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Greetings and salutations, loyal subjects of the Emperor (or whichever God you follow)!

I needed a project over the holidays to keep me busy so about a month and a half ago I thought of a brilliant idea. Why not make a gaming table? So I scoured eBay and the internets to find some ideas and products and I have come up with a brilliant plan.

Since my friends and I are going to be playing only 500pts for likely a long while (we are poor and have little time, generally), I figured a 4x4 table to be sufficient. Also since space is a factor, that size seems quite good. I also wanted it to be completely modular so I was thinking that I would get some 'tiles' of terrain pieces. Normally people use 2x2 sections but I felt that that didn't give me enough space to move around with, so I have 1x1 sections. 16 of them. Yay math!

So a couple weeks ago I went to my hardware store and got a big sheet of MDF (1/8"x48"x96") and got them to cut it in half, then one of those halves into 16 1'x1' sections. I also got them to cut what I would be using as my frame. In hindsight, I should have used 1"x3"s, but instead I have 2"x4"s. The downside is it's heavier, the upside is it's more sturdy and stronger. Personally I don't care about the weight and I would rather it be more solid (as I don't want my models to crash into a billion pieces due to a broken table). Once all the cutting was done I tried to fit everything in my car but the large MDF section wouldn't fit and thus I had to go back and get them to cut it in half. Slightly embarrassing, but whatever! Got home and stored everything and waited for more stuff to arrive in the mail...

As far as the plan for for the tiles goes, here's the breakdown:

Buildings x3: I've purchased each of the GW buildings (except for the Shrine) and each one will go on one tile. On it there will be a small sidewalk around it, rubble, crates and other random details.

Roads (x3 curved, 3x straight): This allows for a bit of modularity in the road system. It does need to be placed first when playing so there's not random road sections where there shouldn't be, but I think it will be cool. Roads are made of sandpaper (trust me on this!), and I will crumple them up to make them look worn, add some lines of glue to make them look as they have been repaired. There will also be a sidewalk with streetlights I bought from eBay for train sets. I also got some jersey barriers to add some coolness factor (and cover of course).

Forest x2: I picked up some dead trees and treestumps from Woodland Scenics. My board will be done in the colours of my army's bases (link in sig), so fitting in trees was going to be a bit difficult. I have an idea in my head so hopefully it worked. The trees themselves are pewter and can be bent, but have ridiculous mold lines on them so cleaning them was a pain in the ass. I'll probably also add some grass and lichen or some such around them so it has a more defined treeline. Also will make enough space so that models can fit easily enough.

Hills x2: There's a tutorial here by 3T Studios that I fell in love with (almost literally) so I'll be making 2 sections of hills that way and incorporating some of the rock features in some of the other areas (like the forest and craters). Not much else to say about these other than that they will be hill-esque

Craters x2: The GW craters are excellent so there will be 2 sections that utilize these. I was thinking about using the big ones for it so I can put the other ones in other places.... but I'm not sure.

Water Feature (sorta...) x1: I got a non-GW building from eBay and I will incorporate that into some kind of nuclear facility (as it bears those markings). Also I picked up some nuclear waste barrels which will be in there. I'll have some kind of container that has been destroyed that leaked out some kind of nasty ooze and all of this will be surrounded by a broken fence.


I couldn't seem to find some sand that was reasonably priced, and since there's no real beaches in my area I thought I was out of luck. Just as I was about to give up I found some 'stone dust'... very irregular shapes and sizes and exactly what I was looking for. The best part? The price. 7$ for 30kg. Realistically that is way too much, but I can't really go wrong with that price!

I apologize for the wall of text and lack of pictures but I didn't have a power drill and had to go out and buy one. Got a solid deal at Canadian Tire ($50 for a Black & Decker 18v drill with 100pc accessory kit), but have to let the damn thing charge so that's pretty much it for now! I do, however, have one picture. My only sadness about building all this is I don't have a legit work area for this kind of thing soooo I'm kind of doing it in my room. Oh well!

There was a picture here, but I deleted it because it was of the old table materials. And they suck. Womp womp!

If you have any questions/comments/ideas, please post them! I want to make this an awesome gaming table so anything helps!

Update: So I had a bunch of pictures of my progress and it LOOKED all well and good, but when I put the tiles in, they hang over in some places. Turns out the wood is warped slightly in some places but just enough that it would make this project botched for now. The only way to fix it would be to trim all the tiles (which isn't feasible) or take it apart and reorganize things... which also isnt feasible. I'm thinking of another way to do it but in the meantime I will be sad. :(

Thankfully wood is cheap and I'd have only wasted about $20-30.

Poor trees. Oh well.

UPDATE PART 2: Okay so I went to the hardware store and got some new materials. I got enough 1x2s of White Pine to make a nice frame and supports and I figured I'd just use blue insulation foam as the base. Since it's supported (and I'll coat it in a watery glue concoction) it shouldn't be frail. Checked sizing to make sure it's good to go and it is perfect. One of the better parts about this is that it weighs a fraction of the weight that the old abomination to modelling did. I have a good feeling about this one! Haha I hope someone actually follows this once it gets off the ground. Either way, I will still update it.

im following but there has been lotta talk and no action buddy you should know the rule pics or it didnt happen

Hah, it's true. But honestly right now it's like watching glue dry. Like... for real. I have to wait for this glue to dry!

I'll post a picture of the beginnings of this frame when I return from the gym. Pictures of my previous failure shall never see the light of the internet!


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As promised here is the not-that-exciting picture of the frame.

I have decided that the frame of my table will be built with 1x2s. I have glued them in an L shaped configuration which will allow the table proper to have something to rest on. In this picture there are 2 frame pieces being held together by the almighty Quick-Grip. More to follow as more glue dries!

Right, updates! First we have here a picture of the joints. You'll notice there's a bit of lip on the underside which will act as support, and a raised rim which will hold in the tiles.


Here you have the completed frame. You will notice the joints (above) don't meet on the corners. This reason is twofold. Firstly I'm going to put quarterround there to round the edges and secondly (the real reason), the wood came in 4ft lengths at the hardware store, haha.


Finally you have the completed product. This is with the insulation layer (tabletop) and the tiles. All those tiles are able to be removed and each one will have a different piece of terrain. I'm probably going to start building a forest in the very near future, as the first piece of 16

Nice table top! Is it going to get legs or will you set it on another table? A new table always excites me. The more terrain the better!

As of right now I think it's just going to be on the floor/another table until I can find a place to put it. If I can make some folding legs I'll do that in the future. Storage space is a bit of an issue, especially when I have all those tiles each with it's own thing on it meaning I can't really stack them :(

I guess we will find out when it's done! Haha. I guess on that same note, I'm going to watch the latest episode of Arrow (great show), and then work on the forest.

The final thing I have to do to the table is add a coat of watery glue to the top of the foam so it has a bit of protection. I may paint the frame black too. Thoughts?

Update!

Sorry for the delay in posts... I was at my girlfriends place (she lives 3 hours away... blah), and I couldn't get any wargaming done.

So I want to get the forests done because it's the only thing that I don't have a good idea for so wanted to experiment. I got the Woodland Scenics Dead Trees which look fantastic when theyre all cleaned and ready to go but before that, well, check this picture out:


Next up we have the 1x1 tile... but I added some insulation foam to break up the monotony of a completely flat board. Not enough that it will induce extreme wobbly model syndrome, but enough that it SHOULD in theory look cool. Once the base has its sand (or rather stone dust, more on that in the original post), it should fill in the gaps and smooth it out a bit. I'll add a bit more extra rocks to make it look more natural, some static grass and if I can find my lichen/weird vine things then I'll throw those on too.


I also got some of the stumps (also from Woodland Scenics) but they turned out to be way too small. I'm not one to waste (that's a lie, you should see my bitz boxes...) so I figure in gaming terms they will be the 'pylons' and denote the treeline. I had to pin the trees because prior to cleaning them they had giant stems. In hindsight I could have trimmed them and drilled very large holes in the tile, but it's not a big deal. Anyway here they are ready to be planted!


I glued the insulation foam with normal PVA glue and the trees with wood glue since it's stronger. Will it hold? Well, I guess we will see. Hopefully these won't be taking too much abuse and with everything else they should be good.

I'll update with more pictures once the trees are dry. I have enlisted the help of my unpainted Eldar army to help hold up trees. The elves look like they could use a bit of working out


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Okay so the wood glue didn't like metal, as I suspected, but on the plus side it formed a nice base for a generous amount of superglue. Now these things are stuck on there like... well... they aren't going anywhere. Tomorrow I'll base it and begin painting!

Here's a picture of the forest with a layer of this stone dust. You can see that it looks fantastic... though in about 30 minutes we will see how much of that actually stayed on and if I need to do another layer or not...



UPDATE: So I brushed all the excess sand off and there was a couple spots that needed touchup so I just did that. Once it dries I'll take another picture before I start with the painting Realistically I could get this done today! I'm impressed, haha.

Looking forward to seeing a finished product.

forest table should be good

Thanks fellas. I'm only have 2 tiles of forest, the majority will be urban.

So here's the tile with the second layer, it looks good! I'm quite pleased. After I took this picture I got rid of as much of the excess as I could and put a coat of varnish (thank goodness for Rona, and selling cans of it for like $4... I have a feeling I will be going through a lot of it, haha). Honestly it looks a bit more flat now but that will be broken up with the grass when I get to that stage. It still looks good, however. More pictures later today!

So here's the first completed tile. Looks well, I like it. Im actually considering scrapping the idea of the tiles and just making terrain like normal people. That would be a lot more gamer friendly and would probably be much easier to store than 16 tiles that cannot be stacked...



Anyways thoughts? Opinions? Not just on the tile itself but the idea of switching to normal terrain. If you're confused by this, let me know and I'll clarify.

In either case, the next few days won't contain many updates as not only did I pull my bicep at the gym (who does that, seriously...), but it's my regiments Christmas Dinner tomorrow and I don't plan on being sober for it

EDIT: I'd like to point out how well the stone dust turned out... and for $7, holy crap what a good deal!

Ok so quick update... and I need all of your help.

I scrapped the tile idea. I had a burning feeling that when I was finished, the tiles wouldn't fit in certain configurations. Also it takes up way too much space. So I'm going to make terrain like a normal person. I based the table by putting watered down glue on it then my fancy stone dust. I really should have done that outside but meh. I need your help, however! Do I spray the whole table with more watery glue as to seal the rocks on for better detail? or will this obscure more detail? or do I just brush everything off and begin painting? I need opinions! As of right now I'm waiting until it dries and I'm going to spray the whole table with watery glue before I begin painting it. Here's a picture of it while the right side is still drying. Also while I was at the hardware store I forgot to buy quarterround so there's still gaps in the corner. I will probably just make my own at this point... I'm sick of going to the hardware store!



Anyways any help and input will be useful, please advise!

Also in other unrelated news, I totally got promoted. I'm so happy

 anticitizen013 wrote:
Ok so quick update... and I need all of your help.

I scrapped the tile idea. I had a burning feeling that when I was finished, the tiles wouldn't fit in certain configurations. Also it takes up way too much space. So I'm going to make terrain like a normal person. I based the table by putting watered down glue on it then my fancy stone dust. I really should have done that outside but meh. I need your help, however! Do I spray the whole table with more watery glue as to seal the rocks on for better detail? or will this obscure more detail? or do I just brush everything off and begin painting? I need opinions! As of right now I'm waiting until it dries and I'm going to spray the whole table with watery glue before I begin painting it. Here's a picture of it while the right side is still drying. Also while I was at the hardware store I forgot to buy quarterround so there's still gaps in the corner. I will probably just make my own at this point... I'm sick of going to the hardware store!



Anyways any help and input will be useful, please advise!

Also in other unrelated news, I totally got promoted. I'm so happy

I would recommend a "sealing coat" of sorts of diluted PVA glue (elmers type white glue, 1part water to 1 part glue) it will not obscure detail particularly (as it shrinks as it dries). you can use aeither the bucket and brush application method or a squirt bottle.

Thanks for the input! I'm going to go the squirt bottle route I think. Seems like it will afford best coverage and be most time and energy efficient, haha

Now that the base layer is dry it looks much more even. I'm really happy with how it turned out so far. Hopefully adding this glue layer shall seal in the flavour, as it were. More pictures later on today!

It's a shame you scrapped the tiles. Rather than waste them, use them to make terrain pucks.

I was going to do that but they are 1/4" thick which is far too thick. It'd be difficult terrain even getting on to the piece! . The tiles were a good idea but I feel like the table would need to be perfectly sized (or just have a larger one which isn't feasible). In any case, storage space is very very limited, and all that MDF cost a whopping $8, so I'm not too concerned.

I just sprayed the table with glue, so I'm waiting for that to dry. Also my buildings just came in the mail, but the order wasn't complete so I've to wait for the barricades and craters to come. Oh well! I have lots to do in the meantime

That's too bad. I could never handle the tile idea either. Too many angles and arrangements to think about. THere is an awesome necromunda tile table on Dakka somewhere... I can't remember the name of the thread (or the builders name ) But they had the whole thing planned out to such a fine detail in a computer program. It looks like a lot of work on it's own, never mind building the actual table.

Glad to hear you are moving forward with the table anyway. You could always dice the tiles and use them for rubble piles and sidewalk tiles... and hey, you've got a nice forrest area-terrain piece for the table all ready.

Yeah you're totally right. I think it would be great if I had the space to store everything, like a garage dedicated to gaming or some such nonsense. And of course if I already had a table to game on in the meantime!

Last night I sprayed the whole thing with a water/glue mixture and it was nice and solid today. In fact I was impressed at how well that worked. Today I went out to get more supplies since I had a feeling I would need them and turns out I did. I have done one coat of dark grey on the table so far, just waiting for it to dry. I had to do it outside, and it's dark out so I hope I got everywhere. My headlamp only can do so much . If I don't have to do another coat then it's getting the varnish on it right away. After that dries I'll do the drybrushing, then varnish it again so it's nice and durable. Finally, I'll be picking up the grass tomorrow and smashing that on as well.

Sorry for no pictures just yet, I want to save that for later... tomorrow will be good


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Technically it is tomorrow, so here's some pictures! Tomorrow when it's light out I will paint the edges and give it a final coat of varnish. Then on to the grass....ing. I'm very happy with how this turned out so far. Pretty excited!

The only thing is I apparrently missed with the glue spray so there's a couple spots (mostly along the edges) that came off so I'll just cover that with grass, haha. And of course the spray in the dark wasn't perfect so there's a couple spots that it didn't hit but it's very minimal (good job, me!). Also will be covered with grass, haha. Okay I'm sure you're bored of me talking... here's the pictures!

Looking pretty good to me

Thanks!

So today I painted the edges grey before it rained, got it sealed and then just now finished applying the grass. Once it dries and I take off the excess I will take some pictures. The only downside is I started with some of the old scorched grass and got the new one and they are different colours... so I have 2 annoying darker spots. Any ideas? I was thinking about giving that area a very light wash of a brown of some kind to signify that it was on fire or something. Any ideas?

it looks really good keep it up, I'm interested how this all will look once its done!

Annnnd we're done! I tried to get all the different coloured grass off and replaced it with the other colour. It's drying now, but I figured I would toss up a picture. Good timing too since now I think I shall be busy with Christmas stuff! I'll do my best to get some more stuff done in the near future

Got yourself some evil grass in the top left corner

very cool start i will be watching.

Looking great! Was disappointed that you dropped the tile idea - I was interested in that - but you gotta do what you gotta do. I was going to suggest making shelving in order to store/stack the tiles - they would sit perfectly in little 1'x1' holes. Then I was going to suggest making them able to hold 4 high, make four of them and use them as table legs! Anyway - back to the awesome...

FYI "playground" sand also works quite well as a "dirt" texture.

Looking good, Will be interesting to see what scatter terrain you build to match.