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We have about 14 standard sized gaming tables at our club all of them as stored side by side each week at the end of the evening, all of them our just flat boards with one coat of paint yellow/green/grey.

Now for a while now people have asked ‘why can’t the boards be textured?’ The answer being that the texture would rub off against each other when being placed or removed from storage each week getting sand on the floor.

But surely they must be some way to add a bit more texture do the boards other than a layer of paint?

So can anyone suggest a method that would allow us to texture our tables with minable or no risk of it rubbing off during storage?

This is what I do for glueing on sand, and making it stay there for good:

Put a coat of *not thinned down* PVA glue (elmers) on the board. Coat it with sand and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Next, dump off all the excess sand into a container. Now let it dry for an entire day. Next, water down some elmers glue and put it into an empy spray bottle. Woodland scenics also sells something called 'scenic cement" that you could use. Spray your watered down PVA glue, or scenic cement, onto the sand. Now let it dry for at least a few hours, if not another day. I usually only do 1 coat but you could do more if you want. Next it is ready to paint, the paint locks in the particles of the sand, so it is a good idea to do this (spray paint is WAY easier than normal paint). And thats it.

i've had good luck with mixing playground sand in with housepaint before painting the boards. Apply with a stucco roller and you're good. It stays on, doesn't get too damaged from storage, though I still don't recommend rubbing the painted sides together.

Best gaming mat you can buy IMO

http://www.zuzzy.com/

will solve ALL your problems

Dude, those are awesome. $50 or a little more and you've got a roll and store mat. You don't even have to paint those sucka's.

Textured paint.

If you want a sand board get a big jug of elmers glue a bucket a bag of sand a cheap paint roller and a cheap brush a throwaway foam is ideal.
Put the board on the floor with one side having card board the rest with newspaper paint the glue on the board then cover the glue with sand let dry.
Tip the sand on to the cardboard fix any light spots with the brush and more sand let dry, then paint with glue again let dry and paint.
For a flocked board repeat step one and replace sand with flocking then mix one part glue one part water and two or three drops of dish soap put in a spray bottle and spray all the flocking down to the table.

Get the club members to donate blankets or towels to place between the boards.
It takes up a bit more space but really improves the boards' lifespan.

Mix the sand with the glue, paint it on, then add flock or more sand to the top of that. Then like the above said store with blankets. There should be very little sand that falls off it. I do this for all my terrain that uses a base and the bases for my army and it works really well.

Rather than sand, use ground walnut shells. The shells are porous & will soak up the glue in ways that sand can't.

We have 10 of these tables for Adepticon & they are great. I do agree with Alex - take care to pad the tables for increased life span.

Where can you buy ground up walnut shells?

Eric

The local squirrels should have some

You could try some floor tiles. The stick on kind. You can get a box with enough to do a whole table for $10, and it wont rub off or nothing.

I have the same problem, very interesting solutions. I think I'll try the spray bottle idea.

Textured paint was what they suggested in the 3ed rulebook. Basically dump sand or small gravel into a big pot of emulsion, stir well, and paint with that. The sand's glued down and covered, and you can just do touchups later.

Tizz wrote:Best gaming mat you can buy IMO

http://www.zuzzy.com/

will solve ALL your problems

No 4x8 option no care. Seriously...why wouldn't they make it in 4x8 considering that's the most common table size.

MagickalMemories wrote:Where can you buy ground up walnut shells?

Eric

Look up a place that sells sand blasters they also use walnut shells baking soda ect and sell it in bags.

artyboy wrote:No 4x8 option no care. Seriously...why wouldn't they make it in 4x8 considering that's the most common table size.

Really????
I've seen far more 6x4 and 4x4 tables than 8x4 tables in my lifetime.

Here's one suggestion that might be the most durable IMO; Home improvement stores like Lowes & Home Depot (in the U.S.) often have mini classes on painting "faux" finishes for home decor, for free. They often use special brushes & rollers. I'm sure if you sit in on one of those classes you might find a technique that will give you an effect of foliage or some other terrain effect using the right colors, & all you would have to do is buy the brushes & etc. & can be done over & over again. So multiple boards can be done w/ one investment. Hope that helps.

Alex Kolodotschko wrote:

artyboy wrote:No 4x8 option no care. Seriously...why wouldn't they make it in 4x8 considering that's the most common table size.

Really????
I've seen far more 6x4 and 4x4 tables than 8x4 tables in my lifetime.

Agreed. Four by eight tables are throwbacks to older editions. Everything I see and play on now is 6x4.

Eric

I have litterally built about a hundred tables in the last few years and here is what I have found to work the best. I am not a fan of the sand as it seems to rub off the tables easily even after a coat of paint.
My steps for sucess are:
1). Get your table cut to length.
2). Lay the tables on the ground
3). Take a heavy nap paint roller and water down some wood glue. More glue then water.
4). lay a heavy coat of watered glue over the table with the roller. This usaully takes a constant and fast rolling and dont do it in the sun.
5). While the wood glue is wet lay down a very heavy coat of saw dust. This should be about 1" thick across the table. Best part is the saw dust is free. Just go to Home Depot or Lowes and go over to their Saw they use to cut wood. Bring a garbage bag with you and they are happy to fill it up.
6). Move the table into the sun if you wish. Aftera few minutes you can tip the table to remove the excess saw dust. Then leave it alone and let the wood glue dry.
7). Once dry use a slightly thined coat of acrylic paints of your choice and choice of colors. Use a med blue for ice tables, yellows for desert, etc... Use another paint roller to apply. I find doing this with a heavy nap works best. Make sure the paint is thin enough to spread and not so thick it is pulling the saw dust off the table. It usually takes 2 coats and you should be using about 1/3-1/2 gallon paint per table for the main color.
8). Dry brush the table with your accent color.

The heavy coats of acrylic paints seal the saw dust to the wood and as the wood is porus it absorbs both the glue and the paint. I have done this on very many tables and had excellent results. Some of these tables have been used for over 6 years with abusive storage and many moves for events etc. They are very sturdy and I have seen the paint scratch off before the sawdust does hehe.