I made a battle mat in two hours

[Nord]

Starting with one of these from Aldi



And ending with it looking like this



Not tested in anger yet, but I am reasonably confident it will not make a mess every time I unfurl it.

Not hard to do. Spray some browns and grey patches on. Add some flocks. Soak with dilute pva. Done.

More details on my blog:- https://paintsngluenrocknroll.blogspot.com/2019/03/battle-mat-on-cheap.html and https://paintsngluenrocknroll.blogspot.com/2019/03/battle-mat-day-2.html

[Hupp n at em]

Man, that looks GREAT for what seems like relatively little time/money invested.    Pretty interested to see how the durability/rollability (word? maybe?  ) turns out. 

[grant]

Looks really good!

[SteveBurt]

Did you take those little plastic hemispheres off the back of the mat?
I have a couple of these Aldi mats which I use as table protectors.

[Nord]

No, didn't do anything with the back. I will be laying it over an old blanket, which I reckon will make it pretty sturdy.

[mcfonz]

Biggest issue I had with these were the fore mentioned bobbles on the back which can prevent it from sitting nicely and can mean it slides about a bit.

The other issue I had was the size. I think it's about 2.5' wide isn't it? Which is ok perhaps for smaller scale games but to make a larger table you'd need a wider strip which I had difficulty doing before. Might be possible to staple it down to some hardboard or mdf.

[Golgotha]

I have 2 and place them on a blanket so they do not shift - They are brilliant and well worth purchasing especially at the price and what has been done here makes them even better...

[SteveBurt]

Biggest issue I had with these were the fore mentioned bobbles on the back which can prevent it from sitting nicely and can mean it slides about a bit.

The other issue I had was the size. I think it's about 2.5' wide isn't it? Which is ok perhaps for smaller scale games but to make a larger table you'd need a wider strip which I had difficulty doing before. Might be possible to staple it down to some hardboard or mdf.

The mats are 6' x 3'

[Tim Haslam]

Excellent.
I may just nip down to Aldi...

[Roo]

Takes a bit of time and makes a helluvah mess but the bobbles are easily shaved off with a blade so don’t be put off if this is seen as a problem.

Inspiration a plenty based on the above, looks well smart.

Cheers for posting.