Saturday 2 May 2015

Board silly.

One of the projects I've been working on over the last week or so is a new 3'x3' gaming board for the Batman Miniature Game. 

When I first got into BMG around 2 years ago, it was the first time I had properly been into a skirmish game, and it dawned on me that I only really needed a small surface to play a game on. As such, I made a small 2'x2' board, out of MDF and edged it with quadrant. I then sprayed it with textured paint and then painted it black. I then drybrushed it up to grey, to create a tarmac/asphalt effect. 

I then discovered the great range of laser cut MDF buildings by Sarissa Precision. They do a number of great ranges of buildings for tabletop gaming, and I plumped for the City Block range. Once these were assembled and painted up, I had a rather neat looking play surface, that I could easily store, like this:


This has been great, as I've been able to load it into the car and demo the game at various locations across the area. 

However, because it's a smaller board, you tend to get stuck into the action rather quickly, and that makes games finish quicker than I would like. Also, Knight Models recommend a 3'x3' playing area, so I decided to make another board. 

Here's a few shots of the build process:

Adding the quadrant round the edge.


After the textured paint had been applied. This was a can of stone effect spray from a DIY store. 


Painted!



A close up of the drybrush effect. This was achieved using some tester pots of grey emulsion. Only a few pound a piece, and they do the job nicely. 



And finally, some shots of it populated with some terrain.



It's a little harder to store now, but the extra space is worth it for games I think. I want to add more terrain, probably a container storage area that is fenced off, and I'd like to add some walkways to add some variation in height (and for somewhere for Batman to Batclaw to!).

I have another sheet of 3'x3' MDF, so I think I'll build another board at some point, but this time have a bare earth/grass look to it. Knight Models are planning on releasing a stunning looking Arkham Asylum laser cut MDF building, and I want to base a board around that. 

Now all I need is the time to play the game and a worthy opponent! 

Cheers, 

Dan

5 comments:

  1. It's funny, I'd always thought your board was full sized from the pictures. Mine is 4x4 and since I've got my gaming room (box room), it's too big and needs cutting down.

    Have thought about some more varied heights amongst your buildings?

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    1. I know, it's deceptive. I didn't realise how much bigger the 3x3 board was going to be until I put it together.

      At some point, I'll order some additional floors from Sarissa. One large floor and one small floor I think. TT Combat also do some cool elevated walkways, which I want to get soon too.

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  2. Nice work on the board. As for 'other boards', what are you doing with the underside of that one? What about trimming some kind of 'grass' mate to fit?

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    1. I like that suggestion! I have another board that I plan on making into a bare earth board. Need to pick up a few supplies before I do.

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  3. Excellent looking board mate. Been working on mine, it's a bit more colourful as I'm going to use it for pulp city as well.

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