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I don't have the patience to paint commissioned armies, ( I'm no speed painter). Nor do I have the skill, if I'm to be honest. That said, I've got a ton of experience with wood working and terrain building. I've spent years as a furniture maker and an aquarium exhibit designer. Those skills have served me well in the hobby. My question is, is there a market in the gaming community for gaming tables, and or, urethane cast terrain pieces? I'm not looking to get rich mind you, just wondering if you think I'd be worth the time and money setting up a small side business out of my shop.

Unless you can offer something new or different, cast terrain pieces are things that have been done before and the people that buy them will probably have a seller that they like and stick to. Though if you can get yourself recognised and build a customer base it's a pretty fruitful endeavour.

Entire gaming tables you'd probably be able to commission to some people (as some people want a table and can't make their own), and probably at a decent premium to actually make money off it, but again getting customers will be a challenge. I don't know anyone who makes gaming tables so I can't tell you about how effective it is as a money maker but I reckon you could get at least a little income off it.

The problem with gaming tables is that shipping costs are going to be extremely high, so your market is going to be limited to a handful of people in your town. You might be able to overcome this if you're doing high-end work, the kind where people are paying so much for it that shipping costs are just a rounding error in the final price, but there's a very very small market for that.

Terrain is probably more realistic, but it depends heavily on what you can make. You'll have to post some examples of your work if you want to get a useful evaluation of your potential sales.

The US might be different, but my pal hasn't had much luck with selling gaming tables in the UK. Between the idiots, flakes, and clowns who get offended when you charge for labour it seems like a massive pain in the arse for not much return. Most people seem to play at clubs, and most of the rest can bang together a basic table easily enough. Essentially you're aiming at a very, very specific demographic - people who have the money to buy and space to accomodate a gaming table, can't/ won't build their own, and don't know they can pay a local joiner/ carpenter to do the job for them.

Can't speak to terrain, but there are a lot of people out there selling that already. At this stage I think your best bet for monetising the hobby is to start a Youtube channel and a Patreon. Or scalp new releases.

You'd be better off building tables for model railroads than miniature gaming - at least they NEED tables. Too many miniature gamers can get away with playing on a floor, dinner table, or go to a store to play.

You might consider 2x2 tiles, sized to fit the zone mortalis or realm of battle boards

 gossipmeng wrote:
You'd be better off building tables for model railroads than miniature gaming - at least they NEED tables. Too many miniature gamers can get away with playing on a floor, dinner table, or go to a store to play.

Just how many games of 40k have you played on floors or dinner tables ? ; )


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 beezley1981 wrote:
I don't have the patience to paint commissioned armies, ( I'm no speed painter). Nor do I have the skill, if I'm to be honest. That said, I've got a ton of experience with wood working and terrain building. I've spent years as a furniture maker and an aquarium exhibit designer. Those skills have served me well in the hobby. My question is, is there a market in the gaming community for gaming tables, and or, urethane cast terrain pieces? I'm not looking to get rich mind you, just wondering if you think I'd be worth the time and money setting up a small side business out of my shop.

My best guess would be to make a kickstarter for it.
These things are incredible hard to sell to your average wargamer but somehow some of them get funded like crazy on kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1296268806/the-duchess-a-gaming-table-from-boardgametablescom

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/4thwar/4thwar-equipment-wargaming-tables-returns

Even if they are somewhat unreliable

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1544983357/alpha-a-portable-gaming-table-for-miniatures-games/comments

 beezley1981 wrote:
I don't have the patience to paint commissioned armies, ( I'm no speed painter). Nor do I have the skill, if I'm to be honest. That said, I've got a ton of experience with wood working and terrain building. I've spent years as a furniture maker and an aquarium exhibit designer. Those skills have served me well in the hobby. My question is, is there a market in the gaming community for gaming tables, and or, urethane cast terrain pieces? I'm not looking to get rich mind you, just wondering if you think I'd be worth the time and money setting up a small side business out of my shop.

I honestly don't think there's any money in wargames tables. That Duchess table KS is a card/board game table, which is a much bigger market, and is cleverly designed to substitute as a kitchen table. It's also mass produced in China, thus the price point is acceptable.

Game tables are super easy to DIY with sheet of 3/4" plywood and some removable adjustable legs from IKEA (and some iron-on wood strip). He'res mine, which cost about $150 CAN to make and maybe an afternoon of work?



Eventually I bought a bunch of IKEA shelves and put them underneath for really useful storage. I also built some 4x4 tables for some friends in the same manner. You could skip the carpentry entirely by getting a finished tabletop or desktop (again, IKEA) and a couple shelving units to rest the surface on, though it's harder to get the 4'x6' or 4'x4' dimensions. What actually might sell half-decent is properly finished 4'x4' or 4'x6' tabletops, in something sturdy and durable like 2" particleboard with melamine veneer. Add in pre-drilled holes for IKEA adjustable legs and even a trained monkey could assemble their own table. Shipping would be fairly costly, though, given the weight/dimensions.

OTOH, look at the competition: http://www.geekchichq.com/. Nice tables, if you've got 4 grand to throw around.

I was leaning towards terrain I suppose. Thanks for the feedback, you've given me something to think about and a place to start.