X-wing table

This week my wife got a gift from a friend as a thanks for some family portraiture.

That gift will make the best X-wing table, even though that is not its intended use.  (I hasten to add that my wife's friend works for PB, so did not pay full price!)

As you can see the silk screen process is nearly perfect, and the scale of the death star is good as well.  The picture is very close to 3x3 feet (dimensions given on the website are for the mailing box).  Unlike many canvas prints, the interior is solid, presumably to support the LEDs and wiring.

The only disappointing aspect of this picture is that it has stopped blinking, but one can certainly live with that as a game table.

On a related note, I was finally able to play (well, games master) a session of X-wing, and aside from R2-D2 keeping Luke alive indefinitely vs. "Dark Curse", it was great fun.

Middle Earth terrain mat

I have long wanted to have a proper games table, fully done up with modular terrain tiles, undulating surfaces, hills, forests, etc. Such a table could be used for many games, and would look lovely during play, which is really the goal. However, lack of time, money, and space have conspired together to prevent this from occurring.

A terrain mat, on the other hand, gives many of the benefits of a bespoke terrain table, and has the advantage of being much cheaper and easier to store (as one simply rolls it up). While it does not have movable components like a modular table, nor does it do integrated hills quite as well, it does have the ability to have items places under it to create terrain contours, which can be good for rolling terrain. There are many manufacturers of terrain mats, ranging from painted felt, as exemplified by Hotz mats, to latex, as exemplified by Zuzzy. Both types are somewhat pricey, however, you certainly get a quality product in the end (and with Hotz you can get a double sided mat for $20-$80 more depending on type and size).

Yes, this please (for 10mm)

Another option is to make your own mat, which of course trades a certain amount of for some (potential) savings in terms of cost.  Several times I have seen picture of people using canvas mats covered with acrylic caulk and flock, and they look quite nice, and remain flexible. As an added bonus, you can mount the canvas over rubber foam tiles (like for the floor) and then pin mount trees or other terrain to the board for a more realistic look.

more of a 3d look for larger scales

Here are some tutorials to make them:

Classic for 10mm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76935015@N03/sets/72157629346115756

Using rolls of canvas
http://tobispaintpot.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-new-horizon-tutorial-for-flexible.html

Using more of a three dimentional aspect:
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=31358.0

Artist canvas
http://finiatures.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-terrain-mat.html

Desert
http://1000footgeneral.blogspot.com/2012/11/desert-wasteland-wargame-terrain-cloth.html

In researching for this, I was reading about the Battle of Five Armies (Bo5A being the game I am most likely to get going on this terrain), and while looking at maps of the battlefield, I have decided that it is similar enough to the layout for the Battle of the Hornburg to make the mat work for both with some small adjustment.  This should also be usable as a generic Dirtside or FoW table as well, as grass and dirt are fairly scale agnostic (and some large scale scatter terrain, trees, or fur fields will help as well for 15mm games).

So, at some time in the (hopefully near) future I will build one of these mats, and it will be glorious.  The only trick will be getting a game on it...

Space Ship Interiors

Due the popularity of Space Hulk, and Alien/Aliens (one may be more popular than the other), space ship corridor systems are quite popular.  People want to take the flat tiles from space hulk similar games, and translate them into three dimensions to add even more color to their games.  (and probably because they want their little dolls to have better displays).

A new entry into the space corridor system market is GameCraft, which by all appearances is exploding into the scenery scene lately.  They have recently released a system of Space Ship Interiors, which have all of the usual hallways, intersections, and small rooms you might expect, plus some detailing tiles, improved doors, and some exterior details which give a nice look to the walls.  Also available in a smaller size too, for 15mm figures.

The genius part though, is this, they have a micro sized planning kit, which has multiples of all the various pieces, and allows you to plan your layout in advance, and all the pieces are numbered, which match numbers on the normal corridor pieces.  And it is to scale.  Very smart.

Someone put some serious thought into this system, and were I to buy a set of space corridors, this is the one I would go for. Obviously the price adds up, but it looks great... and I do already have all those stormtroopers...

Foamular-tastic!

A chance glance at the Lead Adventure Forum subforum Workbench, led to the discovery that I can in fact buy extruded polystyrene in California, and better, locally!

Owens Corning Foamular sheet insulation, available in varying thickness, can be had at several local Home Depots, just not the one right by me.  As you are probably aware, this stuff is great for terrain, model building, and terrain building, as it is fairly strong, easily worked, and takes textures well.

Unfortunately the 2" thickness is a bit pricey, at $25 a sheet, but on the plus side I would only need two sheets to populate my currently strictly theoretical 6'x6' table.  1" is far more reasonable at $13.67 a sheet, and the thinner sheets are in a similar range.

Inspiring

Still not much going on due to the move and refitting the house to make it

However the wife and I agreed that we could set up a new game table in the rumpus room.

Here is an example of a digital enabled table, using a wiimote and a video projector to run a virtual tabletop for DnD or similar games. This would be awesome for games, as it allows the DM/GM/Storyteller to create pretty much on the fly, and for dungeon crawl type games it may be perfect.

I think we will probably go with something more traditional, but golly, this thing has potential...