Building a Sector Mechanicus Table

[Frostglaive]

if this topic is in the wrong subforum, I apologize and ask that a moderator please move it.

 

Thanks to finally being able to move into an apartment next month, I figured it's time I get around to building the 40k table I've always wanted. The only problem is I've never done anything like this before. So I need a bit of advice.

 

Here's the plan so far:

 

- The game table itself will be 6'x4', split up into either 6 2'x2' tiles or 3 2'x4' tiles.

- Each tile will have set terrain built in, mostly drawing from the Sector Mechanicus line. The idea is my main army is AdMech, and I want the table to essentially be their homeworld (my apartment, my army, my table, might as well make it my army's home world).

- I want the tiles to essentially be modular. As in I can put them in any order, turn them however I want, and everything still will be able to match up. So basically just no terrain pieces from one tile connecting to another. This right here is why I'm leaning more towards the 2'x4' tiles instead. That way I can make bigger pieces of connected terrain.

- I'm going for a very terrain-heavy table. Enough so that it'd actually be a real hindrance towards vehicles but beneficial for infantry. Essentially going for a very large Kill Team table but for regular 40k.

--- Going off this point, I am considering making a second table (or at least double up on tiles) to allow for an 8'x6' table instead. That won't be for quite a while, seeing as how much this is going to cost me right off the bat. But if/when I get to this point, the second batch of tiles will be much more sparse in terrain and more friendly towards vehicles. Basically build a hive city first, then the next batch will be the outskirts or something along those lines.

- While I'm going for a lot of Mechanicus terrain, the planet/table itself is going to be a snow-covered world (think Hoth from Star Wars, but with a bunch of pipes and forges popping out of it). This is so the table matches with my models' bases (since again, meant to be their home world).

 

Here's what I need help with, since like I said earlier, I've never done anything like this before:

 

- For the actual tiles, should I use wood for the base or something else? If wood, is there any particular kind that'd work best?

- When putting the Sector Mechanicus terrain onto the board, should I just super glue it on? Nail it in from the bottom? Magnetize? What'd work best here?

- I should be able to figure this part out myself pretty easily (after making a quick trip to my local hobby store), but I figured I'd ask for opinions: so my model's bases use the Astrogranite Debris texture paint with a heavy drybrush of Privateer Press' Frostbite paint and the Wrack White dry paint. Since I don't think buying a bunch of Astrogranite paints for a 6'x4' table would be ideal, is there anything else similar to its texture I could use as the base for the tiles?

- While I'm not opposed to building an entire table plus tiles from scratch, I think it'd be more cost-efficient to just have a regular table with the tiles on top. So I was thinking to connect the tiles (so I wouldn't have to have a border on the table to keep them fit together), I could drill holes into the sides and fit pegs or magnets into them. You think that'd work? If not, any other suggestions? Or should I just build a larger table with a border around it to fit the tiles inside?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Maschinenpriester]

Hi Frostglaive!

 

Ive been building a table recently, and also thought about something similar.

I hope this helps you a bit:

 

I went with MDF-boards for a base, becaue i built a foldable leightweight table. In your case i would recommend mdf as a base, and 10-20 mm Hardfoam glued on top. To make everything more sturdy you could make a mdf Frame around it (To protect the foam from chipping), and then drill holes for Magnets in the sides, so everything snaps together nicely. (THis will basically be my next table). Using the Hardforme/ Polystyrene on top has the advantage, that you can make craters in it, and also it prevents the wood from warping if it gets wet while painting (happened to me).

 

An Idea I had for your case, to increase modularity, and make it awesome for killteam would be, if you have vertical terrain, to make some walkways you can just put from some platforms from one tile to another. And of courese you can always have some scatter terrain like loose barrels, and containers.

 

If you want to have some modular "Slots" for your terrain you can as heck course magnetize it. But from what i read you want some nicely integrated terrain, with rubble and pipes going everywhere - which is awesome. SO i would saym the best way would be to put some pins into the Hardfoam to give everything some more connection in case something ugly and unforseen happens to the tile at some point.

 

Good luck with your table! I hope you can poste some WIP Pictures ;)

[Major_Gilbear]

Marius Perdo has a log here on B&C, and he made this table... Is this the sort of style and density you're looking for as well?

 

In terms of how modular scenery is when attached to tiles, I would suggest doing a mixture. So maybe 3-4 tiles with a big fixed terrain piece on each, 3-4 tiles that are fairly terrain-free, and then some big (but loose) scenic items that you can place as you wish. After that, smaller items can also be loose for placing as you want, or to help create possibilities for objectives. If you have a couple of extra tiles (say eight 2'x4' boards for making a six-tile board), then you have further flexibility in setup by varying which ones you choose to place.

 

To fix the tiles together, strong magnets (set into the tile edges, and taking care to have them aligned to suit tiles being rotated between games) works well, but you will probably want to tape the edges of the tiles as well to help the magnets stay put and not tear themselves out.

[Kinstryfe]

For the terrain, for a couple reasons, I would try to keep a lot of it separate or magnetic for a few practical reasons. Among others:

 

What if your second apartment can't accommodate it being assembled full time?

How much harder it will be to store a 2'x2'x2' piece of board versus a 2'x2'x6" board?

If a piece gets damaged, it'll be much easier to repair the terrain piece than have to work on a whole board.

Magnetized terrain makes the whole thing much more changeable from battle to battle, and opens up options for types of games and armies. (For example, a vehicle heavy army may simply not want to play if your table is permenantly set to anti vehicle mode.)

Magnetizing would also allow you to incorporate new or different terrain if you feel like it later without needing more base boards.

 

So I would say 2'x4' boards could be good (I think that's 48 possible orientations?), as they'd allow you some flexibility in setup instead of necessarily needing a full table under it. Alternatively, maybe a mixture of that and 2'x2' boards so you can mix it up further. I'd definitely keep some of the boards with removable terrain, though as the Major said, a couple with big pieces could work really well as stationary pieces.

 

Whatever you do, make sure to post pics for us when you're done!

[Chaos Lord Tom]

Hello brother,

 

I'm also in the process of building a board with sector mechanicus building for 40k. Based on my recent experience, the idea of building foam tiles encased in mdf is really brilliant as it will solidify your tiles and will avoir any warping than may happen frequently with MDF and blue foam. The idea of magnetizing the tiles is also very appealing. It may be a lot of work but will make a much more sturdy board and the fit between tiles will be closer. Unfortunately, this is not the way I chose because I was not able to source 2 cm large wood pieces.

 

I would also supplement Kinstryfe post about tiles size, it will be much more manageable to work on 2x2 tiles than on 4x2 and you need to think about storing the tiles between games or even moving them, you do not know what life is made of ! My first board was made of  1x1 tiles and going for 2x2 this time has changed a lot of my working habits.

 

Lastly, I chose not to glue or fix de the buildings or structures on the board. I think I will simply put them on as it will allow much more flexibility to allow for various scenarios, neverrtheless I plan to magnetize some of them to allow easier connections (between thermic conduits for example). So far, I have 2 manufactorums (ordered before they went out of sales and the kill team announcement....), 3 ferratonic furnaces, 2 alchomite stacks, 1 galvanic magnavent, 6 munitorum containers, one haulers set and a set of thermic conduits. I also plan to build scatttered terrains pieces on bases to add a bit of density still allowing flexibility.

 

Here's the link to my wip post : http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/348064-industrial-board/. Fell free to comment, I'll be very interrested in shring our views and ideas on these exciting projets.

 

 

To fix the tiles together, strong magnets (set into the tile edges, and taking care to have them aligned to suit tiles being rotated between games) works well, but you will probably want to tape the edges of the tiles as well to help the magnets stay put and not tear themselves out.

 

 

What tape would you suggest Major ?

[NovemberIX]

I'd like impart a few opinions and lessons I learned while doing my table builds (you can see them in use if you click On "For the Honor of November" in my signature). Some of it may apply, some of it may not work for your situation, and apologies if that's the case.

 

 

- The game table itself will be 6'x4', split up into either 6 2'x2' tiles or 3 2'x4' tiles.

 

I'm assuming this point is for the base of the table, not the play surface but what it sits on.  I've cut up 2'x4' sections using 1/4 inch MDF, and had used them on a 6 person dining room tabl, they work well enough with only a bit of movement, I wouldn't recommend anything over a 6 inch overhang from the edge because then it becomes a bit too easy to shift things around even with the weight of the MDF. One positive for doing it this way is that it does stack up out of the way pretty easily, and with some effort you can make a quick and simple play surface on each side (say green or gray to differentiate between locations.

 

- Each tile will have set terrain built in, mostly drawing from the Sector Mechanicus line. The idea is my main army is AdMech, and I want the table to essentially be their homeworld (my apartment, my army, my table, might as well make it my army's home world).

 

I have two opinions on this, the first is that I'd recommend against it, simple because after a time you're going to want to massively change up layouts and having the terrain mounted on large tiles will take away a lot of that modularity. The other is that if it's done well on smaller tiles (say 1'x1') the modularity trade off would be worth it if done really well. Also, storage will become an issue, I can store the majority of my terrain out of the way in IKEA Kallax shelf cubbie, the one thing I can't store is my Relicos Militarum (awesomely built by Honda!) since it's on an mdf 2x2 tile. The weight and size of the tile means I have to keep it on it's own table generally.

 

- I want the tiles to essentially be modular. As in I can put them in any order, turn them however I want, and everything still will be able to match up. So basically just no terrain pieces from one tile connecting to another. This right here is why I'm leaning more towards the 2'x4' tiles instead. That way I can make bigger pieces of connected terrain.

 

This sorta goes back to the above point, the larger the size, the less modular pieces will be, and solidly mounting buildings to tiles further removes modularity.  I'd actually like to recommend the Secret Weapons Miniatures Tablescapes tiles. They are an amazing play surface that are endlessly modifiable (in 2 plus years I've never played on the same table layout twice) and are incredibly well made.
 

- I'm going for a very terrain-heavy table. Enough so that it'd actually be a real hindrance towards vehicles but beneficial for infantry. Essentially going for a very large Kill Team table but for regular 40k.

 

Heavy terrain also makes for great pics!

 

--- Going off this point, I am considering making a second table (or at least double up on tiles) to allow for an 8'x6' table instead. That won't be for quite a while, seeing as how much this is going to cost me right off the bat. But if/when I get to this point, the second batch of tiles will be much more sparse in terrain and more friendly towards vehicles. Basically build a hive city first, then the next batch will be the outskirts or something along those lines.

 

Going back to the Tablescapes tiles, you could feasibly combines certain different sets to make even more variations. I use both city set together, and I'm planning on getting the rolling hills tiles to go along with my forgotten city tiles, I have used the forgotten city tiles with my city ones too, but there is a height different between tiles (city tiles are generally taller to accomodate curbs and sidewalks)

 

 

- For the actual tiles, should I use wood for the base or something else? If wood, is there any particular kind that'd work best?

 

MDF is gonna be the material you want to use, though you will want to seal it if you live in an area with a lot of humidity to prevent any sort of warping.

 

 

- When putting the Sector Mechanicus terrain onto the board, should I just super glue it on? Nail it in from the bottom? Magnetize? What'd work best here?

 

It'll depend, if you want to be able to change things up frequently, glue the terrain to a small hard board sheet (canvas boards make great terrain bases and come in a variety of sizes) Glue is generally gonna be your fastener of choice though no matter what you put the "buildings" on.
 

- I should be able to figure this part out myself pretty easily (after making a quick trip to my local hobby store), but I figured I'd ask for opinions: so my model's bases use the Astrogranite Debris texture paint with a heavy drybrush of Privateer Press' Frostbite paint and the Wrack White dry paint. Since I don't think buying a bunch of Astrogranite paints for a 6'x4' table would be ideal, is there anything else similar to its texture I could use as the base for the tiles?

 

you could use wall putty then spray a texture paint over it, or wall putty and fine grain sand sealed in with matte clear. I used a rustoleum texture paint on my MDF tiles and while it is a very fine texture, it does give a good fair bit of detail.

 

- While I'm not opposed to building an entire table plus tiles from scratch, I think it'd be more cost-efficient to just have a regular table with the tiles on top. So I was thinking to connect the tiles (so I wouldn't have to have a border on the table to keep them fit together), I could drill holes into the sides and fit pegs or magnets into them. You think that'd work? If not, any other suggestions? Or should I just build a larger table with a border around it to fit the tiles inside?

 

One of the members here had made a diagram of how to magnetize tiles in a way that they'd always connect on every side. Pegs would probably end up breaking in half or damaging the tiles from use. Still, this is where I recommend the tablescapes tiles again, they use a plastic clip system that keeps everything nice and tidy. A 6'x4' tables worth of tiles will fit into an IKEA Drona Bin (13"x15"x13") as well.

 

As for making a table, I made two using four IKEA Linnmon tables and two  6.5' x 4.5' 1/4" MDF sheets. In all the cost was around $200 USD, but I could have further minimized it by using just the Adils legs with the Linnmon tables (which I used as mounting points for the legs and to fasten the MDF to) being replaced with some 2x4 supporting structure. Admittedly my tables were made so I could fit another Linnmon table underneath and pull it out for books and other mechanical uses, and because I was already buying a lot of IKEA stuff at the time, so I was a little lazy.

 

Terrain wise I spent about as much on Pegasus Hobbies Gothic buildings, which would be about the density of terrain you're looking for. I'd recommend looking into some of folks who make MDF terrain as well. Though again, I'd say mount building on hard board, scatter terrain can either be unmounted or put on small styrene sheets.

 

[Major_Gilbear]

 

To fix the tiles together, strong magnets (set into the tile edges, and taking care to have them aligned to suit tiles being rotated between games) works well, but you will probably want to tape the edges of the tiles as well to help the magnets stay put and not tear themselves out.

 

 

What tape would you suggest Major ?

 

Something like a good quality carpet tape, or even good quality duct tape. It's strong, fairly cheap, and is often available in black so it doesn't show too much. :)

[Honda]

Mo (aka NIX) is our terrain meister and always does an incredible job for our games.

 

I think some of the key points I've gotten from the feedback:

 

• There are a number of ways to approach this.
• Smaller tiles (2' x 2') give you more flexibility.
• It's not just about the building, it's about the storage as well.
• You'll want to change/add stuff after the initial build. Make that easy for you to do.
• Unsaid, but important. Have fun making your table!

 

Cheers,

[Semper Fortis]

As NovemberIX said, make sure you seal your MDF. I would add, even if you're not in a high humidity area. Drinks spill. Brush cleaning water tips over. Your board will warp and that could ruin your day.

 

You might try googling sealing MDF. My experience over several decades of building terrain is that acrylic paint doesn't constitute sealing. Acrylic has enough water in it that it will warp MDF. I use a rattle can polyurethane sealer. It dries to touch quickly enough that you can seal both sides and then lay it up on its edge to dry. Don't forget to hit the edges, too. I also do a second coat because the Lord of Change is usually in charge.

 

Once you get the board sealed, you can then paint, texture, or cover with foam to your hearts content. Have fun!

 

edited for stupid fingers

[Chaos Lord Tom]

Semper, would you mind telling us which specific polyurethane sealer you are using ? I can’t find anything corresponding.

Thanks

 

Edit : I think I found something but I'm a bit reluctant on buying a spray because I want to seal blue foam and I'm afraid the propellant will melt the foam.

[Red_Shift]

With the specifics of sealing wood - use watered down decorators pva. I have used this on outboard to allow tiling and it will be more than sufficient for your purposes.

 

With regards foam, you can buy celotex rigid foam insulation in sheets and cut into it. The advantage being that it's quite rigid of its own accord. It is fairly pricey. I've just kitted an attic out in it so I had loads spare!

 

If you want to make flooring or wall bulkheads, use window packers. They come in the hundreds for less than twenty quid and look great.

 

Good luck and remember pics!

[Semper Fortis]

Semper, would you mind telling us which specific polyurethane sealer you are using ? I can’t find anything corresponding.

Thanks

 

Edit : I think I found something but I'm a bit reluctant on buying a spray because I want to seal blue foam and I'm afraid the propellant will melt the foam.

Sorry the response took so long. I had to go hunt down my can. I use Rustoleum Triple Thick. I buy it at Walmart, but I'm in the States. Don't known if there's a similar product there in France.

 

However, I definitely wouldn't use any rattle can on foam, unless you want to melt it into a chaos-ified mess. I use it strictly on bare MDF scenery, tables, and the like to prevent warping.

 

Hope that helps and good luck!