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Hello,
first post here, I've returned to the "hobby" after a decade long hiatus.

All these years I've dreamed about having a gorgeous gaming table. These realm of battle modular boards seem like a decent way of getting good looks, easy transportation and storage for a classy looking 6 x 4" surface. But..

I don't want either a city themed nor a fantasy themed board! I want a generic, timeless looking board, kinda like what the original realm of battle board was (minus the hills and the skulls). Seems like the original realm of battle board is discontinued and sells for silly moneys on ebay..

So I was thinking I could get one of the current boards and convert it to looking like a generic modular board. How much work do you think it would take to mask out all the significant details from the existing boards? Was thinking of adding sand and rocks to cover most of the offending detail, something like that. I reckon the shattered domains board would be an easier job than the sector imperialis one?

Any thoughts and advice on this topic would be appreciated! I am specifically interested in the realm of battle boards because they are hard plastic, and are easy to store away and transport. I have looked into battle mats, but they just look like a compromise to my eye..

I have a very specific aesthetic in mind for the board and terrain, planned down to colours etc. Grimdark indeed, mostly blacks and browns, with a hint of dust thrown in.. I just need to settle on the board dilemma to make things happen.

Cheers

If you wanted to save some money you could definitely build a board from scratch using MDF as a base for your boards and building it up with polystyrene and filler. This is good because you have a plan in mind and there's more flexibility when modelling your board.

If you go for the shattered dominion board I would use filler to cover the offending details which I'm doing for my Armies on Parade board.

tauist wrote:
I want a generic, timeless looking board, kinda like what the original realm of battle board was (minus the hills and the skulls).

Are you wedded to the idea of a plastic board with visible joins?

You can make a textured battlemat very cheaply, paint and flock it as desired and then roll it over any flat surface. Flat 4x6 sheets (polystyrene, chipboard) can be cut down in to 2x4 sheets if you are concerned about storage.

Alternatively there are ranges of nice mats textured and printed which may suuit you.

If you really want to model squares in the style of the ROB, do what Tyranid Horde suggests and build on MDF. The only advantge to the ROB for you is the connectors, which can be replaced easily with inset magnets.

A year ago I refurbished a set of old and very beat up original Realms of Battle boards, including grinding off the skulls and adding gravel and sand and repainting them. You can see the process in my P&M thread starting on page 3: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/686009.page#10013467

If I had it to do from scratch, I might use MDF for rigidity, insulation foam for dynamic contours, and lots of PVA, railroad ballast, and acrylic paint for surface texture. I'm already toying with doing a second one in that manner, all with multiple tiers of insulation foam "concrete" for a cityscape with canals and buttresses.

Thanks for your thoughts. While MDF would probably be a wiser way to go about this, think I'm just gonna mess with sand, ballast and bits and see how shattered domains will bend to my will. that link was insightful as well, appreciated!

Just an update for completeness, apologies if this breaks forum rules!

In the end I managed to find a painted and flocked og realm of battle board set with the bag and one extra tile (and for a decent price too!), and I'm very pleased with it. Saved me a ton of work, and I actually even like the hill pieces! I already had the modular citadel hills in my old terrain collection so I can make a board with a very tall hill in the middle for a nice "king of the hill" board.

I was going to remove the flock at first but found it makes a nice softening effect for dice rolling. I recall some people complaining about the god-awful noise dice rolling makes on a bare plastic board, but the flock dampens things nicely.

I also like the nylon carrying bag. It makes transporting the board more hasslefree and its pretty easy to storage when not in use.

I'd still like to find one more spare ROB plain 1x1' tile to get a total of 8x4' of board (so we could do two 4x4' table games with our group), so if anyone here has a spare they'd be willing to sell, feel free to PM!

thanks