for a while now I'd had 4 2ft square foam terrain boards for a nice 4x4ft playing area... sadly following several downsize house moves, I no longer had the space other than the floor - however good luck finding a level surface with these floorboards, the square tiles tended to follow their own inclination and a 2x2ft playing area just didn't really cut it... so I flogged them and bought what appears to have been one of the last Mat-o-War green mats going.... only at 6x4ft it was more than I'd ever need... cue another moment of inspiration from Silent Invader over on LAF and his notice board table (which was reversable)
so with a cheap cork notice board from eBay I set to work... first off, the corner pieces were not solid (I said cheap right?), so they were filled in with g/s and smoothed flat so I had a nice consistant edge - this is going to be stored upright, so the metal edging was essential... the new corners were then painted Foundry black midtone which was a good match for the original plastic and then varnish to an inch of it's life... next came the scary bit... I had planned to cut the Mat-o-War so I had 4x4 as a loose mat and then 2x4 going spare, but this project gave me a use for the 2x4 - it was just the thought of cutting possibly the last mat going was a bit daunting... this could be an expensive screw up... so I chickened out and bought a cheap grassmat from eBay...
this was glued in place, only when I was pressing out any airbubbles, off came the grass (see cheap again), eventually I had a brown board with green patches... not good... so back to plan B and I stripped the cheap paper mat off and cut the expensive Mat-o-War up... once commited it went on quick enough, but again I had a couple of bubbles in the mat despite my best efforts - however the sturdiness of the mat came into it's own as I was able to slice the bubble, insert more glue and press it closed with no sign of the cuts and no sign of the bubble... this was working fine until I had a glue accident and the top surface got a few splodges of UHU which, despite clean up, managed to still leave some dark spots when dry... but a cunning plan occured and with some scenic spray cement I added some static grass - with a very dodgy nozzle, this was more random than I planned and so there is more on there than needed, but it helps give some more colour and texture to the grass and helps match up with the terrain I have... this was kind of at the back of my mind, as I had thought about the exposed earth areas on my terrain and I didn't really fancy doing that to the mat...
so, there it is... a handy skirmish board, a little under 3x2 feet that can sit nicely and flat either on the floor or on my small painting table (when it's clear)... it should be big enough for the small games I have in mind for either Folk Horror or Doctor Who, although some distances may need to be shortened... I just need to finish more scenery - the three river bank sections fit nicely along the long side and by removing the dock area, the two sections fit on the short side... I have some dirt tracks in mind (again nicked from Silent Invader) and this has led me to think about a bridge section as well... we'll see...
oh, and I kept the cork board on the other side - I plan to use that for urban/industrial terrain...
