Hello
I have a plan for building a gaming surface, mostly for use for
40k but also for Warhammer Quest (1995) and Space Hulk. It's currently more of a vague idea really. I'm on a tight budget though, I mean really tight, I can't afford a £50+ ($63ish+) gaming mat for something that at times I play infrequently - my gaming buddy and I may play
40k for a few weekends in a row (as we are currently) but then not play again for months, for example I went 6 months of this year not visiting my gaming buddy, so this gaming surface needs to be as cheap as possible.
I will buy 3 XPS boards, such as
these
Get some duct tape, tape 3 boards together to make almost a 6' x 4' board (it works out as 1200mm x 1800mm, 20mm short one way, 40mm short the other, damn you metrification!).
Get some emulsion paint (I believe in the US it's called latex paint, I'm in the
UK though) and a roller and paint over the surface of the boards, in some kind of dark ashphalt looking shade of grey.
The vague plan is to make the duct taped boards fold up so that I can carry them to my gaming buddies house, where they will remain for the foreseeable future, and so they can be easily stored between games.
Two things I'm not sure of though -
1. I don't know what thickness of board to buy. 6mm I think would be too weak where the board will overhang the edges of the 5' x 3' table we use, 20mm I feel is a little too expensive, but 10mm seems to be nice and cheap although again I'm unsure of the strength.
2. How to join the 3rd sheet so it will fold up but without compromising the surface. I don't want duct tape on the top surface creating an unsightly raised strip, I'd prefer all 3 boards to butt up against each other nice and neatly with nothing on the top surface.
Has anyone here any experience of using these types of boards as a gaming surface and thus can offer advice on how to achieve my idea?
Thanks in advance.