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I am planning on starting a gaming board with an urban theme, but I really don't know where to start.

I want the board to be flat, with lots of city rubble, craters, and some roads. So far I have some unpainted GW moonscape craters, and a bunch of unpainted GW ruins (no bases). I am looking to buy a 6x4 board to put over the kitchen table.

I shouldn't have a problem with the ruins, as I don't plan on basing them, just painting them.

For the craters, I need to figure out how to make them much rougher, so models can stand on them without sliding and falling over. Also need tips on painting.

Have no idea where to start with the board. I want it to be flat with city rubble, and some city roads as well. Where do I start? What type of wood should I buy?

your going to love me for this, because all you have to do is paint + its rolled up and portable

they run for like 55 bucks i think and ar AMAZING!
i love mine

best of luck, papa

http://www.zuzzy.com/wc-bb-001-terra-flex-gaming-mat.html

(ps: they take about 2-3 months to arrive O.o)

For roads, nothing really beats getting a bunch of asphalt shingles, since nothing looks more like asphalt than asphalt.

ArmorOfContempt wrote:For roads, nothing really beats getting a bunch of asphalt shingles, since nothing looks more like asphalt than asphalt.

QFT

Ok, after the asphalt shingles are cut and placed as roads, what about the rest of the board? Whats the best way to make rubble?

scubasteve04 wrote:Ok, after the asphalt shingles are cut and placed as roads, what about the rest of the board? Whats the best way to make rubble?

If you or someone you know is a wine drinker, you'll have access to loads of free cork. Take a knife, stab the cork, and twist. Repeat the process on each new piece until you have the desired amount of rubble.

Whats the best way to put it on the board? Wood glue or PVC glue?

Also, I am guessing the asphalt shingles are pretty thick, what do you do about the space between the strips of road and the bare wood? Fill with cork rubble? Or cover the entire board with asphalt and then paint roads?

They aren't really that thick, about the thickness of a piece of cardboard.

it was often the practice in medieval england for the roads to be built up higher than the homes either side so that any rain would run off the road. As the 40k universe has a similar level of care for it's people as medieval europe why not adopt the same solution, build the roads up so any crap runns off into the unimortant bits like people's homes and such after all you can't have your mutli billion credit industry slowed down by floods and mudslides now can you....

IF you are making an actual fully urban board then you don't need to lay roads.

What you need to do is base all your buildings,structures and terrain on raised sections (using hardboard) of various shapes and sizes so that when placed the table surface itself becomes the roads in relation to the raised areas that your buildings and terrain structures are on.

This allows for the most modularity. If you lay roads you are really limiting the look and playability of your table. Always keep modularity as your primary goal.

You can see what I mean and maybe get some ideas in my urban terrain thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/362252.page

Also check out this link for tons of terrain making tips, inspirational galleries, how-to, etc.: http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/

ArmorOfContempt wrote:For roads, nothing really beats getting a bunch of asphalt shingles, since nothing looks more like asphalt than asphalt.

But it's not to scale????? (i was an architectural modelmaker for many years and these things bother me)

You can also buy cork board. They use it in offices to post memos. It would probably be easier to get than wine corks.

Lord Scythican wrote:You can also buy cork board. They use it in offices to post memos. It would probably be easier to get than wine corks.

Corks from wine bottles tend to be much more dense, not to mention thicker, than cork board, which allows you to get really nice chunks of cork.

ArmorOfContempt wrote:

Lord Scythican wrote:You can also buy cork board. They use it in offices to post memos. It would probably be easier to get than wine corks.

Corks from wine bottles tend to be much more dense, not to mention thicker, than cork board, which allows you to get really nice chunks of cork.

True, but there is a cork board that is a lot like wine cork bottles. It comes in sheets about 1 inch thick. It isn't like that cheap stuff you get at wal-mart.

Lord Scythican wrote:

ArmorOfContempt wrote:

Lord Scythican wrote:You can also buy cork board. They use it in offices to post memos. It would probably be easier to get than wine corks.

Corks from wine bottles tend to be much more dense, not to mention thicker, than cork board, which allows you to get really nice chunks of cork.

True, but there is a cork board that is a lot like wine cork bottles. It comes in sheets about 1 inch thick. It isn't like that cheap stuff you get at wal-mart.

I'll have to find some of that, even though it doesn't come with delicious, delicious hooch.

I plan on picking some up this weekend. So far I have only been able to find it at a place called Hobby Lobby. Michael's might have it though.

Lord Scythican wrote:I plan on picking some up this weekend. So far I have only been able to find it at a place called Hobby Lobby. Michael's might have it though.

If Hobby Lobby does, Michael's is bound to, I'll have to go down there with one of those wonderful 40% off coupons they always have going and pick some up. And then I'll stop by the liquor store for the absent booze.

Cut up pieces of sprue and different grains of sand painted in some stone/ building color make excellent rubble piles as well.

That last step is obviously the most important!

However, if you want a more scaled asphalt, you can purchase a fine grade black sand in most landscaping stores. This might be the most economical solution for a table this size.

I would suggest making little piles of rubble and putting them on bases, because if you have permanent piles of rubble across your table, then you have an uneven surface to put buildings on. I would strongly advise keeping the board itself extremely flat, and then you can have piles of rubble strewn throughout the city streets and inside buildings.

Listen to ct gamer. I do this on my table, and it looks great, and allows for an endless options for a battlefield-you're not left with the same crossroads every game.

Also, I don't know if you have done it or plan on it, but I'd suggest making your own buildings and terrain. Once you get experienced with it, it is pretty easy and you'll end up with a much more varied ruined city than that of one with only GW buildings, which I feel get old quick. But regardless, don't glue anything to the board that will make it permanently uneven! Not only will it make laying stuff with a flat base difficult, but a lot of tall models will have trouble standing up straight on them, which is just annoying.

Lord Scythican wrote:You can also buy cork board. They use it in offices to post memos. It would probably be easier to get than wine corks.

Go to a pub, bar, or fine dining restaurant and ask the staff if they have some corks you can have. Many restaurants will have a container of some sort for all the corks from wine bottles.

As far as roads go, you could do severals pieces that then fit together.

For example make a few intersection that are plus shaped, a few T's, several straights, and some corners.

These could then be placed in any combo to produce your streets.

SeverePatronage wrote:As far as roads go, you could do severals pieces that then fit together.

For example make a few intersection that are plus shaped, a few T's, several straights, and some corners.

These could then be placed in any combo to produce your streets.

the problem is this is the inverse of an actual city.

Buildings tend to sit on raised areas that are slightly higher then the streets in general (hence stepping off a sidewalk into a street). This is best duplicated by basing terrain, buildings, etc. on various geometric shapes (squares, rectangles, etc.) that can then be placed in a near infinite arrangement to produce the street layout represented by the table itself.

Rubble piles, scatter terrain, etc, can be done on more irregular shaped basing as needed.

If the roads were done on thin plasticard and the rest of the terrain pieces were built on thicker bases (think curbs) then this would carry on the real feel of a city.

Ultimately, you will end up having to decide whether or not you want details like street markings or not, and how modular you want to try and make your city. Whether or not it is a concrete jungle or a more rural city with dirt tracks for roads will adjust how you execute your plan.

CT Gamer, you make some great points throughout this thread, do you have some pics of a city done the way you describe? I am looking to do one of these myself and want to get pictures for reference.

One alternate suggestion for rubble. Go to an antique or resale shop and buy yourself a sausage grinder. They are very common (60 years ago, every house had one) and quite cheap 5-15 bucks. Alternatively you can ask your grandmother for one or buy a new one for 30 bucks on amazon . Then start grinding your sprue into rubble.

There's a pretty good article with pictures here:
http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/2011/02/gaming-on-budget-making-rubble.html

+1 for sprue rubble. I have a small tupperware container that I keep topped up. Don't have a suitable grinder, so I just chop them up with end-nippers, leaving the occasional longer piece to stick out, for variety. Sprue chunks, shredded cork, and coarse sand can be mixed and matched to give you textural variety in generally coarse, medium, and fine grains, as the situation warrants.

I'm a big fan of modularity in boards, so I'd suggest basing your buildings on MDF, as CT GAMER suggests. If you want to get really fancy, you can use thin card to add sidewalk slabs and curbs (cracked and blasted to taste). Once arranged in a regular grid (aided by using standardized base sizes), it gives the feel of actual city planning (which is the point of an urban board, is it not?).

For the base board, itself, either get yourself a nice, smoothly veneered sheet of plywood, or get any old piece and be prepared to fill with spackle. Throw some textured paint over this (black if you can, to avoid an extra step), then drybrush lightly with grays to get your asphalt look. Buildings, blast craters, barricades, etc. can now be bought/built and placed as desired. Infinite layouts, nothing overly complex in the build. If you want to go crazy later on, you can always use insulation foam and additional ramps/bridges/stairs to add a raised area to your board, which you can carve up to your liking, if you want to add sunken craters or canals.