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Hi Dakka,
I asked Santa for more ambition this year and it is manifesting into 40k (go figure right?).

I am looking to create my own 40k board for home games. My goal is to do 2 ft x 2 ft sections so that it is easy to store and change up for different scenarios. What I am looking for is tips on what material the board should be made of and any tips on how to base it. My idea is to either do a ruined city or do a wilderness board. I am ok with spending some money on 40k terrain, but I would also be ok with other terrain ideas as well.

Thanks all for the tips and advice!

Well the board should be made out of MDF for stability. Generally what I did was use a water/wood glue mix and some sand to base my board. From there I painted it different shades of grey to make it more urban. For any sections I wanted to make a "road" I used Krylon Chalkboard Paint to give it a nice flat black look. The table turned out pretty good!

In terms of making your own terrain, Styrofoam/Home insulation board will work wonders. This can be bought at any local Home Depot/Lowe's for cheap. Generally you just outline a building, and cut, glue, paint. Basing them on thin MDF board will allow for easy use/storage as well.

If you need any pictures, let me know. I have a few of the board I made using the above described.

Thanks for the tips! Any pics you have would be great too! :-)

Well, if I were you I would avoid buying actual 40K terrain. It can get very, very expensive quickly. If I were you, and if you are going Wilderness, I would buy model train set terrain. You can get it at any Hobbytown USA or similar store. Everything from grass to sand, gravel, rubble, trees, shrubbery, ect. They will also have autumn stuff as well. It is tremendously cheaper and you can buy it in much larger quantities appropriate for something the size of a 40K table.

If you want things like ruined vehicles, you can buy cheap ones in a toy section. Just tear off chunks that you want to be missing and paint bullet holes or rust. Place the torn off chunks nearby if it's a fresh wreck to look like it was destroyed by a weapon. It would cost you less than $10.

Tin food cans or coffee cans, when painted with a tin bitz color or adeptus battlegrey will look very much like liquid fuel storage tanks or silos in a hab-block.

Styrofoam is great for making large stuff, just remember that unless it's very dense polystyrene with a smooth texture, whatever you paint over will show the foam bubbles underneath. It also will be very lightweight and a gust of air or a bump will send everything spilling. So be sure to attatch everything to a heavier base. If you're going to use it for terrain, I'd reccomend using plaster paper over it. It's messy, and takes some getting used to, but will get rid of the irregular contours you may have after using a foam cutting wire.

If you want to use recycled trash for terrain, it's extremely cheap, but you run the risk of making it look really obvious. Someone will know that you have a Duracell battery on the board even if it's painted. So the more you can add to any one thing to get rid of familiar shapes the better.

First I need to know your age range adult teenager ect I don't know if you have tools to cut wood ect
If you have tools to build a table I would go about it this way get some hard board or masonite is a common name you will need a 4' x8' sheet 5 1" x 2" x 8' long pine boards some small nails and some brads or paneling nails
Cut the sheet in to 2'x 4' sections this will give you 3 of these cut 3 of the 1" x 2" boards at 2" short of 4' and the other 2 at 2' these will make a support for the table and still be light.
The left over part of the hardboard can be used later for other things.
I will complete this later.

Havok210 wrote:Thanks for the tips! Any pics you have would be great too! :-)

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-33667-12947_Homemade%2040k%20Table.html

^That is some pictures on my table that I made with a buddy of mine. It ended up costing about $130 after all was said and done, but it is completely modular. Also my friend is making a desert table which is completely interchangeable with my table.

Thanks for link MadMaverick! :-)

Sonofruss - I am 30 and have access to various tools for task. ;-)

Part II Forgot to add 4 1/4 x 2 1/2" with 1/4 20 threads bolts and wing nuts the bolt head depends on what you want to tighten the bolt with a screwdriver or a wrench.
Take the long boards and place them together flat on the 2" side using a square mark a line one foot from both ends and 1/2" up from the bottom of the boards drill out a hole using a 1/4" drill bit.
Make 3 frames out of the 1 X 2s putting the long boards inside the short ones and square them with a square.
Put some wood glue on the frame and nail down the hardboard with the textured side down if you set the nails you can fill the holes with wood filler or wall board filler.
There is the table portion of the table now there are options for decorating it.

I personally would not put any thing on the table it self I would put it on inso foam so you can have ether a city fight table or a grass field table.
So for the city fight table get some 1/2" blue or pink inso foam cut it down to three 2' x 4' sections like the panels before using drywall filler fill the brake slits in the panels and paint with house paint color isn't mandatory but dark Grey will let you skip a step with a lighter color Grey dry brush the panels to give it a cement look.

So for the grass top I would do the same up to the color of the paint but use green paint.
Then I would get some stuff from Woodland Scenics http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/GroundCover/
Pick your color and type of grass and I also recommend there cement and fixative stuff as well.http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/ToolsAdhesives
The trees they have are cheaper than GW but I recommend spraying them with the fixative as well.http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/Trees
You will have left over hardboard and foam you can use this to make small hills and woods for the grass field table cutting shapes out of the hardboard then sanding the edges to smooth them over and then cutting the foam slightly smaller than the hardboard and cutting a slope on the hill for miniatures to stand on.

sawhorse's are a cheap way to make legs with the panels bolted together a sturdy way as well I would also recommend some squeeze clamps to hold the table to the sawhorse's to prevent the catastrophe of someone bumping it off them.

Here is mine.