Finally finished my first Warmachine table, a 4x4 Swamp land. Tables with built in terrain are exceptionally cool. They can do things not possible on "normal" boards. But, this is my first table and I wanted to keep my options open. I decided to make the table a flat plane and add all terrain as placeable installations later. I wanted a durable, self-contained folding table I can travel with and keep safely in the basement between games.
Inspiration
I culled the internet looking for inspiration. Surprisingly, Swamp is not a commonly used theme for a gaming table. I found the most hits on Malifaux tables. I cut down the dozens of images to just a bare few:
Making the Table
It's made from cheap wood 1x3s (which are actually .75 x 2.5) and a 4x4 super thin plywood, maybe 0.125 thick? Assembly was easy, but due to a measuring mistake it's inner play area is actually 48 inches x 47.5 inches. I'm pretty sure no one's going to mind, but you never know. There's always that one guy...
After building the table, I found that my table design mimics Poppabear's folding table almost exactly. Since he already did a great job explaining the layout, I'll link to it here. Also, his board looks amazing, much better than mine.
http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?87911-Poppabear-s-Amazing-Portable-Folding-Terrain-Tables!&highlight=poppabear%27s
After assembly, I sanded everything and routed the table edges with a Dremel plunge router. I then used a Minwax Polyshade in Classic Black (link) to stain the whole table. I applied 2 coats and sanded everything with 600 Grit sandpaper before and after each application, then vacuumed everything for dust/particle control. I'm really happy with how that turned out. This is the first time I've had a poly coat come out with that classic high gloss smooth look.
Making the Board
I cut the blue foam insulation board and painted it with 50/50 Primer Sealer & Sand, but it spread like old peanut butter instead of paint. Thankfully, I only had to cover about 1/5 of the 4x4 area before it ran out. The rest of the table was 2/3 paint to 1/3 sand. I was easily able to paint with this mixture and it still gave good texture to the board.
I painted the whole board with my water color. Different parts of the board dried faster than others. The drying patterns looked very interesting, like small elevated areas above an imaginary water line. When it dried completely, I painted the land color along these half imagined lines to create the random land/water division pictured. The land was a little shiny, so I dry-brushed it with a 30/70 Primer/Land color mix.
I wanted the water to really stand out like in the second and third inspiration images, but the land and water colors looked too similar, even after the dry-brushing. I did a lot of forum crawling to find how to make good looking water in war-gaming tables (finding Poppabear's post above at this time) and found two methods: pour a clear acrylic like Water Effects, or paint a poly coat. I painted the poly coat since I had a can of clear High Gloss from an earlier failed project. It worked well, but took ~2 days to dry.
Originally, I was going to paint the algae/moss on the top of the water, but I tried a 1ft x 1ft test section. It looked terrible. I painted over it with the water color and ploly'ed it again.
I tried adding grass patches and little orange mushroom dot clumps to the land, like in inspiration pick 1, but it looked terrible. I painted over it again.
Pics of the "finished" table
Some of the lighting is a little off for these shots, but I kept it as-is to show the reflectivity of the "water."
Question
How do I protect the insides from the bottom as it's folded up? In the above pic you can see that the bottom is unprotected and the foam is exposed. I had an idea to take a thin strip of wood and attach it to the base with more buckles when closed. Can anyone else think
fo something aside from a second separate piece? I'm open to options that are too big to implement on a finished project but perfect for the next table too.
What would I do differently?
There are a ton of things i'd do differently next time.
• Take my time. There were a few times I made a decision just to push the project along. I'm somewhat hasty. To be fair, I also rarely finish a project. It usually sits around half done without any hope of being finished any time soon. So, have a less-than-perfect but finsihed project, or a perfect one at 50% completion... Eh. This fight's not over yet.
• Color Choice. I like the table and the board, but the table should be a different color. The black of the table melds easily into the board. I missed an opportunity for interesting contrast. Originally, I wanted salt washed blue driftwood color with brass accents, but then point #1 came into effect...
• Second sand/primer coat. The 33/66 Sand/Primer mix worked well, but isn't as textured. I think another coat would have amped it up one more notch and made dry-brushing easier.
• Cut Weight. This board is heavy! Any reasonable shortcut to lighten weight should be take. Maybe use 1x2's where possible? More consideration is needed.
• Do ALL painting on the board BEFORE inserting it into the table. The fit was tight and the sand/primer on the sides of the board put a few cosmetic scratches on the table's interior trim. When I dry-brushed the board, I had to be VERY careful not to hit the black table too.
• Alternate design. Instead of basing in primer/sand, I should have base coated the whole board with my water color and then added the primer/sand mixture on top in the land sections. If I had done this, the water surface would have been smooth and the land would be rough and textured. I grabbed some sand paper and tried to smooth out a section to see if I could work back to this, but no. Sand Paper vs Sand/Primer doesn't work the way it should.
• Better Paint Coverage. In some small spots, some of the side of the board is visible on the table. If I painted the sides with the primer and then the ground color before insertion into the table, it wouldn't show up at all. It's a nitpick, but something easily remedied during creation.
So, in the end I have this. I'm happy with it. I have a place to play where I didn't before. I'm calling this a success.
Cross posted in the Privateer Press Forums
