Which material to use for a gaming table?

As we're planning to stop playing in the forest around Mordheim, my friends and I want to build a city-table, similar to the one Tom uses.
But I don't know what kind of material you used, is it styrofoam?
On the styrofoam I have, you can't carve the copplestones so nicely.

So, whats the trick?

Aaaah! This is a topic I could go on and on about But I'll try to be brief.

What you need for your gaming board is usually called "Styrodur". It's a very homogenous type of styropor, extremely light, yet very hard. The cool thing about it, is that it is furthermore very easy to cut with a sharp modelling knife and very easy to engrave/carve. Every large home improvement store has it! It usually comes as roughly 0,6x1,2m plates (pink or white) and is used in construction to insulate walls in buildings and houses.

Here in Austria it is called "Styrodur Isolierplatten" and I bought it at OBI, which is a store that I think exists in Germany aswell. Maybe that helps you Erkwin.

Another cool sidenote: If you buy 2 plates, you (usually) have a perfect 1,2x1,2m Mordheim table, the perfect size for a 2-4 player gaming board! (That's the size of my table).

It's rather cheap too! I bought mine at 5€ a piece. So 10€ in total.

In my opinion this stuff is worth it's weight in gold! The nec plus ultra for making gaming tables.

I hope I was able to help you (and give you the "trick"). Let us know about your progress!

I bought a 4'x8' piece years ago, planning to build a mordheim board. I never even started it . I've found it 3 weeks ago and settled to carve the ±40 000 stone that will cover the finished board. I've spent like 3-4 hours working on it and I've done around 30%. It takes soo000 much time, and then I'll have to paint it too. This is a huge project, even if it's simple.

I know styrodor, I even have a lot of it in the cellar(although it is blue ), but it is has a, well let's call it wabe-structure(mir fällt es schwer das auf Englisch zu sagen, also nochmal auf Deutsch : Es hat eine merkwürdige wabenförmige Oberfläche), in which you cannot carve copplestone very well.
Maybe I should have a look at another store, since OBI excist in Germany as well, as you said. And the stuff is also called Isolationsplatten or something like this.

Great then!

Don't forget to show us pics as soon as it starts to look like something ;)

@Wabenstruktur: Alles klar. Es gibt auch verschiede Arten von Isolierplatten. Du musst einfach mal mit dem Fingernagel hineinfahren und schauen ob das Styrodur "weich" genug ist um es ritzen zu können!

Hey a'all!

I am going to make a Northern Wastes board.. sand, snow and stuff..
So I am wondering how to do it best. I bought four wooden plates years ago but they were way too heavy in the end. Is styrodur really that good? I am worried that it might break too easily. I don't want my board to break after its first couple of uses. What are your opinions?

Have a look at this, in my opinion a very good instruction:

http://www.sweetwater-forum.de/

Then go to "Gelände-&Modellbau" an after that "Bau von Geländeplatten", the first post.

Thanks a LOT, Erkwin! Thats a huge help!

(@others: it's in German only - just so y'all know)

Yes, it helped me a lot building my first table(which still is under construction for over half a year )

Errr. I wish I could undestand this.

LOL! Thanks Erkwin...

It's the idea that counts

cianty wrote:

I am worried that it might break too easily. I don't want my board to break after its first couple of uses. What are your opinions?

Sorry i didn't see that line.

Don't worry, it won't break. You'd have to do it on purpose to break that thing.
I mean, I don't know how angry your players get when they lose or what you mean by "uses". Usually I "use" my board to place and push miniatures around on it that weigh around 50g.

Just don't stand on your table and you should be OK

Erkwin wrote:

Have a look at this, in my opinion a very good instruction:

http://www.sweetwater-forum.de/

Then go to "Gelände-&Modellbau" an after that "Bau von Geländeplatten", the first post.

I wish my wife got those German lessons she's been wanting... =)

Here is a pic of my table (WIP). I tweaked the constrast and brightness so the carved area shows up good but it has screwed the colors :/.


You can see that i'm ±65% done.

The piece of foam I used is not ideal - there is a lot of holes and the borders are pretty much screwed, but painted it will be nice - and you can always argue that Mordheim is not supposed to be clean and perfect . I plan to add wood all around it to solidify the table and hide the borken borders.

The dark area in the top corner is a 'test-spot' where II tried to paint to see what the finished product would look like.

A zoom with some figs to show the scale.
I bought this rat-ogre a weeks ago and it was already painted - this is why the base is erm* plain*. I'll repaint it soon.

As soon as I work out how to do good figs pics I'll show you my warband.

Nice! Be sure to show more pictures once you've finished the table.

Yea, that is great. Keep up the good work.

What is the name of the material you used?

Thanks

It's a 4'x4' extruded polystyrene piece. It's normaly used for house insulation. I'd have liked to have it cut into two 2x4 piece for easier storage but now its kinda late. I'm too scared to mess it up.

JohnYoung wrote:

I'd have liked to have it cut into two 2x4 piece for easier storage but now its kinda late. I'm too scared to mess it up.

Same problem here!

But don't worry, there is always a spot to put those plates (even if it means you have to pile 'em up on top of a cupboard).

Admin Tom wrote:

Tom,

Another Board Question: Now that you've had this "sewer" thing sunken in to your board for a while (I assume), what's your opinion of it? Is it useful? Do people ever use it?

Thanks,

Hmmm actually, since I am always trying to use as many levels as possible (above ground) people don't use the sewers much. We used to have wyrdstone counters there though, and that's when they would get used more...

The problem is that these "sewers" are too few. You can simply avoid them by placing your troops adequately and moving around.

It would have been wiser to build a real canal system. like for example in Venice, Brugge or Amsterdam.

hmmm... there's an idea...

or maybe sewer lines with holes in the streets from where they can come out via ladder...

this was an idea me and my partner (in mordheim) though of doing.

@tom: Yea... that's what I figured

@hellfoot: Haha, I was thinking about that a couple nights ago... Making "man hole covers" around your board, and have a separate dungeon board that corresponds with the man-holes... But I decided it would start to create more annoyances than coolness... so I scratched it =)

1 of my new year resolutions is to make my board. I'm planning on making 4 2foot square sections. or should I do 2 2x4 sections?

If you plan on glueing your buildings to the table, try to have as many sections as you can in order to randomize the tiles (and thus the terrain) for each game.

If you are planning a less realistic but more versatile table à la Warhammer (i.e. Board + loads of separate buildings) try to have as few sections as you can. The less cracks and junctions there are, the smoother the table looks (also on photos!).

Since with only 4 2x2 sections there is not much to randomise, I'd say go for the second solution and make 2 4x2 boards.

As you mentioned sewers and such- prepare to cry guys, I nearly did when I saw this:
http://gidian-gelaende.de/Material_HP/Wolfgang/WIPmortheim/album/index.html

Takes some time to look at it all, but it is worth the efford.

*sniff sniff sniff*

OMG thats Awesome nice link Erkwin!!!!!