Are you Board yet...?

Since completing the cliffs I have turned my attention to the base boards for the city of Nottingham. As I am sure I have mentioned in previous posts my standard gaming table is 1.5metres wide by 3metres in length (5ft x10ft old money – being a Brit we tend to move between standards quite happily). This board is covered with 50cm squares (9mm mdf) that have been covered with the GW battle mat.

The advantage of these boards is that they can be removed and stored easily when I am using the table for terrain projects. Equally they can be used to create a floating battlefield – eg running out of room on a flank – just slide the boards one way and add another row. Terrain such as rivers, coasts, roads, woods etc all stand on top of the boards.

More recently I decided that I would add to the standard boards some new ones that could be used as town  & village squares. So a trip to B&Q saw the purchase of some more boards. Note I got all these cut instore – you get a much better cut and finish.  I originally intended for 6 square boards but in the end settled for 3 large 50 cm boards, five boards (25 x 50) and two boards (25 x 25). Each board was then prepped with a coat of PVA and left to dry for a few days.

A second coat of PVA was added and sand, grit and ballast was spread across the board. Once dry the excess was shaken off onto a large sheet of newspaper – this can then be recycled for future use. Once these were fully dry they got a top coat of black acrylic and then dry brushed with a succession of browns dark through to very light.

With added grit

The finished article..

 

Surface close up

 

I was intending to put some flock on these but in the end decided that I would leave them bare given that all the terrain features which will be placed on top all have a bit of greenery. Afterall these boards will reflect the churned ground of the city or at a push dead ground.

 

Talking of which lets build it with the new boards...

First up the boards alongside my green mats versions...

 

 

Add walls....(Games Workshop Fortress Set)

 
Add buildings - these are all from Conflix

 Add remaining buildings - these are all from PMC

The following shots all show the boards close up...they make a big difference...

This is what they used to look like on the old green boards - much happier now

 

 

Just need to finish painting all these Medieval Civilians and then we are good to go...project complete...finito...