MY FAVORITE TABLE FROM TEMPLECON 2009

This Khador themed table was hands down my favorite table to play on during Eternal War at TempleCon 2009. The watch towers were very cool. And I really liked the water feature with the footbridge over the top.

GAME BOARD MADE EASY

I made a very simple game board using some plexiglass and vinyl tiles. I went over to Lowes and has them cut me an apropriately sized piece of plexiglass and then I went to the flooring section to pick out some tile. When I returned home, I simply had to peel and stick the vinyl tiles and I had an instant gaming board ready for play.

Be aware that you may want to mix and match sizes of tiles in order to make it less simple to determine distances on the game board. If all the squares are 12" x 12" who needs a measuring tape?

HOTZ MATS

HOTZ MATS is a cool company that offers unique gaming mats. I really like the Western Town mat myself.

Check them out.

http://www.hotzmats.com/

MARTIN & JOHNSON BENCHWORK TABLES

http://www.martinjohnsonmfg.com/

Martin & Johnson offers benchwork that comes in 2' x 4' sections that can be arranged for model railroads or wargames.

THE BROADSIDES BOARD QUALITY CONTROL

Everyone will be happy to know that Monkey has been supervising the building of the Pirate ship that will be used on the Broadsides Board. Her job is quality control, of course, because we all know how cats are relentless taskmasters.

Work continues!

Stay Tuned.

THE BROADSIDES BOARD

My terrain building buddy, Monkey, is inspecting the pirate ship in the picture above.

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I had previously done a lot of work on the ship.

My wife cut out several strips of stiff carboard using a pattern. These were glued to the sides of the ship using a hot glue gun. Tp secure each piece I used between 4-6 straight pins pushed into the sides of the strip to simulate rivets.

This took a long time and was murder on my fingers.

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I spray painted the entire ship using a flat black. I then used a dull copper metallic spray paint to paint the cardboard strips on the sides. This type of paint dries with texture that makes it look "hammered." This was a feeble attempt to represent armored plating on the sides of the ship.

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I then focused on painting the deck. I used Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint. It is #20432 Nutmeg Brown. I used a large, inexpensive brush to apply the paint liberally.

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THE JUNKYARD ... POST #3

I started out by gluing another Lemax plaze piece to the first one. I angled it in such a way to suggesta staircase. I then started to glue the craft sticks into place. The craft sticks represent the abandoned railroad line. Then along the far side of the railroad line I glued in place several pieces of toys that would fuction as junk that the Gobbers collected over the years. I used Kinex Gears, Barrels, Plastic Sprue Chunks, Arms and Legs from Mechwarrior toys, and other cool bits. I also glued some small stones and rocks into place.

Now it was time for paint and flock. I used some left-over green texture paint that was old and needed using. This was simply to use up the texture paint as well as to cover up the "beaded" look of the white foam.

Next I spray painted the entire thing for a base coat. I didn't mind that the spray paint melted (or "ate") some of the foam. That was fine. Then I drybrushed the craft sticks and painted the rest of the board using craft paints. I then used the white glue to flock the entire board.

THE JUNKYARD ... POST #2

I had already glued the cake pillars into place in an attempt to make a raised demo board. The pillars were going to function as legs. However, I found out that hard way that the cake pillars were not strong enough or sturdy enough to do this. So I scrapped my original plan. However now I was left with a would-be demo board with cake pillars glued to it. So I figured I'd just make the best of it and make some kind of a board around the pillars. (The pillars were glued solid enough that removing them only caused them to break.)

So I decided that I'd build some kind of Gobber junkyard, with a now unused railroad line, that had cropped up on an old temple to forgotten gods of the Orgoth . Now, the Orgoth temples are dark scary places, but most of them are buried or raized to the ground. So I figured that the only things remaining might be a few pillars, and a broken staircase.

I started out by simply placing the large pieces of white scrap foam where it would fit on the board to fill space. Then I filled the remaining gaps and space by cutting the blue foam into blocks and gluing them into place. I placed a few jenga blocks around the edge to stop the foam from moving around as it dried. I also glued one of the Plaza pieces into place to function as what might have once been a staircase.

Now I was ready to add details and flock.

MAKING THE JUNKYARD ... POST #1

I wanted to make a small 48" x 48" WARMACHINE table that I could use for 350 point games and for demos.

Honestly, in the end the demo table turned out OKAY but not a nice as I had imagined. Maybe you can pull off something better than me! Give it a try.

1. These are the materials I used:

• 48" x 48" Plywood square. Use a thickness that will not bend.
• Plastic Cake Pillars
• Scrap pieces of blue insulation foam
• scrap pieces of white packing foam
• Elmer's White Glue
• Wooden Craft Sticks
• Sand
• Flocking materials
• Small pieces of toys to simulat debris and scrap metals
• Small stones and rocks
• Lemax Gargoyles
• Jenga Blocks
• Lemax Plaza System Pieces

THE BROADSIDES BOARD -- Post #1

When I heard that Privateer Press was planning to release a book called "Pirates of the Broken Coast" I started to plan out a game board that would simulate a ship to ship boarding action. I had the idea to take a 4x4 board and imagine it as being completely water. Then I could take two pieces of foam board and make two large sections of ships that would simulate two ships having completed a broadsides and now would begin the boarding assault.

Broadsides were quite different during older naval warfare, in the age of sail. An 18th century man of war like the HMS Victory had cannons that were only accurate at short range. The penetrating power of naval guns was mediocre; which meant that the thick hull of a well-built wooden ship could only be pierced at short ranges. These wooden ships sailed closer and closer towards each other until cannon fire would be effective. Each tried to be the first to fire a broadside, often giving one side a decisive headstart in the battle when it crippled the other ship.

Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion onto a ship's deck of people. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party. Boarding may be carried out during wartime by naval infantry in an attempt to seize and possibly destroy the vessel, or it may occur in peacetime by pirates and other criminals, or as a means of inspection by a nation's coast guard (or navy) to prevent piracy and smuggling.

Boarding is used in wartime as a way to seize a vessel without destroying it, or to remove its cargo (people or goods) before it is destroyed. It can also be used to aid in the collection of naval intelligence, as soldiers boarding a sinking, crippled, or surrendered vessel could possibly recover enemy plans, cipher codebooks or machines. For a boarding to be successful, it must occur without the knowledge of the crew of the defending ship, or the ship's defenses must be suppressed.

So you can see in the picture above that I have a piece of 4x4 plywood from Lowes and two sections of blue insullation foam board cut to size to represent sections of large ships. There will be a section of Deep Water between both ships. I will make boarding planks and cranes to allow from movement from ship to ship. Hopefully it will be cool when it is all finally finished.

END OF THE TRACK

Railroads are a major industry in the Iron Kingdoms.

Industrial spurs attract attention on every gaming table it's something different from the typical layout or map.

At track's end, a bumper, wheel stops, wedged or bolted ties or a simple pile of dirt usually keep cars from rolling off the end of the rail. Unless the track is new, spurs seldom have manicured crushed-rock ballast and shiny rail all the way to the end.
The last few feet before the bumper usually look a lot different than the working part of the spur. This area screams for additional detail because cars seldom make it this far. Besides your choice of bumper, add pieces of broken pallets, paper and cardboard scraps and some grass growing between the rails and ties. On older spurs, foul the ballast with mud or bury the ties in mud altogether. For really prominent scenes, add some standing water between the ties and/or rails. And don't forget weeds and small bushes.
For a finishing touch, paint the tops of the last five or ten scale feet of rail a dark rust color. If you're using a bumper with a striker plate, make sure to add some dark rust on the painted plate to simulate it's being bumped by a coupler knuckle.

S SCALE STRUCTURES FROM PINE CANYON

Downtown storefront resin structure kits. Cruising Main series 2: brick professional building or firehouse/garage. Resin walls, styrene roofing and window glazing, and cast detail parts. Available in deep (4-7/8" x 6-3/4") or shallow (4-7/8" x 4-1/2") footprints. Professional building: $64 for deep footprint, $49 for shallow. Firehouse/garage: $69 deep, $59 shallow. Shipping $6 for first kit plus $2 for each additional. Pine Canyon Scale Models

Pine Canyon Scale Models

2780 W. Beechwood Ave.Fresno, CA 93711

559-432-1913

MAKING A FOLDING GAMING BOARD

A key part of a great miniature game is having a cool table, or board, to play it on. It is challenging and sometimes daunting to gather up the material and put together a nice looking table. There's a lot involved but one of the first things you have to decide is whether or not the table is going to be permanent or modular. For those of us with limited space, a folding table is a good choice.

Here is a nice article from The Last Alliance written by Jean-Michael Bravo. The article offers a series of 8 steps showing you how to make a folding game board. The article is dedicated to the Lord of the Rings miniature game, but is relevant to WARMACHINE and HORDES in obvious ways. Check it out.

HINGES AT LEE VALLEY TOOLS

Click here to see a nice collection of hinges that can be used for your folding gaming tables.