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Good morning all!

Me and a buddy (but may end up just being myself) want to build a board. Most likely gonna go with 6'x4' but cut it in half for storage. Now, Id love to go with Styrofoam and model a board completely myself, but I'm a bit weary. As great as it would be initially, I feel using Mats may edge it? And of course have movable scenery and stones/pebbles to add around and change at will. I am also aware of how my board will not come out like the boards it is trying to emulate!

I am just curious if you guys think it is worth making a board I.e styrofoam board. Cost wise it will probably be the same as mats and homemade scenery. Or have found more enjoyment from variation of mats etc.

Just querying really

Hello there,

I got a piece of Celotex foam cut to 6x4 foot at a buiders yard.
Got some £land duct tape. I stuck half the layer of tape on the top surface and folded the other half down on to the side edge. Turn the board over and repeat this process on the bottom surface and remaining part of the side edge to seal the board. This should wrap the tape around the whole edge. If the tape only goes on the sides it will peel off.

Got an Antenociti's Workshop ... "'MAT o War'" green cloth mat and some £land spray glue. Carefully spray (outside the house) the board and stick the mat to it.

Warning: you only get 1 chance to do it right!

Next use some Wilkinson £pots of tester paint (your choice of colours) to break up the green as required.

In all it cots me around £45.

It totally depends on what you're trying to achieve. The more beautifully you model a board the better it will look, but the harder it will be to make it changeable for having different setups for each game. Are you looking to have a beautiful board that takes a lot of effort but is fairly 'fixed' in its terrain features, or just something better looking than a bare tabletop to play your games on?

I'm vaguely planning building a modular board involving a lot of engineering to try to get the best of both worlds. I know how I would do it (involving a lot of MDF, styrofoam, terrain kits, texture paints, accessories and magnets), but I know it will be massively time-consuming and quite expensive if and when I do it, and will require a lot of precision wood cutting that I'm not quite set up for at the moment.

I have built three complete sets of boards now. One set is 2x2' and the other two use 2x4'. The first was great and my design was one piece of built in terrain on each that took up about a third of the space. After doing it I realized it took too long and so went with three boards 2x4' so still modular and useful. I go with both terrain built in and terrain on top, by limiting my built in to 30-40% of each board. I completely recommend this level. Three boards is modular in that you can turn and shift them for a little variety AND stores easier due to max size of each board. Below are a few pics of my snow/trench board.

I make mine by going to a DIY store, buying a single sheet of 6' x 4' foam (with the silver on it). I seal it with a big bucket of ALL Purpose joint Compound. My total cost for these materials is about 50$. It is then up to you to decide on terrain etc, but HAVE a plan! I made all of my trenches leave the board edges 18" from a corner so they could be matched up when we change the set-up. Of course easiest is to have nothing touching edges.
In any case, the total cost by the time you paint (I used cheapo acrylic) maybe flock will be Pre-made mat level. Your real decision is, do you want terrain only on top? Go with the mat. More 3d terrain? Make your own.
Hope this helps. It isn't an easy job and I have a table saw so cuts are easy (although most DIY's will cut for you at a cost.)

Pics below for inspiration etc.






If you have more question feel free to ask. I'm no expert but ...

I have a split 3x3 board made with two small celotex boards, I peeled the silver off one side and just put a thick coat of home bargains burnt umber acrylic, be careful with the celotex as there is glass fibre strands between the foam sheets for strength

Is this for playing 40k, or AoS?

Honestly I'd just buy a game mat and put scenery on top.

You can buy some pretty generic mats, they are not that expensive if you look around.

Whilst I think a custom board like that would look awesome, practically, not so good. It's up to you though of course.

I have the board because my dining table is oddly shaped and is just under 3ft wide

Cheers for all the replies fellas! Just been out to buy the wood for baseboard, so first step is made, getting that up on Wednesday. I think ill most likely go with a gaming mat and then go to town with the scenery, I've had a look around and noticed that mat boards can look amazing given the right time spent on the scenery and adding foliage etc. But the advice on the methods of using styrofoam are very much appreciated. I think I'm going to start small and do the idea of a 2'x4' in the near future, the experience from making scenery will give me ideas and improve the overall look of the end product, as If I did a full 6' 4' board now, I dread to think what it would look like!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

BUDFORCE wrote:
Is this for playing 40k, or AoS?

Honestly I'd just buy a game mat and put scenery on top.

You can buy some pretty generic mats, they are not that expensive if you look around.

Whilst I think a custom board like that would look awesome, practically, not so good. It's up to you though of course.

Just a quick query, which mats are you talking about, was looking at the Gamemat.eu. They cost £59 for a 6' 4' mat which seems reasonable enough, they look detailed enough also. But if you know a better option please let me know.

A flat table with a game mat for looks and then whatever terrain you want is the best for *gameplay* while purpose built wood boards with all the molded hills and rivers look awesome. I really dislike playing on GW’s boards with molded terrain, models just slip and fall everywhere.

The great part about a mat is that you can get two 3x4 folding card tables and roll the mat out on top without having to do a lot of work. Bonus: they also function as tables for other stuff. I bought two 4x4 plywood sheets to make a game table and they’ve sat down in the basement. Neoprene mats are so worth it to be honest.

 Alphabet wrote:
Cheers for all the replies fellas! Just been out to buy the wood for baseboard, so first step is made, getting that up on Wednesday. I think ill most likely go with a gaming mat and then go to town with the scenery, I've had a look around and noticed that mat boards can look amazing given the right time spent on the scenery and adding foliage etc. But the advice on the methods of using styrofoam are very much appreciated. I think I'm going to start small and do the idea of a 2'x4' in the near future, the experience from making scenery will give me ideas and improve the overall look of the end product, as If I did a full 6' 4' board now, I dread to think what it would look like!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

BUDFORCE wrote:
Is this for playing 40k, or AoS?

Honestly I'd just buy a game mat and put scenery on top.

You can buy some pretty generic mats, they are not that expensive if you look around.

Whilst I think a custom board like that would look awesome, practically, not so good. It's up to you though of course.

Just a quick query, which mats are you talking about, was looking at the Gamemat.eu. They cost £59 for a 6' 4' mat which seems reasonable enough, they look detailed enough also. But if you know a better option please let me know.

Yea gamemat.eu, I like the "battleground" one, I think, kinda gravelly, with a bit of grass but not much, it's very generic so you can do whatever you like scenery wise on top and it'll look great.

I do also quite like the desert road one.

Actual boards I only use for Diarommas. If you want something portable get a game matt or make one with canvis spread with a think glaze of caulk and texture it then paint it.

I would make my own, but this is mainly because 'craters' that actually sit at street-level drive me fething mad and foam means you can dig them down.

Also because it's fairly cheap and so am I.