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I've been getting tired of the game board situation at my FLGS so i've decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own board. There was one main requirement - that the board was easy to transport. So I settled on a three piece set (4x2 foot panels). Each board is made of pink insulation foam with a hardboard back. It's surprisingly light and sturdy. I worry about it warping or bending, so i'm going to really try and toughen the board up with glue and spackle.

Here are some of the materials:


I glued the foam to the hardboard with wood glue:


Here is the first 2x4 piece shaping up with spackle:

It's going to be a basin with a large water feature from where the pipes burst and have been flooding the basin for untold years.







I'll post more pics as it comes along.

Great Start

Id be careful of the edges. IIRC you can use glue or liquid nails and trail a layer on the sides to make a pretty tough edge.

Yeah, i've had some thoughts about toughening up the edges - and also what to do to make the board pieces line up nicely against each other with a minimal gap. I'm kind of winging it right now.


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The other challenge i'm having is to keep it functional, while at the same time, carving enough unique terrain features into the board itself to make it worth the effort.

I think this center piece will look great when it's done - but it does occur to me that it'll make placing area terrain pieces in the center difficult. Although it will add quite a bit of cover for models hiding down in the basin. For these reasons, I will likely not make as major modifications to the other two 4x2 boards. Some minor hills or something. Or some unique texture on the ground (i'm thinking collapsed bridge on one piece, with rubble littering the ground?).

I would start with a over a theme. a Center peice gap directly in the middle isnt too bad but it does limit what else you can do.

The way you started it it seems it would be better off going with a scenic table where everything is pre built into the table. with much smaller scatter terrain type things to jazz up the games inbetween.

If the base MDF was thicker then you could of done it with pegs.

You might be SOL outside of a 4x6 table with a lip to prevent movement.


IF you do not mind wear and tear, you can just use wooden dowels and drilled holes into the foam it self to keep them from moving while in use.

I have done a similar style board using pink foam and Spackle to fill it out.

My one recommendation is to try cheap vinyl sticky floor tiles on the top. They are strong, hold an edge very well so over time the different pieces fit together with no gaps, and even add some rigidity to the board.

They helpfully come in perfect 1x1 squares too. Little measuring and t-squares needed.

I really like the design you've gone with. Hope to see how it progresses.
Water features are the best, especially if things are lurking under the surface.

Raptor007 wrote:
I have done a similar style board using pink foam and Spackle to fill it out.

My one recommendation is to try cheap vinyl sticky floor tiles on the top. They are strong, hold an edge very well so over time the different pieces fit together with no gaps, and even add some rigidity to the board.

They helpfully come in perfect 1x1 squares too. Little measuring and t-squares needed.

So vinyl floor tiles on the top of the pink foam?


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 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I really like the design you've gone with. Hope to see how it progresses.
Water features are the best, especially if things are lurking under the surface.

Will post more soon! I still have my painting challenge to wrap up this month, though. Hobby ADHD is my downfall.

Did some work on my board today. Got it all spackled for texture. Gonna sand it down a bit in places tomorrow and add a final texture coat. Got the third 2x4 glued down to the hardboard and will start working on it as well.

Interesting, going to subscribe and watch the progress.

I'd like to see how this turns out. Subbed.

I've started getting down a black basecoat on two of the boards. The third still has some spackle drying. As you can see, I like to live dangerously and have been painting black next to my carpet.

Just poured my water effects. We'll see how it turns out.

Looks pretty awesome. I hope it sets well!

Here are some shots of one of the other board pieces. This is an example of what I am going for with the overall paint scheme. The little remnants of construction will be rusted up.








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And here is the two pieces next to each other (with some poor lighting).

Looking great!


As this appears to be an ongoing project, I'm shifting it over to the Blogs section.

Here is the board as it currently stands. The water effects dried really cool - just much shallower than I was expecting. Still looks great. Like the area is saturated but too dry for standing water.

I need to paint the edges so that the lip isn't as glaring and obviously gotta finish painting the bottom most board.

Here is the final board. Still needs a few minor touch ups and a coat of sealant, but this is it in it's final form. I might also try and correct a bit of the color matching between the boards. So they look more uniform.

Looking good, will there be buildings as well?

Really nice work!
Looking forward to see something crawl along that board!

Here are a couple shots of my first game on my new board. Tyranids won by Linebreaker and First Blood against the Chaos Space Marines.

Badass.
Go HIVES!

Looks cool with the matching terrain

I gotta update all my terrain pieces ive built to match the board. But yeah, it is a matching set more or less.

Looking really good! Really like the drainpipe board.