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Long time no speak, glad to be back.

It's been a long while since I've played with my minis, and in the midst of 2020's events I am excited to return to the hobby. Personally, making custom terrain was a big passion of mine so recently I've been debating tipping my toes back into the modelling and potentially making some sellable terrain boards.

I am dubious to get back into this aspect of the hobby purely because when researching the amount of custom terrain boards for sale I found very few for sale (especially in the UK where I am based).

My initial ideas were to create dynamic 6'/4' and 4'/4' boards like Ahmon Ket for LotR, a wastelands or ww1-esc trench system, that could almost act as specific scenario tables.

Do you reckon there's still demand for custom boards? And more tentativley.. what sort of price range would you expect to pay for a custom board?

Thanks for your time,

Daniel

I was scrolling through pinterest for inspiration pics just now and stumbled onto someone selling cool looking Kill Team boards, commission type of gigs. I think there might be some interest to this sort of thing. A KillTeam board is much easier to store as it is so small.

In any case, if you want to plan ahead, I'd recommend keeping to table sizes outlined in the new 9th edition reveals. IIRC all table sizes are multiples of the Kill Team board now.

Interesting re board sizes, 22x30 inches is very little! More of a benefit rather than hinderance. Would this apply to LotR and Fantasy boards too?

Just 40k so far, the expectation is the Age of Sigmar will eventually follow suit, LotR is less clear.

Far less demand nowadays, the prevalence of nicely printed neoprene gaming mats, 3D printing and official plastic terrain tied directly to the Warhammer rules has lessened the need for custom built tables, but there's always going to be people with more money than time who are looking for a well done table!

I'd second the suggestion for 22"x30" Kill Team (40K) and Warcry (Fantasy/Age of Sigmar) boards, both of those are the small skirmish games designed to be played on that specifically sized boards. Actual 40K and Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar are still played on 4'x6' standard. Blast-cratered WWI style trench tables will forever be popular for 40k.

3x3 and 3x6 is an option for Star Wars Legion, with Endor style redwood forests, Tatooine desert cities and Rogue One tropical beach assault shorelines being both popular and relatively easy to scratch build. Boards would need to be designed with pitched battles in mind, there's very little general interest narrative scenarios for the game

Whatever you make, I'd join in some game-specific buy/sell/trade Facebook groups with good pictures of what you produce

You know what else would be good, AoP boards but again its a specialist subject

As said before, the gaming mats that are now readily available, was the final nail in the coffin for static terrain boards. I used to help out running tourneys and what not and static terrain boards more of a pain in the butt than a benefit.

Gamers also tend to quickly get bored playing on the same surface every game.

That doesn't mean there's no demand for modular terrain though. In a way, it's like making lots of small boards that can be arranged together in any way you choose. There's also some demand for terrain in of itself, not set to a board piece. While most players no longer want to play on static boards that are more like set pieces and large displays, I'm sure your skills can be used in making modular boards and terrain pieces. I wouldn't say it's something you can make a full living off of because I just don't know enough about it's market value, but if you enjoy it as a hobby and like doing it, then you should be able to find a market for it. Like an Etsy store or something similar. It won't fly off the shelves as it were if you charge typical custom terrain prices, but if you like doing it that shouldn't be too much an issue I think. Reasonable pricing for time and materials will really help you sell and you can probably advertise here through your profile signature and Dakka Swap Shop at the least.

tldr: You probably can't make a living off it, but if you can switch to single terrain pieces and modular board sections you should be able to find a market.

I've made about 20 boards. You can get paid anywhere from $100 for something cheap to $2000+ for a massive resin/mdf/hundreds of pieces sort of tables. Mostly due to transportation most people only work locally or they meet at a convention to drop it off (I go with this, saves every a few hundred). It only costs maybe $200-300 for a basic table with hills/rocks/foam. Most of the cost is in tools. Make your own and see how it goes!

Or donate what you make if you dont like it! Always improve

Totally, Neoprene mats are good for fast assembly but sometimes playing on a real terrain board is better fun. Esp modular boards that can be re-ordered. This often works best for trench terrain, city terrain, or similar.. like cave fighting, or Glacial Canyons, etc.

Most people today, in 40K at least, are used to not having any real movement restrictions and would be flummoxed by a Glacial Canyon Board where once you send a unit down a pass it won't be able to impact the other side or up on top won't be able to charge down.

Much to crunchy and too much thinking required for em I guess. Too many "wrong" choices for people used to participation trophies and no bad decisions.

 meatybtz wrote:
Too many "wrong" choices for people used to participation trophies and no bad decisions.

I... I feel attacked.

Just kidding. My weakness is that I have terrible luck with dice no matter what I play. DnD, WH40K, Board games, etc. Just horrible dice rolls.

Roll out mats are a great idea and saves space. I'd like to think there's still people who want to/are able to accomodate a board to use.

I'll look into different facebook groups to see if people are interested. It would be amazing if I could make boards for a living but it sounds like there's isn't the demand. My initial thoughts were if I spent a lot of time making a high quality board; either I be able to sell it and if not I could still have fun with it.

Also this one board could test the waters to see if other people want bespoke scenes or landscapes made. Star Wars locations could be a big hit

The most epic modular boards that I have ever seen are from these guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyu0umZtaDE&t=601s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSvC4zItJts

Battleboards.co.uk

Have no idea how much something like that would cost in time or dosh.

Few points:
1 - For me the biggest problem is the storage of the terrain I made.
2 - I can't price my pieces of terrain by hrs spent + material cost, because total is always more than folk can afford.

If you really want to build terrain things for a livivng, perhaps getting hiered at WETA is the only way to go?