Welcome to the first installment to "Terrain Boy's Guide to Better Tabletops". This article will focus on the different techniques and materials that can be used to create the basic tabletop onto which you would add trees, hills, buildings, etc… You may be trying to model the lush, green fields of Europe, the dry, arid climate of North Africa, the deep-blue sea, or even an alien landscape of the future. In all cases, the techniques described will work for you. I tried to arrange the article in order of simplicity. It just so happens that this mirrors the orders for ease of storage and cost. Hopefully, there is something here for everyone. Mats Army blankets, felt mats, and commercial game mats are probably the most common game boards found at conventions or in most homes. The low cost, ease of storage, and quick set-up/take-down make this a very attractive option. At a convention I recently attended, a rather nice display was put together using an army blanket with various natural foliage such as lichen, twigs and sand. The GM used sand to delineate the boundaries of a village, for the various roads needed in his scenario, and to make bare patches to help break up the green from the blanket. Lichen was arranged in circles to represent woods with different colored flocking (model railroad grass & ballast from Woodland Scenics) to provide variation on wood color. This is a quick, pleasing to the eye setup at a low cost. On the downside, the sand and flock will be wasted when the table is taken down, and it's not as pretty as some of the techniques described later. Geo-Hex makes a Gamescape Mat which I like a lot. It appears to be a 4'x6' piece of felt to which Woodland Scenics flock has been bonded. The mat is rather durable, but still malleable enough to fold or roll for storage. The mat can be purchased in nice desert and grass formats for about $35. It provides a more realistic look than blankets or felt mats and maintains that portable quality for those who take their games on the road. Painted Boards Painted game boards are easy to make if a little harder to store than mats and provide a more durable and stable game surface. Boards can be made from plywood, chipboard, and particle board depending on your budget and where the board will be stored. Plywood is durable and inexpensive, but warps a bit if there is a lot of moisture in the air. Chipboard is less durable than plywood, but resists warping a bit more. Particle board is extremely durable (and heavy!), a little more expensive, and holds up the best in most climates. I would recommend making a frame from 2x2 boards to keep the boards straight and help resist the effects of moisture in all cases. The boards can all be painted to represent the climate your scenario is trying to model. I recommend the first coat be a brushed on exterior acrylic latex of your choice as it dries fast and provides a durable barrier to the elements (and the drink your buddy spilled!). A series of colors can be added to represent roads, trails, gardens, and other areas pertinent to your game. A technique I've used when creating painted boards is first applying commercial textured paint. I use the find sand grain generously on the board, paint a medium coat of the base color, "wash" on a darker color of the base coat, and then "drybush" a very light color across the top. I've made numerous Sea boards that look great! You can see different depths to the water as the wash settles in certain areas, and the white drybrush really brings out the top of the waves. Apply a coat of polyurethane to the top to give a nice, durable, wet look to the water. Games Workshop now sells 2'x4' painted boards (actually, I think they are laminated) with their new line of terrain. They are very plain, but function well and store easily. Flocked Boards/Tables Another way to increase the realism and beauty of your landscape is to flock the boards directly. Painting the board is still recommended to provide the barrier against the elements. After the initial base coat dries, add a thin coat of Elmer's Glue diluted with a very small portion of water. While the glue is drying, use a shaker to "dust" the board with your favorite mixture of flock. After the first coat dries, use a spray bottle to add a 50/50 coat of Elmer's Glue and water to the surface and flock again. The thinned coat of glue will be absorbed by the first coat of flock and the last coat will bond to the first. When the thinned glue dries, you'll have a durable finish to your table top. I have also seen some tables flocked with different shades of sand instead of commercial flock. Each work well, and a combination of the two may be even better. Another tip is NOT to flock the whole board at once. Do it in sections because the glue may dry on the surface where you started before you can add flock. I have also thought about taking a combination of sand, flock and Elmer's Glue in a bowl to create a kind of "paste" that can be brushed on to the board. War Zone GTS is a company that makes flocked boards ready to go. They manufacture the boards in such a way that they can be folded like an accordion. This allows them to be stored in a closet or behind a desk without taking up much space. Modular Boards (Flat) Flat modular boards are designed to incorporate water and road systems with the ground in an interchangeable fashion without incorporating hills and trees permanently on the board. The boards can be stored easier than true modular boards while allowing them to be rearranged to form new terrain in various combinations. A set of diagrams later in this article will show different entry points for roads and water, allowing them to align in other formats later. This system is one of the more difficult to create. A plan of various boards you'd like to use is required before you even begin. Take in to consideration the scale of the figures you will be using so as to determine the amount of water & road one is likely to encounter. For micro-armor games you would see numerous rivers & streams while at a 25mm you might see one or two. Design the boards to the scale you most often play. Modular boards allow you to make rivers as they truly appear in nature. Over many years a river will slowly "eat" its way into the ground as sediment is moved with the rush of water. Modular boards will allow you to more accurately show this by the elevations of the terrain through which the river flows To make a river/stream, glue down a layer of ½" or ¾" Styrofoam (I recommend "blue" or "pink" board) to your base board. Using a knife or surform tool, carve your river into the board. An easier way (if you can handle the fumes) is to brush on contact cement to the area where you want your river. The chemicals in the cement "eat" into the Styrofoam giving you the same results. Apply textured paint to the river bed in both cases, and use the method I described above to model the water. Make your roads by flocking them a different color (or use sand). Remember, you MUST make sure that your measurements allow the boards to align when you rearrange them. There are two commercial entities that make flat modular boards: Geo-Hex is probably the largest manufacturer of finished terrain in the world. Their systems are sold through most distributors and are featured at conventions world-wide. One would pay quite a bit for their system, but I doubt you will fine the same flexibility for multi-tabletops anywhere. The only downside I see is that they use beaded Styrofoam which doesn't hold up as well as the extruded type. As long as you take good care of it, the system would be a good investment for any game club. GHQ's Terrain Maker system comes in three different sets of pre-cut hexagonal Styrofoam blocks. Each block comes unfinished and in 3 different thicknesses. Using the templates I supplied below, you should be able to create multiple types of blocks that can be placed in many layouts. Use the same techniques for making rivers, roads, and flocking that I described above. Again, the company has chosen to use beaded Styrofoam due to its price, but it is a solid brand of its type. Modular Boards (True) True modular boards have many pros and cons. Variations such as hills, cliffs, rivers, woods, groves, etc. can all be created giving a truly stunning tabletop. The baseboards can be created from 2'x4 ceiling tiles, thick "blue" or "pink" board, plywood, or any combination thereof. Cost can be quite high, but when you think about all the different variations you can achieve from, say, 8 different boards, it is probably one of the better investments for a game club. One of the big drawbacks is storage. Because of the varying heights, you may have to create custom cases or racks just to save space in your home or club. One might use "spacers" in between the boards to keep them from crushing each other. Travelling to and from conventions with the terrain may not be feasible either. If you can overcome these obstacles, true modular boards will offer some of the most spectacular settings for your wargames. Modular Boards Diagram Samples Below are samples that can be used when creating either Flat Modular Boards or True Modular Boards. They are by no means a complete set. Feel free to come up with your own system: Sand Tables The least portable tabletop is a sand table. Many of the "fathers" of wargaming grew up with sand tables before the model railroad industry created cost saving supplies such as flock & tree kits. Sand tables are essentially tables with raised edges which contain dirt, sand, and any other material the wargamer will use to model his landscape. Some tables I've heard about stretch from 6' across to 12' in length. The tables I've heard about are decorated with trees made from actual sticks with lichen and flock attached, flocked lichen for brush and various shades of sand for representing roads and even rivers. Hills are formed by molding the dirt in the table seamlessly with the rest of the terrain. Due to the heavy weight of dirt, figures, and wood, most sand tables are specially supported and in some cases are mounted on custom cabinets or shelves. The storage space can be used for various armies, rules, terrain features (buildings, etc.) as well as any of the equipment a wargamer might use. A well-made table with custom cases would be rather expensive for the average gamer, but a game club might find the investment worthwhile provided they have a permanent place to store the table. Don't even count on taking it to a convention. Yikes! (My next article will focus on modeling hills, cliffs, ridges, mountains, and other rocky terrain. I can be contacted via e-mail at: bstroup@gainesville-garrison.com. Please share some ideas on other game table setups. Appropriate credit will be given to submissions.) Commercial Contacts Mentioned: Games Workshop 6721 Baymeadow Drive Glen Bunrie, Maryland 21060 Phone: (800) 394-GAME Fax: (410) 590-1444 e-mail: custserv@games-workshop.com http://www.games-workshop.com/ Geo-Hex 2126 North Lewis Portland, Oregon 97227 Phone: (503) 288-4805 Fax: (503) 288-8992 e-mail: krs@geohex.com http://www.geohex.com/ GHQ 28100 Woodside Road Shorewood, Minnesota 55331 Phone: (800) 289-1945 Fax: (612) 470-4428 e-mail: customerservice@ghqmodels.com http://www.ghqmodels.com/ War Zone GTS 1400 Kra-Nur Drive Burton, Michigan 48509 Phone: (810) 742-8830 Fax: (810) 234-6259 e-mail: warzone@tir.com http://www.tir.com/~warzone/ Woodland Scenics PO Box 98 Linn Creek, Missouri 65052 Phone: (314) 346-5555 Fax: ?? No web presence at this time 2nd Installment: Hills, Ridges, and Plateaus Back to The Gauntlet No. 11 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com