Board Building Project

[Canada Steve]

So JAG the idea is to build a kickarse board that can be used for various systems and look the nuts at an event. I think the board should be no bigger than 6 x 4 and should incorporate some water frontage to allow for Pirate gaming but also allow for other systems such as Muskets & Tomahawks, Relics etc.

I envisage the board to be of varying heights to allow for such stuff like a subterranean evil HQ for 7TV etc.

This is a longish term build project so no rush and without anyone having to dig deep for funds but I do think that a great looking table will help advertise us more.

Thoughts ?

[chris_cain]

Sound like a good plan, though with the sheer amount of systems we all play it would possibly be a better idea to build 1x1 or 2x2 square sections that you can mix and match as a variety of boards, that can then 'plug' into the 6 x 4 board base. Each section has it's own peace of modelled terrain (a hill, a road, a stream, a lake, etc. etc.) which when placed next to each other make up an entire board, similar to how a GW battleboard works.

A single 6 x 4 board will generally look better (as it can be built to specifically compliment all the component pieces) but is obviously much harder to store and transport, whereas a board made up of sections is easier to store and transport. On the other hand again, boards made up of multiple sections are generally much flimsier, and prone to being knocked out of alignment by careless hands (read; me).

I guess it depends what exactly do you want the board to do?

Is it;

• A tournament board.
  
• A demo game board.
  
• A board for taking to other JAG members houses.
  
• A Wargaming or a RPG board.
  
• Is it generic or a targeted theme (Ie; Steampunk, Fantasy, etc.)
  
• What scale is it? 28mm, 25mm, 20mm, 15mm, 10mm or 6mm? Does it need to encompass multiple miniature scales?
  
• Does it have a ground scale? (mainly for Historical gaming in 6mm-18mm such as FOG)
  
• What geographical region? You mentioned Pirate gaming along with Muskets and Tomahawks. Bare in mind trees in the Caribbean are different to trees from the North Americas which are different to the forest of medieval Europe for a game like SAGA. Generic evergreens, what season is the board etc. etc.
  

Decide on these things and then you can begin to flesh out where/how/what/when. I'm more than happy to help out, I've built most of the scenery used at my place from scratch and will be more than happy to contribute to a group project! Perhaps we could even do some sort of collaborative event where we all gather at someone's place for an evening of scenery making rather than gaming.

[Canada Steve]

Chris the board whilst 6 x 4 will be in manageable sized sections to be able to be transported and stored. As I said it will be generic for theming and will be ideally for 28mm figures. As for region specific that snot really a problem as the tress will be removable and do remember that not all Pirates were based in the Caribbean.

[chris_cain]

Sounds simple enough then mate. Could I suggest using www.buildingmaterials.co.uk/insulation/polystyrene/ based on squares of 2x2 ply/mdf squares, you carve the terrain directly into the foam/poly then once finished coat everything with a white glue/water mix and sand/flock as wanted. This lets you carve rivers/paths/beaches/lakes etc. etc. directly into the table and if you use wire based trees you can push them directly into the board to make woods.

[ben]

You never see many beach themed boards do you? That would be cool

[chris_cain]

Steve, could be worth making a 'terrain/modelling' board to collate these types of threads in. Looking forward to comparing notes for our boards at the next meet!