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I find it interesting how resourceful warhammer players can be and how frugal their plans usually are. I have a friend who just built a 4 by4 ash waste land with some styrofoam, stolen gravel, and pvc pipes, and It actually looks pretty damn good. I would like to know what ways fellow dakkalites have shaved a dime or two building their own game boards, and what the time, best resources (ie plywood vs styrofoam) and size of the boards are, as I would like to soon invest time into building my own.

Thats a big question to ask...as anything...literally anything can become terrain if used in the right way.

I have an 8'x4' board and 2 - 4'x4' boards at home to play on.

The larger one is used mostly for 40k/fantasy games where the small one let me and a few guys play Mordheim nights, or BFG or whatever.

I made my 4x4s out fo ply wood, very basic. The 8x4 is made of melamine, a lot sturdier and no warping, then I glued down one of GW reallllly old Felt gaming mats and gave it a couple washes of watered down white glue to help preserve it

Go to a local Dollar store and browse around for a while. I usually can find a lot of hobby idea inside a dollar store, and I have been known to break out the Credit card if inspiration strikes while looking throught the aisles of $1 items

yes indeed $ stores are awesome for ideas. you find some really weird stuff in there, and everytime i think "heeeeeeeeeeeey that could work"

Get a 4x8 peice of plywoord cut into whatever manageable pieces you need at the hardware store, pick up a gallon of black, a 1/2 gallon of scorched brown, a 1/2 of bleached bone ( the store should be able to match them for you) Get a large bottle of white glue, the biggest brush you can find (5" wide, 2 (or 3 if you've got someone helping you) paint rollers, a bag of play sand, 1 8x4 sheet of pink foam, a wire cutter, and a tarp if you don't have one.

1. set up your plywood, dump glue on it, and spread it with the paint roller. Dump the sand all over the glue. - 15 min
2. the next day dump the excess sand off, dump some black paint on the sand and spread it with the roller - 15 min
3. after the black paint dries, do the same thing with the scorched brown (the black keeps it dark) - 5 min
4. using your 5" brushes, drybrush the whole table with scorched/ bleached and then again with bleached. Drybrush some sections heavier or darker, make it look nice! - 20 min
5. If you really want to, get a tub of static grass, spread some glue around, and apply the grass - 30 min

Cut hills from the foam while the paint is drying, make them stackable it's easier that way. Apply sand, paint, and grass the same way as you did the table.

Quick and dirty and all in all about 60-70 bucks. Even less depending on what you've got laying around.

Is there an ikea homestore in the usa????
It's like a flat pack furniture warehouse.
People buy stuff and can't fit it in the car without taking it out of the chipboard/plywood packaging.
Big sheets for free=win!!!!

Americans have huge cars so this probably isn't relevant!!!

with some styrofoam, stolen gravel, and pvc pipes,

i prefer the term, aquired
makes it seem more proffesional.
saying that ive still got 10 for sale signs in my shed 0_o
cheap plasticard, and the idea came on the way home from the pub 1 night.

Too true JD21290

Aquired IS far more proffesional.
Wouldn't want anyone getting in trouble!

I worked in a ceramics warehouse for a few years.
We used to get cartons of moulded foam trays made up (for the narrow - 1-2" wide - strip tile details). These cartons were 4' long and 2' wide and about 4' high.

To keep the trays in the cartons during transit, there was a 4'x2'x1" thick foam sheet as the lid. We used to throw it out (it wasn't used), until I realised it could be useful for gaming terrain.

I asked my manager if I could take it and since we didn't use them, he let me take them. We'd get 12 ctns a month (so, 12 free 1" 4x2 foam sheets a month).

I ended up giving three GW stores 6 sheets each (they needed foam for tables), one of the clubs I played at got another 6, a local club got another 6, my brother in law the railway modeller got 6 as well. I think I've used around a dozen myself, all up over the years. That was from less than a year's worth. The company went bankrupt a few months after I stopped taking it home (mismanagement issues).

We do our terrain one way: huge.

We bought (or I should say I bought) 1 sheet of 2" insulation, 1 1" sheet, both 4x8. We cut these into 4 2x4 sheets. Marked off 1 foot increments on the 1" sheet. Cut random shapes out of the 1" making sure that the endpoint of each cut met the 1 foot mark. A second layer met a point 18 inches in. Glued down the larger piece, set the smaller on top of that. Now we have hills and defiles on one end of each board and they meet perfectly at the long edges. The other ends are very flat, perfect for craters, cityfight pieces, trench systems, you name it. We generally only use 3 boards at once, but having the 4th is great for variety.

These boards were covered with glue, sand and odd piles of gravel. They'll get painted next payday, when I can buy more paint. I'd already blown my budget on Space Marines and Orks.

Mayhap I'll take some pics once they're done.