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Hey guys I am looking to make my own version of the Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard, I am thinking of using 1" polystyrene mounted on hardboard for a bit of support but keep it light weight, plus it allows me to put runners on the bottom so it keeps to the table. I will have batons and slots to connect them together for what I hope will be a smooth finish.

If anyone has tips on how to model the polystyrene that would be great.

I am thinking of using papier mâché for the top cover, as it is quite easy to model with and I am hoping it will protect the poly from melting, unless someone knows this wont work, but I will test it first. If this doesnt work I will probably just hand paint them.

They need to be able to be used for both fantasy and 40k, so I will either be going with a field or desert look, no inbuilt terrain other than hills and rivers. I am thinking 4 tiles to start with as a tester. If all goes well it should mean I can make a set of 4 for about £10, which is a bit of difference to GW's prices.

For my homemade board, I used Masonite, 2 layers thick and glued together. I built up layers and variation with sheets of cork.
Never heard of paper mâché as a top layer, but I see no dramatic problem with it either, good luck on that perticular project.

If you just use normal wall paint and PVA glue you can use the Polystyrene directly.

Me and a friend made a simple snow field by taking a few polystyrene plates and just glueing a layer of sand onto it.

Add some shallow craters and modular hills and you got a decent homemade plate for under 130$.

No problem topping the boards with paper mache, at least in theory. My main worry would be durability, as I've never used the stuff in a high-wear environment, like the surface of a gaming board/table. Terranscapes over on Youtube uses SculptaMold (I think that was the name, at least - it's a "just add water" mix of plaster and paper pulp) pretty extensively in his rock formations, but those aren't really high traffic areas. Plaster cloth tends to chip and flake at the surface pretty easily, but that's not really the same thing. Model railroaders use paper mache frequently enough, but again, that's not expected to see any real wear. All I can say definitively is "You won't know unless you test it." Less than helpful, but that's all I've got for you.

Actually, one last note on topping the foam with plaster, paper mache, or the like: More than the top material crumbling, I would worry about it separating. Roughing up the underlying foam surface and/or adding anchors (T-pins, little nubs of wire or toothpicks, etc.) before sculpting to keep the mass from shifting might not be a bad idea.

Regardless, surface sealing is going to be as, if not more, important than the underlying material. It will keep plaster-like materials from being abraded, help reduce chipping and flaking of texturing materials, and can steel foam against solvents in spray paint. I heartily recommend hand painting at least the basecoat, using house/latex/emulsion paint (same stuff, different names). This stuff is a bit thicker, more flexible, generally more robust, and invariably cheaper in large quantities than acrylic craft (let alone model) paints. It's thick enough to act as both adhesive and colorant when texturing, if you add some fine grit directly to the paint, or will help lock down glued grit when painted over the top. The thickness also helps soften the edges of the material, slightly, so your rougher ground doesn't actually function like coarse sandpaper.

if you mix plaster and PVA you get a more sturdy and durable mix... also... i tend to cover everything with a thick coat of PVA ... it is like a very strong varnish really... and can also lead to many interesting surface textures...thus even papermache with PVA instead of simple wallpaper glue will hold off a nuke well kinda^^

Thanks for the tips guys:

Viktor von Domm, was planning on pva as it is cheaper than wall paper paste and I had not thought of using it as a final varnish as well so thank you for that.

oadie, I am trying to keep it cheap as a test run so plaster is out plus I have found plaster quite fragile on past terrain projects so I am hoping the paper mache will not be as fragile and as Dr Doom has pointed out, mache done with PVA sets rock solid. But lets see how the first set goes as the second set will probably have a river in so I might need plaster to sculpt a nice river bed.

DrunkPhilisoph, ye I am in the middle of doing up the house so I have a few tins left over which will help.

gealgain I am using something like that as a backing sheet so to help strengthen and support the poly.

if you are interested you can go to my gallery and see for yourself some of the things i have done that way... i made a giant priate ship by this methode... and my kids can play with it... even tho it is now around two years old... that´s how sturdy it is