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I'm thinking about building a terrain board, but I'm looking for some recommendations/experiences with base materials from which to construct the board. I'm hoping to do 4 2'x2' tiles.

I've build a board before and it turned out "ok". Not great - I used 4 2'x2' plywood boards. The problem with them is that they didn't really line up perfectly since none of them were perfectly level - most wood I've found seems to at least very slightly warped. Additionally - they were a bit heavy and a bit of a pain to haul around. The weight made them a bit clumsy to handle, plus they were more likely to crush the foam bits used for their hills.

I was thinking about getting 2'x2' plexiglass (or some other kind of plastic) - hoping that would be lighter and less likely to be warped. I also considered hardboard, but I haven't been able to find anyplace selling them in 2'x2' pieces. Does anyone have any experience with these, or other materials?

All wood will probably warp eventually unless stabilized in some way shape or form. you could do so with a torsion box. but then you are going hard into wood working and building.

If you are going plastic then id do Expanded PVC. find a sigh or a plastic shop locally and you can get it pretty cheap.

1/4 4 foot by 8 foot pvc can be around 50-60$ depending on the shop in black or white. and it can be cut with a utility knife.

it can warp with heat though so keep it out of the sun if only using it straight.

Also depending on space money and willingness to just be a consumer you could just make cheap expendable ones out of 2x2x 1" foam from most home stores (though i dunno if they sell it that way in Americas hat.) for extra alignment you could drill and make dowel holes to pin them together if you are worried about alignment. (it will warp though so be aware you may end up replacing it every other year)

 Desubot wrote:

If you are going plastic then id do Expanded PVC. find a sigh or a plastic shop locally and you can get it pretty cheap.

Also depending on space money and willingness to just be a consumer you could just make cheap expendable ones out of 2x2x 1" foam from most home stores

That's a good idea - thanks for that suggestion. I'll look up some local places and see what i can get. Hopefully I can find someplace that can just cut and sell me the plastic. Alot of times when you get ahold of a place for a special request they can't accommodate it. I forsee places saying "well you have to buy a whole sign. we can just charge you for a full sign and not print it." or something like that.

I've worked with the insulation foam - and while its fine for hills and terrain and such, I feel like that stuff is a bit too flimsy as a base for a board.

Your best bet is a piece of 1/4 inch luan. Then trim the bottom side with 1x2 furring strips. Glue and screw the frame to the top and you will have a strong, warp free surface. If you like you can make them in 2' sections, but I just made a single 4x4 and it is working very well for me.

MDF works great for boards, and doesn’t really warp like regular wood, certainly not in 2x2 sections. It does need to be sealed before anything as moisture makes it swell up but otherwise it’s what I use for all my boards.