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.

Hi! Me and a friend really need some help, we're building a gaming board, themed after a desert occupied by Dark Angels. Right now we only have two boards of 60x120 cm styrofoam. No, not the good kind, the white ball-y kind. I know, not the best but please bear with me. Right now, our plan is to 1) use a heat gun to give the surface some texture (it melts the styrofoam, creating a pretty cool surface), 2) use the same heat gun to make craters and a deep grove (that's what it's called, right?) for a road, 3) make a road out of cork, 4) add other details such as a Land Speeder crash site, cliffs, hills, etc. And 5) paint it. Since we won't be priming the foam, we won't need to seal it.

Now, my questions are:

What can I add to make the board more interesting?

Can Styrofoam warp?

Would a road look best if it's sunken down into the board, so it's at the same level as the board, or if it's on top of the board, just glued on?

For the road, I'd google "desert road" and check images - there are some raised-up roads that look good (deliberately raised a bit to prevent dunes drifting across them) but the 'sunken into the sand' look can be good too. (I think you meant 'groove' not 'grove' but it was perfectly understandable.)
It also depends on if you want vehicles on the road to be protected (down in a dip) or exposed, but with better sight lines.

I'd also consider edging the boards with some fabric tape of some kind - should make them hold up to handling a bit better too.

An option for the crash site, craters etc is to make them separately so you can move them around, but that would be more work (and harder to store).

To make it more interesting - a few hills (sand dunes I guess) would work. A dried up river bed. An oasis with a few plants. Ruins sticking out the sand. Cave entrances.


Warping - it's unlikely to warp much, but it can snap if knocked. It might be worth making it as 4 60x60 squares so you can arrange it more easily and the pieces are smaller and tougher.

go to a local hardware store, get some sand, get some pva glue, get some yellow (sand like paint, cheapest)... paint the table sandy, dry, add PVA, throw sand all over it... add greenery and roads for effects... for sand I would say no roads, make it sand dunes all over the place unless the roads are maintained sandy areas would cover them rather quickly because sand moves.

heck why not just make a large table sandbox just buy a bag of sand, spread it out and enjoy... add some rocks and stones here and there and go wild, requires practically no modelling and you can shift the sands to different looks each time

Remember the second Transformers movie? The battle scene where Sam was trying to deliver the key to Optimus in the desert. Pretty much use that as a reference.

As far as I know the white foam doesnt warp. Be careful with the heat as you don't want to melt it to much. Pretty much lay glue down and throw play sand on it as bitemythumb said.

Maybe just making terrain pieces out of the white foam instead of a table? Cut a chunk heat it to give it a shape then cover it in sand. Then when you can get ahold of a sheet of pink foam you just cover that in sand and a road or 2 and use the white foam pieces as dunes.

Thanks for all advice! We'll put either double plywood or MDF under the foam, pink styrofoam doesn't exist in Sweden (afaik), and although I don't watch bad movies, I really like the sunken down look. We'll tape the corners with duct tape, don't worry.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just got an idea, what if, in the middle of the board, there's a river, that's not dried out, with one addition: it's a river built by rhe Imperium to ship water from the sea to the cities, which is why it runs through the desert! In addition to this, I could make like a water reservoir, a bridge going over the thing, etc.

This is the board I finished last week that i've been working on. Some similar ideas to your's as far as central water feature. You might find some ideas in my WIP thread for how I went about making it.