26/02/2014

Making a gaming table

I'm currently making my own Bolt Action Table. You might have seen the woods, hedges, ploughed fields and the 4ground buildings I have put together recently but of course I also need a table to put all this stuff on.
This is the first installment of my work in progress
-I have 3 pieces of hardboard of 125x62cm and have secured them on a wooden frame.
-Then I have managed to secure a GW battlemat after searching everywhere. This battlemat is just too small to fit over the three panels.
-To overcome this I have cut in some roads (1 main road of cobblestone and some dirt roads). this way I could stretch the battlemat over all three panels.
-I came up with a design for the roads so that I can make a lot of different lay-outs. all three pieces fit together regardless of how I lay them out. I can flip ,turn and lay them down(as long as the green side is up) in any order and all the roads still connect. I tried this out with my design in scale on three pieces of paper.
-I then glued the battlemat down on the panels with some PVA glue.
-The roads were still bare but I filled them up with some acrylic paste in which I have made tire tracks. Because it's acrylic I can paint them and it stays a bit "rubbery"and flexible so it won't damage easily.
next is making the main road out of "cobblestone" wallpaper and paint it up. I'm also going to make some different colour grass patches here and there to break the monotony.
Have a look at the pictures and I'll try to explain what I did.
1;First is the design stage. I already had a general lay-out in my head how I'd like the table to look and fit together. I cut three pieces of paper in scale of the table panels and drew the road plan on it. I made sure all three panels would line up no matter how you turned the panels individually or in what order you would lay down the panels. The red lines indicate where to cut the Games Workshop battle mat as it would not fit the panels.

2; Screw down the panel on a wooden frame, this will keep them from warping and keeps them nice and sturdy.

3;I have 3 pieces of hardboard of 125x62cm and have secured them on a wooden frame. The screwholes are covered with wood paste. 

 4;The Games Workshop battle mat doesn't quite fit but after the roads are cut it will be fine. I glued the battle mat down with watered down PVA glue.

5:The roads are cut, the mat fits! result!

6;The dirt roads were filled with acrylic paste and some sand in which I made tire tracks. The acrylic paste can be painted once dry.

Cheers,
Seb

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