masonry paint is realitivly inexpensive if you buy budget range from diy store.

mullet_steve wrote:Has anyone tried masonry paint, its already got sand mixed in you could increase the amount easily enough and there's no need to seal the mdf first (which led to warpage in the original post) then if you feel the need to add more texture you can spread more of the stuff or pva and sand, masonry paint is realitivly inexpensive if you buy budget range from diy store.

Any water based paint can potentially warp the MDF, the water in the paint can soak into it. Unfortunately MDF very porous, unless you did lots of very thin coats so as not to get the board too wet. Cheap interior emulsion with sand mixed in would work just as well, and you can pick up the emulsion for a fraction of the cost of masonry paint. I get sand in 3 kilo bags for about £3 or £4 from reptile shops.