Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm putting together a gaming board using 3 sections of 2' by 4' MDF for a 4' by 6' board.

My question for those who've done something similar, is what kind of surfacing do you find works best?

1). Just paint it and leave it smooth - Prefer not to do this as it looks a bit naff.

2). Textured paint - What's this like for moving models over?

3). PVA Glue and Flock - Same question as 2 and does loose flock come off all the time?

4). Textured Wallpaper - Seen GW do this for some of their boards, anyone else tried it?

5). Sculpted boards using foam - Looks good, how easy? And do you use textured paint or flock to finish it?

Oh and how many skull pits should I put on before it starts to look silly

It also depends if your board is planning on travel.

I have a 6' X4' board that i had cut into 2 3'x4' sections. I than added clips on the side to hold it together on whatever surface its on. I just painted it green with 25 cent can of green paint from the miss tint section of a hardware store. That way nothing comes off when i need to take it to someones house.

If you are planning on keeping it in one place I would say go for a modular sculpted boar. You know, re-arrangeable sections as to have dynamic terrain.

What type of board do you want?

Is it mainly for fantasy or 40k (or something else?) and what type of theme are you thinking (urban, desert, mountains, etc.)

My urban board is two 4'x3' wooden boards with textured paint applied, then buildings on that. A fantasy/generic 'green' board I did was 2'x2' foam sections carved into hills/rivers and covered for the most part with grass mat.

Different types of board lend themselves to different construction techniques, so if you can let us know its easier to help.

I used a big peice of plywood for my city board, then spray primed it black, then did a light over spray of brown, then used textured spray paint to give it a light spray of texture. Worked out pretty well, and models don't even notice the texture. I have textured wall paint in some spots of the house, and I don't think it is rough enough to bother mini's either, for that matter.

I think I have an old battle report with a pic of it somewhere in that forum.

Going for a 40K board at the present time. It's going to be flat (will do hills seperately) and will have a brown desert look to it.

Not planning on transporting it anywhere, although it will have to be stored away between games.

Flashman wrote:I'm putting together a gaming board using 3 sections of 2' by 4' MDF for a 4' by 6' board.

My question for those who've done something similar, is what kind of surfacing do you find works best?

1). Just paint it and leave it smooth - Prefer not to do this as it looks a bit naff.

I think this depends on what you're trying to represent, and how well you mix your paints. I've got a green board that I applied a variety of different colors too that resulted in a fairly decent looking field.

Flashman wrote:
2). Textured paint - What's this like for moving models over?

I've seen this done with paint + sand and it looks really cool, and never had an issue with models. For some reason this would cause the dice to bounce surprisingly high, not really sure why.

Flashman wrote:
5). Sculpted boards using foam - Looks good, how easy? And do you use textured paint or flock to finish it?

I've seen this done before, and done smaller hills. Sculpting foam is surprisingly fun and easy, with a nice hot wire knife. Woodland scenics makes a decent one for $30-40US, and there's the Hot Foam Factory one, with sounds pretty cool, and then there's the bar of death at $90 over at the warstore. I've got the woodland scenics one, but I'm seriously temped by the hot bar approach, since it fixes two issues: 1) No precise cuts because the wire moves 2) can be pushed into things, which is nice for making craters and the like.

well the foam boards work rather well and they are light which is a nice bonus. the flock thing i can tell you from experience CAN work out rather well. I didnt make the board im talking about but the group i played in for a few years had it. the "leader" guy made it in his basement. covered it in the flock/rocks your talking about and then he mixed regular elmers glue and water into a spray bottle and just prayed the pooh out of the whole table. im talking ALOT. and since its watered down it dries clear. NEVER had a problem with the baseing comming off short of actually dropping metal dreds on it.
but i would add that leaving the whole surface smooth(by just painting) looks really bland and isnt very fun playing on since its so....well... smooth. also for the flock dealy, minis usually dont have a problem with balance unloess the mini is hard to stand up on a flat surface, then you run into fallling and tipping. BUT IMO thats your fault for not making a mini balanced
GOOD LUCK!

There's always the felt option. You can get white felt for snow, brown felt for barren wastes, gray for cityscape, green for forest/glades, etc...

I think it's like $8-$10 for a 4'x8' cut of cloth.

Textured paint works just fine. I never had a problem playing on that.

Regular flock will come off. Even stronger flocking that gets painted over comes off if you are rough with it. However, this isn't such a big deal if you aren't transporting it anywhere. This option also tends to look the best.


And, honestly, it starts to look silly after the first skull pit. I mean, you have to wonder what happened to the rest of the skeletons?

Concrete patch, it's the stuff of champions.

Zuzzy matt for the win!

I made a 4x6 with several differant 2x4 sections. I made it out of insulation foam (the pink stuff). For texturing I did the same thing I do with bases. A coat of PVA glue, covered with sand, allow to dry, and seal with another coat of glue. After drying a second time I painted it brown and highlighted with khaki. Apply more PVA glue in places and sprinkle flock onto it. After playing with that board for several years I gave it to a friend. It had grown to be a set of 5 2x4 sections and 4 2x2 sections, all with differant terrrain features built in. I just recently changed to a 4x8 flat sheet textured in the same way, but with no built in terrain features. I don't like playing with the same layout every game and the lines on the board were ugly and it was pointed out to me by a friend that I was remarkably accurate on my board, but couldn't duplicate the effects on a table with no lines.

Just my rambling 2 cents,

Thalor

To keeping turf grass ect from falling off. Paint an area flock it move to the next till covered. Let dry over night. Tap loose flocking on to a paper to reuse. Get hair spray spray liberaly over flocking this is what train guys do.

Cheers for the all the suggestions Will look into it at the weekend and see how I get on.

Wood glue and play sand always worked for me.

wood, glue and sand " stolen " in a construction site ( ) works well...

spray it with acrilic color and then drybrush .

what about GWs new grass mat, its alot better than the old 'wallpaper' one, and its only 18 quid, lay out your board and put it on top, simple and easy and you won't have bits of textured paint chipping off and it will make for easy storage

I also have had success with glue and sand. I got a big gallon jug of regular elmers glue and watered it down a little to glue down the sand. THis took two applications, as I wanted to cover any patchy spots. Then paint it with housepaint to seal the sand on. I move this board around a lot, and have had no problem with chipping flaking or cracking.

What I did was to get the black enamel paint (not a spray) from Wal Mart pour a good bit onto the board - use a brush or a scraper (use a cheap plastic scraper as you'll never get the enamel out of the brush unless you use some pretty good cleaners) and spread the paint over the board... You want a pretty thick coating because as soon as it is spread get some basing material. I use Woodland Scenics ballast and pour onto the wet black paint and spread it around and let it dry.

once it is dry you can spray paint it or use different highlights to create whatever board you want. I guess you could use a dark green or dark brown enamel paint instead of black. This will give a decently durable surface with texture and you could probably get what you need for under $20.00

99MDeery wrote:what about GWs new grass mat, its alot better than the old 'wallpaper' one, and its only 18 quid, lay out your board and put it on top, simple and easy and you won't have bits of textured paint chipping off and it will make for easy storage

I bought this and have nothing but good things to say about it... it is great for agri world games. I have played on it quite a few times and it still is in good shape. worth the $30 if for nothing else you can paint your board a city scape type layout and then lay the battlemat over it when you want to change it out . It looks very professionally done and if use the scorched static grass really blends you terrain in well.