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Hey all.
I'm currently saving my pennies to buy the materials for a new urban-themed board for my LGS. Our current urban boards are falling apart, and have some premeasurement issues with them. The current ones are gridded in perfect 2" squares, which makes for very easy premeasurement that folks aren't fans of.
Anyhow, I'm stuck on what the best basecoat for a modular urban board would be.
I want something that has some detail to it, but can also hold any style of urban terrain, from GW Cities of Death buildings, to scratchbuilt Pringle-can towers. I'm thinking a dark asphalt color as the majority of the board, but how do you break up the monotony of a pure grey-black board?
My plan right now is to use 3/4" MDF, cut into three 2'x4' sections. The poplar-framed boards with 1/8" MDF I built last year are nice, but labor-intensive and don't fit together 100% smoothly (small 2mm gaps between the MDF sections). I'd like to avoid painting roads on the urban boards, so the sheets can go down in any order ont he table.

Anyone have any examples of how they've painted their urban-themed boards I can look at?

Just a little advice for terrain little cut up sprue peices about an inch long make a building is crumbling

Something from Dakka's past.

This table is completely over the top & a bit much for the wear and tear a game store table will take, but it provides a nice look at what colors to use.

For your 2x4 sections, I would keep it simple: glue on fine sand & paint black with just a few highlights. Use spray paint to get a feathered edge on the high lights. Let the color come from the terrain your putting on top of the table. Be sure that several different colors are represented. Nothing sucks more than an all gray COD table. Use some reds, browns and greens - then wash them all down with black/brown to blend together.


http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/200959.page

RanTheCid wrote:Let the color come from the terrain your putting on top of the table. Be sure that several different colors are represented. Nothing sucks more than an all gray COD table. Use some reds, browns and greens - then wash them all down with black/brown to blend together.

This. A little drybrushing to spice up a plain black board is plenty, if it's going to be covered by terrain. If your city won't be particularly dense, I'd add a few permanently modeled features to the boards - nothing too huge, since it would disrupt your ability to lay down scatter terrain, but something you can paint up with a few more colors to break up the monotony (e.g. brown dirt scattered around a blast crater that broke through the asphalt), but can be blended back into the general color to avoid looking jarringly out of place.

Roads are an often neglected part of urban boards, it seems, but are worth a second mention, I think. A quick trip to Home Depot will net you a pack of asphalt-colored roofing shingles which can easily be cut into road segments. Laying a few of those down might help break up lines and cover seams, without dictating the lay of your modular boards. A little masking and some paint to give them lines will keep them distinct from your vaguely asphalt-like base board, even without distinct curbs.

Good tips, all. I think the stippling of multiple colprs, and use of spraycan "dusting" is what I'm looking for. Thanks!