Matzaklr Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Hi all, I've never made a 40k gaming table and I am looking for some advice. I already built the table, its pretty basic. It comes apart in three sections so its a little bit more portable. I was wondering if anyone had some good suggestions for the folowing things: 1. How often do you move/breakdown your table and would you recommend building colapsable legs for easy storage and or transportaion? 2. What is a good base color to go for on a table that normally will play Orks, Crimson Fists, Space Wolves and Necrons? 3. Have you played on a table that had a particular feature that you thought was a great idea and you wish every table had it? Here is a picture of where it stands now. I'm looking for a good 40k project for the weekend to good, fast responses/questions will get a quick response back from me. http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5762 Thanks in advnace! Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellios Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Hi all, 1. How often do you move/breakdown your table and would you recommend building colapsable legs for easy storage and or transportaion? I Never move the core of my board ( 6 X 4) although, however if I left all the bits out all the time it could be (12 X 6). If you want to move it a lot and it has its own legs then being able to fold up will certainly help... If it isn't much trouble for you I would recommend this even if you haven't got plans tp move it often. 2. What is a good base color to go for on a table that normally will play Orks, Crimson Fists, Space Wolves and Necrons? Any board is good for any of those races, although Space Wolves are often associated with snow and Necrons with wastelands... However I would suggest making an urban board... So a I guess a grey would be thje base colour (although I've seen urban boards done in other colours such as red). I suggest urban because armies clashing through a ruined city is so much more epic than armies clashing through farmer browns field. Also if you ever want to play an expansion like city fight/cities of death... you are half way there... Finally cities provide good options for multi-level terrain which is often missing on other boards but which can in my opinion improve the gaming experience. 3. Have you played on a table that had a particular feature that you thought was a great idea and you wish every table had it? I've seen loads of cool boards but often the coolest are set boards with all the terrain fixed in... However the downside is after so many games the terrain remains the same! So if you have just one board I would suggest making all your terrain removable as this allows you to switch things up... Oh on this note if you are sticking something like foam into your table to provide the base you could paint each side a different colour. Anyway on removable terrain... So you can switch things up and it is easier for storage and in some games you can destroy terrain under special rules provided in some of the expansions like apocalypse and cities of death... so removable terrain helps there as well... As for a specific feature... That's all about making each terrain piece your own but making all of them look like they belong together on the board and not just a random selection of buildings. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2906129 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 There is no way that I have the time or patience for building a giant fixed terrain game board and since this is my only good playing surface I would get bored with it after 3 games. I plan on just using moveable terrain, mostly building ruins but I want to get some other debris to strew around the surface too. Currently working on a couple of "Chemical Plant" type peices and I just figured out that the coffee can will make a perfect quanzit hut/shack thing, check my spelling in quanzit. I also have some other terrain peices that are small but servicable. I need some hazardous and difficult terrain though to make things a little more interesting. Anyway, I have a spare bag of concrete in the basement, I think I willl use some of that with some greyish brown paint. I might have enough leftover house paint laying around to mix together. I do need to go out and buy some sand, and I want to build some troughs for the long sides of the board too. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2906415 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSpike Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Due to limited space, we put our table away after each game. It's a 6x4 board that splits into two, and bolts on to a smaller table that has removable legs. The whole thing slides behind the sofa when not in use. The trim round the edges does come un-fixed every now and then, but is easy to glue/nail back on. If you have the space to leave it up, fine, but being able to flat-pack the whole table for storage or transport is very useful. We have one side grey, one side green. It might be better if each side was not so plain, so mixing different shades can help, in generic, subtle patterns that don't mean anything and don't detract from the terrain pieces. I REALLY don't like a table to have fixed features. I don't want to play EVERY game on the same hills/buildings/roads. Modular 2x2 sections to place on the board can work, and you can build many of them. Or just have lots of terrain pieces, with similar sets. e.g. I have a whole load of Cities Of Death terrain, all based on the same black'n'white flock, lots of 6" circles with green bases (great for objectives - touching the base = 3" claim distance) and a bunch of un-based buildings, barricades, etc. A mix of low cover, LOS-Blocking, difficult and impassible terrain is a must. Dangerous Terrain we have not used much of, but as you are doing a Chemical Plant, then leaking barrels, unstable vats of bubbling liquid, creaking pipes that could burst at any time sound good! One thing I did in Epic Scale was two pieces for each Terrain Piece - one whole, one ruined. If a piece got blown up, it was swapped for the Ruin! (Also, you can start with the ruined pieces instead!) Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2906428 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 BlackSpike - All great comments and I will keep them in mind this weekend while working. I hope to have some pics posted tomorrow night of any and all changes! Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2906483 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 OK, so I took everyones advice and this weedend I got done with the gutters and the first layer of sand base. It was looking like the sand was not sticking to the shinny side of the masoneite but I will have to give it a few days to dry out. Looks pretty cool in person, the pics don't do it justice. Hopefully before the end of the week I will get a chance to shake off the excess sand and see what stuck. A little about the parts - The gutters are the real structure of the table. They have a couple of stringers that connect to the legs via dowels. The table surface just sits on top of the gutters but there are some blocks on the shelf that the gutters created that keep the board square and right where it needs to be. The legs are the only thing that don't really break down, but if I have to the gutters and board can mount to any flat surface. Pretty crafty I must say. I bought some grey latex primer. I will use that the do the base coat and then I will have to figure out what I am going to do from there. Comments and suggestions? http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5807 http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5808 Sorry about the phone camera pics, can't find the Nikon. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2907135 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSpike Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Looking good (if a little blurry! :) ) The gutters look useful for dice, casualties etc! I like the lip around the table, can help stop dice/models falling off! Ours is too low (1/4" !), low enough for dice to spill over, high enough to catch on stuff when moving it! Worst of both worlds! :lol: And the sides look big enough to decorate with Chapter symbols, kill-markings etc! :lol: While a good surface makes a big difference to the look, I'm not sure about sand. Will it not scratch paint-jobs/knuckles? Or will it be coated with something (PVA?) to smooth it off? We just painted the MDF board with emulsion! Would be interesting to see it disassembled! Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2907727 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elric the Silvercoat Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 How did you make the table top? Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2907774 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valerian Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 That table looks great! Very well done, indeed. Recommend you put a sheet of plywood down underneath the table (on those supports that go from leg to leg, if you understand) to give yourself a big shelf for putting extra terrain pieces and army cases on. This way you're taking advantage of the space under that table, while keeping stuff up off of the floor. If you notch out the 3' by 6' plywood to have it just rest on those supports, and don't nail it down, then you can remove the shelf when you want/need to break the table all the way down. My second recommendation is just that you ensure that the table is nice and tall. Nothing is harder on an old back than spending several hours leaning over a table moving models around. I hope this helps. Valerian Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2907787 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 Thanks for teh supportive comments! BlackSpike - I didn't consider the sand scratching the models. Hopefully there will be enough paint and varnish on it to help with that. Otherwise I'm going to have to invest in a couple gallons of PVA to cover the entire surface. EtS - The table is made with some 1x4 ribs for the 4' lengths and 1"x6" cut on the table saw down to about 5" for the 3 - 2' sections. The table breaks into 3 peices making it easy to turn the board into a 4'x4' surface or to make is easy to stow. For the gutters, I used 1"x8" planks with 1"x4" caps. The Gutter are what really hold the table together and join the playing surface to the legs. The surface is just 3/16" masonite. Valerian - I plan on getting a shelf down there, just didn't have any extra ply laying around. You have the right idea though and pretty much exactly what I was thinking. Took off the first layer of sand and what remained was pretty cool so I decided to go with it. You cant see much in this picture but there is some good variation that came out pretty random. There are good flat spots for structures and terrain peices and some other lumpy bits for variety. http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5827 Then I painted on the first coat. I used a rustolium grey latex primer in a can. I only had the pint size so I didn't get total coverage but I'm not terribly worried about it. The sand coming through looks good and anythign still remaining exposed after all the paint coats will get varnished over anyway. http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5828 Comments? Suggestions? I'm thinking about what coller to do next. Probably a darker grey heavy drybrush, or airbrush if I can get my compressor connection figured out. Then a light drybrush of black followed by a white super dry brush. Should give it a good ashy devestated look. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2907999 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 Put some more paint on the table yesterday night. I was going for a shadow/point of light effect so I used black spray around the border and on one side of the minor variations throughout the table. Then I went over the table with a weird brownish grey from Krylon from the opposite direction of the black spray. After that I did a dary grey mix out of the airbrush on all the real flat spots. Tonight, I plan on hitting it with a heavy dry brush of the grey primer that I have a little left over from the very first coat. After that I will hit it with a light drybrush of a lighter grey almost white. Here are the pics: http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5863 http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5862 Still pretty dark and I looked everywhere for my Nikon and still can't dig it up. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2909484 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elric the Silvercoat Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Looks great, the sand affect really came out awesome and you can really see the diffences with the paint on it. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2909605 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 26, 2011 Author Share Posted October 26, 2011 Did the heavy dry brush with the original grey primer that I had first put on the table. It was the lightest grey that I had and I can't seem to find any white paint anywhere in my house. Must be hangin with the Nikon. Anyway, turned out rpetty cool. I think its going to dry a little darker so I plan on doing a normal drybrush of some even lighter grey if I can find the white paint and the Nikon. Here are some shots with some close-ups so you can get an idea of what the surface looks like. http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5872 http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5873 http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5874 Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2909903 Share on other sites More sharing options...
treadhead Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 looking great so far mon, if i was you I'd go for modular terrain all the way on this beastie :) I kind of went both ways on mine (three 2x2 boards) fixed pavements with movable buildings as it was meant to be a city board that could be stored easily http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/th_gameover.jpg http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/th_shasowatchesinhorror.jpg http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/th_turn2objective3.jpg http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/th_turn2objective3a.jpg http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/treadhead2/th_sacredground.jpg sorry about the tau presence these are from a battle a while back Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2909909 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 27, 2011 Author Share Posted October 27, 2011 The funny thing is that it doesn't look nearly as good in person as it does in the pictures. Goes to show you what happens when I don't use the Nikon. I'm not totaly thrilled about it yet, it still needs some more work but its good enough for play this weekend. Maybe I will make a house rule that the looser has to drybrush! Thanks for the props on it though. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2909975 Share on other sites More sharing options...
NemFX Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Are you going to build scenery into the board? Or make scenery on movable parts and just put them on top of your board? Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910035 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSpike Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Looking good! :blush: Sounds like you're putting enough paint over the sand to take off the sharpness! Having a game on it will let you see what improvements you can make! :) (And I like the idea of a painting forfeit for the loser! :) ) Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910294 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elric the Silvercoat Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 I don't know if you have notice but is it a solid top piece now? It looks like you can't take it apart now with out cutting the top surface. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910331 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 27, 2011 Author Share Posted October 27, 2011 NemFX - Yes I am in the process of building terrain pieces that are moveable/placeable There are a few spots on the board that only smaller/narrow peices will fit without a shim or something under it to keep it stable, but that is OK. Most of the pieces that I have are pretty small anyway. BlackSpike - Thanks ETS - Yeah, it's all kind of glued together and in one big piece right now, and I will have to cut it to get the pieces to seperate. No biggie, the jig is installed so if I have to break it down into the three pieces they will go right back together again. Also, the real bumpy parts are on the seams so if I take out the middle piece and stick the two ends together they will mostly line up. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910624 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valerian Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 I was going to also make another recommendation to you about your table, but it is way, way too late for you. I'm only going to bother to post it now, just in case someone else comes along and wants to emulate your work. First, I think your table is terrific; great carpentry and craftsmanship. However, I would have left the suface of the board alone - no texturing, no painting, etc. Just leave it as an untouched table-top, which would have also been more conducive to your being able to break the table down into its elements as needed. Then, I would use 2 foot by 2 foot MDF sections as my actual playing surface. Glue on sand for some texture, then paint and seal; you can even do both sides of each board for different themes (i.e. one side mostly grey for city/urban board and the other side tan for desert, etc. These 2' x 2' sections can be modular, so that you can get a different layout, depending on how you arrange them, and they can be stacked on the shelf under the table when not in use. Regards, Valerian Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910649 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roesor Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 ....considering I have a king size bed with a battle mat on it. This would be heavenly even if it was built by a blind plummer who thought he was building a spaceshuttle. Loooking good man :P Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910728 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 28, 2011 Author Share Posted October 28, 2011 Valerian - Hind sight being what it is... I have come up with an alternate plan that will work super fab! instead of mdf I am going to use polystyrene. It is tongue and groove so it will snap together nice and it will sit inside the frame so it won't move around! Then, ditto paint and sand both sides whatever. Now I will have 3 tables in one! Roesor - Thanks, what about just getting a flat sheet of 4'x6' and laying it on the bed when you want to play. It stows easyly under the matress when you aren't! Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910804 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valerian Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Valerian - Hind sight being what it is... I have come up with an alternate plan that will work super fab! instead of mdf I am going to use polystyrene. It is tongue and groove so it will snap together nice and it will sit inside the frame so it won't move around! Then, ditto paint and sand both sides whatever. Now I will have 3 tables in one! Awesome, I'm definitely for it. Pictures afterwards, as you keep making progress, please. I made some modular 2' x 4' gaming boards 5 or 6 years ago (3 of them that can go together in several different arrangements, depending on how I turn them). They just have one side as the playing surface, as the bottoms are rimmed with some 3/4" by 3/4" wood strips for support and to keep them from warping. They've got those felt furniture pads at the bottom on the corners, so they don't scratch the surface of whatever table (usually the too short dinner table) I set them upon. I would love to have a gaming table like yours to nestle them into, but my carpentry skills are subpar to pull that off. Luckily, my wife's uncle is up for the task, so I need to get him to build me one some day. One mistake I made was going with a recommendation to use kitty litter as the textured surface, instead of sand; the result looked great, but actually lead to too much texture for gaming easily, as models wouldn't balance well. Lesson learned for next time when I do it over. I'll try to remember to take a few pictures of my gaming boards, and post them on this subforum sometime. Regards, Valerian I'll try to Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2910858 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matzaklr Posted October 30, 2011 Author Share Posted October 30, 2011 Played my first match last night on a regulation sized table, on a table that I made. It was cool. Played a 2600pt game of Space Wolves vs. Crimson Fist. Annialation, CF's lost by one point (me), so looks like I will be doing some more dry brushing. I need to paint all my pink terrain too, so I guess its something to keep me busy today. Here is a pic of the table while we were counting points: http://www.40kforums.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5963 Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/240675-new-gaming-table-advicehelp/#findComment-2912297 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.