Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboard

[me_in_japan]

Build!Build!Build!Build!Build!

Seriously - there's great satisfaction to be had from designing your own games table. Try sketching out a few ideas. Think about locations you might want to do - desert, swamp, industrial (very terrain heavy, that one), foresty field, alien crystal forest, the skeletal death fields of Xar, whatever. There are a few really bitching good sites out there f you jeered tutorials and stuff

gah! bloody iphone and it's auto correct. shoulda been "if you need tutorials"


anyway
http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/
http://www.terranscapes.com/ (this is a shop, but you can see how some of it is done.)

Those boards look like nice wood, but they also look very heavy. A game table doesnt need to be solid wood. I had one that was, originally, but the Mk2 (foam on wooden sheet plus support struts) was far better in terms of customisabilty and weight (and price)

[Tenorikuma]

They sell those railroad layout boards at Tam-Tam hobby store too.

[Mike the Pike]

Heavy? They are 6mm plywood with a few supporting struts. I think even Jus could lift 'em

[me_in_japan]

oh, OK. They looked thicker in the photo.

[Spevna]

oh, OK. They looked thicker in the photo.

I think the board is 6mm but the edging is 40mm to allow something for the screws to fit into. You couldnt screw 6mm boards together.

[ashmie]

I must admit I really enjoyed making that Mordheim board so yeah it is definitely worth the satisfaction to build your own. It took me about 2 weeks night after night.

[Konrad]

Thanks for the replies folks, I'll probably be getting some of that blue polystyrene to make some hills and what not. but...

I mean if you have the money Jus, why not get one of those realm of battle boards. It would save you a bit of time and would be fun to use for all of us.

Ahahaha, yeah, thats kind of what I was thinking. The spevna shall not be pleased. I'm looking at the price now and wondering if ikeda san can do me a better deal. I mean, its its light enough and comes with its it own carry case. I guess dice won't bounce around too much if you sand it and flock it all nice like.

Here I was thinking of furnishing my new apartment to be with a gaming board. Surprise... I'm moving to Nagoya. I'll have to weigh the options before I decide to get it or build my own because as you all know, key money, plus upfront rent, consultation fee, not to mention penalty fee for leaving current adress and a cleaning fee is staggering....Not to mention I owe the Japanese pension office a grand or 2 in back pay.

ah, but the game board is so cool!

Congrats on the new job. We at the Evil Empire will miss you.
And just build your own terrain. I mean that's a ton of money for some plastic crack. Modular 2x2 sheets of blue foam. I've been thinking of doing something like it myself. Mordheimy/cobblestoney on one side Necro/40K/techy on the other.

[jus]

@konrad: many happy returns

ok so, is a 5 by 4 table good enough? There are some relatively cheap 5 by 2's at a store that im interested it, so I was thinking of getting 2 of them and being done with that, so I can start work on terrain. It would have been better if it was 6 by 4...but needs must.

[pdfitzg]

I've built multiple tables and boards for 40K and own several mats.

In a pinch, sheets make a great snow scape with bowls and such making buildings.

Mats work well, but you still need something to put them on and they end up curlings or with creases.

I once built a foldable 4' X 8' board out of 2" thick, 2' X 4" foam sections. Only had access to the crappy white foam, so used a lot of latex primer to protect it from knicks, made the hinges out of duct tape and went around the 2" edges with two layers of duct tape. Then painted and flocked it. Folded down to 2' X 4' by 8" and only weighed less than the Realm of Battle board. Of course, was featurless and it never failed that the biggest guy in the group would try to lean on it, which doesn't work out well. Actually held up great and I gave it to a friend once I started on my next project.

The next one was three wooden frams, 4' X 6' each. The could hook together with window locks and I build some end pieces so you had a continual wooden frame with whatever configuration you wanted. Built 2' X 4' foam sections on MDF and went to town on making perminent terrain. Lakes, castles, farmland, hills, etc. Also made some 1' X 4' MDF cut outs that could fit in the frame and around the boards depending on the configuration giving a great playing area. I just set all of this on cheap fold up tables from Costco. Huge project, not portable unless you have a truck, but awesome gaming table that I proudly made myself. Left that with one of my best friends when I had to move from Hawaii. Hope to have an opportunity to play on it again.

So now I picked up an Ikea dining set for my basement along with a Realm of Battle set. For the table, I wanted something that could stay out, be presentable, and multi-purposed. On the board side, something I could pack up, slightly portable, and reconfigurable. Started painting the boards this weekend with a flat black acrylic wall paint. Cheap and effective. Hope to finish up the board over the week with my son. Great family project. Will let you all know how things go.

[Primarch]

@Jus
IMHO what you should get for gaming is the following:
First - A table. 6' by 4' ideally.
Second - A cloth mat. It's cheap, portable and will last for ages. It's also very easy to store.
Third - Enough terrain to play on. 25% of the table is a reasonable target.
Finally - Sculpted, hand made terrain boards. Simply because they will take longer and cost more than the rest of it to put together. Try to make about 50% more than you need for variety.

Terrain boards are really only useful if you want to have terrain below the surface of ground level such as rivers, trenches and sewers. Rivers can be done simply by having flat terrain sections and building up the banks a little. I'm not saying that terrain boards aren't cool, they ARE, but in terms of what you will get the most use out of, they are a little far down the list.

Just my 2 yen's worth. I will be more than happy to come and play on your boards when you make them. If you ask nicely, I can even give you a hand to make them. At some point in the FAAARRR future, I want to do a modular table myself. But right now I just dont have the space or the time.