I bought a shed load of 30cm x 30cm x 5mm mdf squares from Poundland in their sale a few weeks ago, for the bargain price of 50p each. They have a couple of holes in them where the string was attached and a cheesy motto on the front but otherwise they're perfect as modular terrain boards. A fellow history teacher and keen wargamer, Mark Backhouse, the mastermind behind the excellent ECW Siege of Portsmouth show participation game, has already turned one of his into a prototype terrain board for 3mm games and it looks really, really good:
I plan to use mine for 1/600th scale stackable modular terrain for WW1 and modern air wargaming, with a section of the Western Front being the first idea. This would be used with Tumbling Dice aircraft and the Wings at War rules for the First World War, Duel of Aces. The other plan is to do some modern terrain for the Flashpoint Baltic Target Locked On! project. I'm sure there are many other uses that I could put them to as well including 3mm micro-armour terrain or 15mm off world sci-fi terrain, for example.
One idea that I had while doing the ironing this morning was to scale up the old Games Workshop board game Battlecars to 20mm and use converted Hot Wheels cars instead of the cardboard counters and game components. This is something I've long been thinking of doing but, now I have some mdf square terrain boards, it is now a feasible project rather than just an idea. As you can see, the boards would divide up into four adjacent 15cm x 15cm squares, with the diagonal lines used for movement and shooting, as in the original rules (I didn't quite get the marking up right but you get the idea).
I also thought about using 28mm figures and 1/43rd scale die cast cars but, as I already have some converted Matchbox scale post-apocalyptic vehicles, I might as well stick with 20mm. The terrain squares and dropped weapons templates would be made from laser cut mdf shapes, with structures, wreckage, trees and scrub modelled on top. I would probably cover the top of the boards with a layer of card or even sandpaper, as the mdf soaks up paint like a sponge, with the movement lines marked on in pen or paint.
Another idea would be to do a naval version of Battlecars, along the lines of that terrible film with what's his name in it, set in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max at sea setting. I have some of the super little 15mm swamp boats from The Scene, that I can use for this, as well as scratch building some craft out of bits and bobs. I could add terrain templates to represent rocks, shoals and islands as well as making some junk platforms for the boats to manoeuvre around. I think this would look great and it wouldn't be difficult to modify the rules to a nautical theme.
...all a bit theoretical so I'd better get back to the ironing!