New table, new terrain! [Part 3]

Okay, so we've had these ruins for quite some time, so they are not technically "new" but they will seem like new when I get through with them! Step one is basing them all.  I think we have a total of 12 plastic buildings.  So this will be no small feat.  So we collected most of them here for viewing.

Next we had to cut up the hardboard which was purchased with the rest of the table supplies a while back.  My brother did not come with us today so I was forced to have Andy and Kevin help me maneuver the sheet over the table saw.  As a result, some of the edges are not the straightest possible though they will do fine for terrain.  Kevin also had a knack of pushing the material into the blade and pinching it, of course he would not admit to it.  The problem mysteriously vanished when Andy held the outside edge. Hmm...

Once I had the strips of a couple widths cut I could manage most of the further cutting on my own and measured and cut out the pieces for each building.

The next step was to take the buildings off of their old cardboard bases, clean them up a bit, make any repairs, add any extra details, or anything else that needed to be done.  So in letting Andy use my hobby knife he decided to use it to block a smack for some wise talk.  Absent mindedness is not a good thing when handling sharp objects.  There's a reason I used all the power tools.  So, I get a nice 1 in wide gash in my wrist.

After I tended to my wound I finished what I could on our chapel.  It needs a roof still, and the second layer shall be removable so that the interior can be accessed.  I will probably also make some pews and an altar and such for it.

The buildings got glued down to their new hardboard bases and that was pretty much all the work there was to do.  Of course we had the Stanley Cup game playing on the laptop, if you could call it a game...

So, we finished up with a game of Dust: Warfare.  150 pts Andy vs. I, Axis Vs. Axis.  We played corner deployment, secured area, and the one where you get to the enemy deployment.  In the end it was a draw.  We each killed one enemy unit of Battle Grenadiers with neither of us making the enemy's deployment with any units.  Mostly due to the lines of minefields we laid everywhere.  It was still fun, the fortifications were an interesting addition, and we caught a mistake or so more in how we have been playing.

Next time we're there I will be cleaning all of the buildings, as they are rather dusty.  I will also try to do most, if not all of the groundwork and flocking.  If I have time I will add any extra details and to the base coats of spraypaint.  We'll see.  I think painting all this terrain is going to take even more time than building the table.  I still have other terrain to finish, like the sentinel piece and a ruined land raider.  Some of the older pieces need a retouching as well and we still need more scatter terrain and barricades.  A lot of work to finish, so stay tuned!

Building a Gaming Table [Part 5]

So, it's been a few weeks since the last table update but that certainly does not mean I was not working on it.  The week before last was just not visually productive enough to really warrant a dedicated post.
That Sunday began with the observation of some technical difficulties.  The resin shrunk much too much ended up looking like the picture below.  It lifted from the bottom in some places, shrunk away from the right side and lost much of its gloss.

The main work was applying the clearcoat to the table.  I put down three coats during the time I was there and used about a can and a third.  Each coat only took a few minutes to do but I waited about 30-45 minutes between each coat.  The matte finish was sufficiently matte and it did not alter the appearance of the table's surface in any appreciable manner.

After that was done I used some water based water effects to fix up the river.  I mixed in some green and brown paints to murk it up a bit, overall I actually prefer these colors to the original blue.  It really looks like an algae/waste filled river.

After I did that is when Kevin and I played our first game of Dust: Warfare, which has a battle report here.  These guys are my Heavy Recon Grenadiers watching over the bridge.

This last week began with some more water effects to texture what was done last week.  Next it was on to adding some static grass to the wasteland.  I used a dark green and a dark tan grass put down with some watered down Elmer's.  I mixed the two colors up and added them in different patterns to make it a little less uniform looking.

I left the big clumps until the glue is almost dry, the additional weight helps push more of the grass into the glue and helps more fibers get stuck well enough to give better coverage.

While that was drying I began work on the cup holders and my brother got to work on staining the wooden parts of the table.  Looks really nice.

Here's a closeup of the cup holders, gotta add some more support to the front and round the edges so that shins and drink holders are both better protected.

I also ended up adding some water to a few of the deeper craters.  I guess it has rained recently on the tableland.  It will help models stand better on them and help reduce tilts of the dice.

Here we are with the pretty much finished urban side of the board.

Now there's the wasteland, the excess grass has been vacuumed away and it's ready for some gaming!  We played a couple more games of Dust, but I can't wait to really play some large games over the entire thing.
There's still some work to do, but this table is pretty much done.  Most of the work time will now start going into upgrading our terrain set to be more practical and better to look at.

Building a Gaming Table [Part 3]

Now for another installment of this series.  Got a lot of work done this week, lots of glue and sand and paint involved.  I got to do some work on Sunday as well as Thursday of this week, unfortunately I forgot my camera both days, fortunately Kevin has an iPhone and it takes a decent photo.

First up the clay lifted a bit due to shrinkage,  I had not really run into this problem using this clay on smaller areas and I bought it since it said minimum shrinkage.  However, most of the areas I put it lifted and separated completely from the foam.  Nothing a little bit of Elmer's glue could not fix though.

So, after those were all glued down I got to work mixing up some sand and various sizes of ballast to make the flocking mix.  Also mixed a couple of bottles of Elmer's with some water to glue it down with.

Then it was time to paint on the glue and pour the sand mix in as well.  It's important that you tape off the sides before you start this because any wetness on the sides would have kept the tape from sticking and would interfere with staining later on.

Whenever I do flocking I tend to really pour the stuff on, it's better to have too much than too little.  The added weight helps keep it in place while the glue sets and helps more flock actually get worked into that glue.

This leaves us with a table that looks like a sandbox.  For this night we only flocked up to the edge of the urban portion in preparation for the roads.

Speaking of roads, some 1/8 inch foam tape is used to form the borders for the next step.  I had a layout figured out and measured and marked all of the road edges.

Next it was time to pour the roads.  For this I use water putty since it dries faster and stronger than plaster of Paris. It weighs about the same and is also a little easier to work with in cases where there is sculpting involved.  

I used a tape knife to level and smooth out the putty to fill the designated areas, in this case plaster may have been easier to work with.  This is where we left off for Sunday as the hour was late and we ran out of putty before I was done with the roads.

Thursday began with cleaning out a shop vac and then vacuuming up the excess sand mixture from the previously flocked side of the board.

It took far too long for my liking and was far too loud, but still faster and more effective than sweeping.

After that I finished pouring the roads and we waited for them to dry up a bit.  Once that was done it was time for some battle damage.  So the Stukas were called in for a bombing run.

This is where the road vanishes and the wastes begin and so the end of the road has got to be a bit rough.  The hammer ended up being a mistake as it caused so much vibration that this section of road lifted from the foam.  Again, lesson learned, again Elmer's fixed it.

The end of the derelict road.

I made an assortment of sizes for the road damages, some autocannon some strafing runs etc.

Then we flocked the rest of it.  I also added some debris around the craters on the roads.

Next, I painted up the far end of the board.  I used spray paint and it went very quickly, I also painted some of the terrain I made awhile back and flocked along with the board.

The urban part of the city got a black base coat and some gray variations.  The road is going to be gray, so that got a pretty solid coat of gray.  This picture makes it look as if there is more urban than dirt, but this is not true, it's pretty close to 50/50.

Next week I will begin dry brushing the flock and cleaning up the edges of the overspray.  I'll also be adding details like road stripes and the like.  Got a lot done but there is still plenty left to do!

Building a Gaming Table [Part 2]

And so the adventure continues!
First up this week I added the sides to the table.  This consists of 3 1/2 inch pine board, screwed into the plywood, which will form the border of the table and a lip to keep stuff (dice & models) from sliding off of the table.  It also added a lot of rigidity to the edges of the board.

Next up, for further support we added trusses to each end of the table where the most overhang was.  It took away whatever slack that remained.  We also filled all the countersunk screw holes with some elmers wood filler in preparation for staining next week.

Next,  it was time to install the foam-board.  Turns out the people who make this have completely forgone all reason and sized the boards to 2ft and 1/8in.  Leaving us with an extra 1/4in of foam when we tried to place it in the table.  Absolute madness.  I cut out the slot for the river on the near half of the board, you can see it's in 2 separate pieces there, and we set to work gluing it all down.

For extra heresy repulsion the table will have this permanent Aquila beneath it, which will hopefully help with my dice rolls. [Probably not]

Now, we wait.  The glue had to dry some before we [I, mostly]  did anything else.  So we put some useless books to use weighing it all down.  While the rest of those people were talking and slacking off I began to draw up a more formal plan for the table going onward, which I left at Kevin's house, so no pic.

However, you can't just work without having any fun, and so the paraLOLogram was born from the cut out river section.  Andy here is a very skittish lad and is using it for protection.

Once the glue set a bit I set to work adding some light texture to the board using some air drying clay. It's very subtle and isn't noticeable yet, but I will hope it will break up the flatness of the board once it is finished.  I also installed the arches where the water will go underground, you can sorta make them out if you zoom in.  Smeared the clay over the whole board in hopes it will be a better surface for the flocking to stick to once it comes to doing that.  Did the same to some hill/dunes we made a while back.  Was a dirty job, as you can see from my hand.

That's it for this week, come back again next week for another table update.

Building a Gaming Table [Part 1]

For many years we have been talking about building a table for our gaming group.  About organizing the godawful amount of miniatures in our host's basement.  Well, last week I finally made up a list of stuff I may need to build a table and Kevin, the person whose house we play at, said he would bankroll the whole thing.
Not that this hasn't all been done before.  But today I called him up and said we should go to Home Depot and buy this stuff.  So  that's exactly what happened.  We bought it and loaded it up in and on my Jeep.

A few feet of twine later and we were all set for the ride back to his house.  Not a very comfortable ride having  to hold the stuff on the roof down when it's windy and 30 and you have no room to move about thanks to the 2x4s, but hey we got back safely.

So, as I began to cut up lumber, as seen below, Kevin and another gaming buddy of ours, Andy, began the process of organizing the hordes, or hoards, of models and armies spread throughout the basement.  So much for playing some BFG.

Kevin's father has a good selection of tools and is kind enough to let us use them, with one rule, no drinking and power tools.  Reasonable enough and not something we were planning on mixing anyway. First thing to do was make the legs, because every table needs legs...

Here you can better see the frame, still needs a bit more under the plywood though.  Some drink holders too, and a shelf there on the bottom for storage of something.

And the top, we've got some nice 2" pink insulation foam as the gaming surface and some 1"x5" pine board for around the outside. This will leave a nice border and keep what's on the table, on the table. Still a lot of work to be done, but it was very nice to finally get started on something like this.  We're going to leave the board at 8'x4' for when we decide to play larger games, but will have some surface feature which will mark off 2' from either end for a 6'x4' play area as well.

To be continued...