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 am going to Adepticon for the first time and I'm interested to hear how people make their display boards? I'm just going to do one for Combat Patrol and I'm looking at a simple board with some basing. I don't think I'm going to magnetize the bases to the board - but I'm looking for ideas on how to keep your models on the board (cut circles the size of bases? - how do you cut them?

So want to hear what materials people use and any ideas for basic simple display boards.

Thanks

I've done a number of these.

First year I went, we used a thin plywood board, reinforced on the underside with some wooden slats. I recommend this route, as pink-foam boards tend to get dinged up pretty easily in transport.

The next year, I got a cheap framed cork-board from a local target or something like that. This is nice because it is fast, and already has a frame, that lets it stand out from the surrounding table.

I don't like the circle-cut-out approach, as it limits the board to only one possible army build. I constantly change my armies around, and go to different tournaments with different point levels, so I prefer to go without specific circle cutouts, however, if you really want to go that route, all you need is two pieces of thin plywood, one that will be the top layer, and one that will be the bottom layer.

Put the bottom piece of plywood aside for now.

Put your figures on the top piece of plywood and get them in the positions that you want them in. Then use a pencil and trace around their bases.

Drill these holes out. You can get appropriately sized drill bits at home depot, ace, or menards. Use this for the basing steps below.

Once you've got your surface, decide what you want to do with it. Usually, something that matches the bases of the guys you're using. Putting down newspaper to catch any runoff, paint a fairly thick coat of a 50/50 Water/Elmers Glue mix onto the board. Then pour whatever surfacing material you want on top of that. Wait 24 hours to let this glue dry completely.

Depending on what look you're going for, you can then paint it, or, if you want the natural basing material to show through, I'd recommend adding a top-layer of glue to hold the material down.

Then, after you have your surface prepared, add any flocking as you would to a base.

Finally, if you drilled the holes out, re-drill the holes to clean out any glue/paint/basing material that got stuck in there, and then glue the finished top board to the bottom board with wood glue.


Some materials I have used:

Basic Acrylic paint. You can get a quarter gallon for under $10 in any colour you want at any home improvement store. You usually want to mix it with some water for easier coverage, and I'd recommend looking at the colour strips that they have on display and picking up a lighter shade of whichever colour you go with for drybrushing over the base coat.

Play sand: I didn't really like this, it was too fine-grained for my taste. We pretty much got a gallon of acrylic paint (this was for four team-tournament armies), and mixed it with the playsand and then painted this mix onto our surface.

Woodland Scenics Ballast: After this, I looked for a little larger-sized rubble pieces. Mixing Woodland Scenics Fine-ballast and Medium Ballast gives a good look. You can see the end result of this mix on my eldar and chaos army profiles (in the article system).

To get more complex, look around model railroad supply shops, and you can find all sorts of cool stuff to put on your displays.

Also: Consider the effect of how the base will look. Most people use something to elevate the models in the back, because this adds depth to the scene, and makes it easier to see all the models. Simple foam hills, Cities of Death buildings, or even cardboard buildings will all work to do this.

extremely helpful. Thank you for the fast response.

Yeah, one thing I liked about one of Redbeard's recent Orky display boards was the use of some MDF pueblo-type buildings and the resin Ork barricades from GW.

When I do magnetized flat boards, I use the very thin steel sheets that they sell at Ace Hardware and attached them to a similar plyboard sheet with supporting slats on the bottom. I then glue patches of larger ballast down and then glue smaller ballast around it covering the board. You could then put a coupla little terrain-type thingies on it to add some flavor.

Then you put little magnets on the bottom of your models (try amazingmagnets.com) and they stay pretty nicely. I guess you could even drill out the tires of your trukks and stuff and do it for them as well.

I think the next one I do is just going to be a very simple picture frame one with ballast covered board in the middle.


- Blackbone

Dakka Articles has a really sweet guide on how to make the above Display Box.