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So I got the go ahead from the wife to make a gaming table finally. It has to be able to break down as we don't have space to leave it up when not playing. GW's offering at some $375 or whatever is stupid and I wouldn't pay that for so much wasted ground for skulls(who does mass graves only 6" deep?).

It's going to be 4'x6'. What I need is a modular system similar to GW's but without the price tag and skulls. They don't have to be molded plastic, foam is fine, and if it's a DIY kit that is cool too. Ideally 1' squares or 2' squares.

Ideas?

MDF+Pencil+saw

aerethan wrote:So I got the go ahead from the wife to make a gaming table finally. It has to be able to break down as we don't have space to leave it up when not playing. GW's offering at some $375 or whatever is stupid and I wouldn't pay that for so much wasted ground for skulls(who does mass graves only 6" deep?).

It's going to be 4'x6'. What I need is a modular system similar to GW's but without the price tag and skulls. They don't have to be molded plastic, foam is fine, and if it's a DIY kit that is cool too. Ideally 1' squares or 2' squares.

Ideas?

I've seen some nice 4 by 6 boards composed of both three 4 by 2 sections and two 4 by 3 sections. These were made from thick pink foam insulation sheets. Have to be careful not to lean on them if they hang "over" the supporting table during gaming. Easy to lift and store.

Surfaces covered with thick coat of wood glue with any type of texturing material (grit, sawdust, etc.), which gives you a hard shell to hold up to gaming wear and tear! Next apply paint and terrain to taste.

The total cost for any and all matrials would be a lot cheaper than $375.00 Possibly under $30.00 (excluding terrain)

GW is $290US. It's an investment, and a damned sturdy one.

If you're looking at making your own, it's probably a good idea to go through various websites for terrain building for the pros and cons of the various material. Also, GW's 'How To Build Wargames Terrain' has some food for thought as well.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/243963.page

That should give you a good idea on materials and what not. I tried my best to replicate that board and it turned out quite well actually despite my art deficiency. I spent around $70 in total including paint and foam I still had left over. Took a good amount of time, but it was a lot of fun!

A good idea I've heard is to make the sections lock together with big strong magnets. Less fiddly than clips or interlocking sections.

High density polystyrene sheets. Its blue in colour, used in archaeology for packing artefacts. Easy to cut, lightweight, strong and rigid. Pricey tho but not as heavy as MDF. It also carves beautifully for making hills.

Lt. Coldfire wrote:http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/243963.page

That should give you a good idea on materials and what not. I tried my best to replicate that board and it turned out quite well actually despite my art deficiency. I spent around $70 in total including paint and foam I still had left over. Took a good amount of time, but it was a lot of fun!

I agree with this method entirely. Not only do your get a board entirely to your liking, but you can further break down the board into any size pieces you want for even greater variety (for example using 2x2 ft sections, or even 1x1ft sections or a mix of many different sizes).

The board can also be as flat or as hilly as you like, either incorporating hills into the board itself, or making them separately.

Plus you can easily cut into the board to make any kind of terrain feature you want... lakes, rivers, lava pits, trenches, etc.

I'd also go with foam over MDF or stiff plywood. Personally, I wouldn't want to leave the pieces free-floating if they're going to be smaller than 1/3 of the board. The method of locking them in place would depend mostly on how the table is to be supported. If there's something solid under the whole shebang and you have a thick enough backing, decently large, flat blocks at the junctions will support the weight, with pegs to lock in the board section. Ye Olde Staples (basically, an "I" shape with corresponding cutouts on either board) would also work, but would be a bit more finicky to make and prone to wiggling, without serious precision and some very stiff backing.

Three sections of 2' x 4' THICK blue insulation foam (the 2" thick stuff).
Put them side by side, so that you have your 4x6 board.
Use duct tape to hold the left one to the center one. Tape them together on the top. Now, flip those 2 pieces over, so that the duct tape is on the bottom.
Now, duct tape the one one the right to the center piece.

Now, you have a tri-fold board.

When taping, you'll use 3 lengths of duct tape. The first will straddle the 2 pieces. The next will go from the middle of that piece of tape, overlapping onto the side piece or foam. The next will go from the center of the middle piece of tape, overlapping onto the middle piece of foam. That gives you a sturdy bond.

When you're done with that, Woodland scenice has a product you'll need. It's grass flocking on a roll, with an adhesive backing.
You put 2 pieces on. One piece is roughly 4'x4'. This will cover the "top" section of duct tape. The other is 2'x4'. This covers the piece of foam board thatis taped on the bottom.

When all is said and done, you have a sturdy gaming surface that tri-folds to a 4'x2'x6" footprint. You can stow it away ina closet with ease.

It's what everyone in my game group uses, and they're all 6+ years old with no need for fixing EVER.

Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:Three sections of 2' x 4' THICK blue insulation foam (the 2" thick stuff).
Put them side by side, so that you have your 4x6 board.
Use duct tape to hold the left one to the center one. Tape them together on the top. Now, flip those 2 pieces over, so that the duct tape is on the bottom.
Now, duct tape the one one the right to the center piece.

Now, you have a tri-fold board.

When taping, you'll use 3 lengths of duct tape. The first will straddle the 2 pieces. The next will go from the middle of that piece of tape, overlapping onto the side piece or foam. The next will go from the center of the middle piece of tape, overlapping onto the middle piece of foam. That gives you a sturdy bond.

When you're done with that, Woodland scenice has a product you'll need. It's grass flocking on a roll, with an adhesive backing.
You put 2 pieces on. One piece is roughly 4'x4'. This will cover the "top" section of duct tape. The other is 2'x4'. This covers the piece of foam board thatis taped on the bottom.

When all is said and done, you have a sturdy gaming surface that tri-folds to a 4'x2'x6" footprint. You can stow it away ina closet with ease.

It's what everyone in my game group uses, and they're all 6+ years old with no need for fixing EVER.

Eric

Great tips! Tagging for future reference.

Wow I've never had one of my threads necro'd before. IBTL!

Oh crap. I saw the date and thought it was yesterday!

FM Ninja 048 wrote:MDF+Pencil+saw

Piggie backing off this post. If you live near home depot, they have MDF which is very affordable. You can even ask them to put a big sheet down to whatever size you want. As example 2x2's to have interchangable terrain, 3x4's to have 2 sheets that slide together. You could ask them to put some ply wood as well if you don't want to shell it out for thick MDF. Goto the gardening section, by big band of cheap sand. Goto a craft score buy spray adhesive, home depot might even have this.

From their simply screw the pre cut boards together, flock them, and your ready to roll. Spray paint them black. Get 2 shades of brown and the biggest brush you can find.. a buddy even pulled this off with a paint roller and take his time. 2 coats dark brown. 1 coat 50/50 dark and lighter brown. 1 dry brush light brown, 1 dry brush 50/50 light brown - white.

Play game. I've used the above to help friends build boards on a sunday, and roll dice with them after allowing a day for drying. Don't be afraid to use canned soup for terrain

Looks like the people want to keep it going!

Hey, so it's been a year. Did you make the board, Aerethan?

Sadly no. It's been a long year and now we are moving at the end of this month. I did make 2 2x4 tables with the intention of clamping them together, but ended up using them for different things.

Once we're moved in I'll see what the local scene is like and if I need to I'll make a table.

Pfft what a waste of forum space this was

njpc wrote:

FM Ninja 048 wrote:MDF+Pencil+saw

Piggie backing off this post. If you live near home depot, they have MDF which is very affordable. You can even ask them to put a big sheet down to whatever size you want. As example 2x2's to have interchangable terrain, 3x4's to have 2 sheets that slide together. You could ask them to put some ply wood as well if you don't want to shell it out for thick MDF. Goto the gardening section, by big band of cheap sand. Goto a craft score buy spray adhesive, home depot might even have this.

From their simply screw the pre cut boards together, flock them, and your ready to roll. Spray paint them black. Get 2 shades of brown and the biggest brush you can find.. a buddy even pulled this off with a paint roller and take his time. 2 coats dark brown. 1 coat 50/50 dark and lighter brown. 1 dry brush light brown, 1 dry brush 50/50 light brown - white.

Play game. I've used the above to help friends build boards on a sunday, and roll dice with them after allowing a day for drying. Don't be afraid to use canned soup for terrain

I would suggest against spray adhesives. I've used them for some of my own terrain, specifically sand/dirt.
9 months after the construction of the board, the adhesive (and dirt) will still come off in clumps to any models that move into said dirt/sand areas.

The power of the blood compels you!