A layout for gaming!

[Michi]

I am playing on rather silly table tops for years now due to the lack of space for a proper gaming table. My recent move allows me to make some new plans or make some old ones come true. Some may have noticed that I am rather keen on railway models. Hence I decided to put up a mobile and foldable layout that will be used as gaming table as well (or vice versa).

As there are already many different models I will make it as generic as I can. There will be Wild West trains running as well as British and German or even colonial railways. I plan to build the appropriate typical buildings and scenery to make the set ups believable, but that is still a long way.

All started with some Roco H0 gauge curved points that I cut down to make them look like narrow gauge track by removing every second sleeper and adding the cut away pieces to their outer ends.





I removed the manual switches from the ballasted track bed and adapted them to the ballastless points. I also soldered all rails together and added wiring to make the trains run electrically.




Then I gave the rails a basic chocolate brown matt enamel coat and a lighter brown one to the sleepers.
These were drybrushed light grey twice and the rails got a leather brown acrylic wash.








I bought some H0 scale ballast today to make some tests for proper track beds.

[OSHIROmodels]

The rusting on the rails works well 

How big is the table you are doing?

cheers

James

[Sangennaru]

That's interesting! =) it's a great start!

[Michi]

How big is the table you are doing?

120x240cm, folds to 120x120cm. Iīll probably add a static grass mat to the back and paint the upside tarmac grey, that will let me get away with a three in one gaming table - desert, city and grass.

[Michi]

Ballast, yet unpainted, unweathered, unwashed. I still have to decide to leave it as it is. Narrow gauge trains donīt run so fast that they produce a lot of brake dust, hence brown wouldnīt be appropriate. Perhaps some black for oil and soot...




The board got raised edges that will allow some space for the tracks when folded:




Actually it isnīt 4ft to 8ft as stated before, but 1metre to 2metres... :blush: This means I have to cut away some of the track ends to make the radius fit to the curve.


The board to come:

[Galland]

Aha, this is interesting, especially since you are involved, I will surely follow your work here

[Michi]

I painted the boards with a thick layer of resin paint to protect the plywood from moisture. The watered white glue for making the ballast track bed didnīt affect it at all. I concealed the mechanisms for the points with some wooden planks cut from coffee stirrers and added some GW badab black wash to the tracks where oily engines come to stop and where the points are greased.









Now I am thinking of adding a turntable, but am not decided on how to start that.

[OSHIROmodels]

The ballast is looking good 

Are you going to include leaves on the track (the wrong sort  ).

Would the turntable work as a separate element that could be attached to the run off track in picture three and four?

cheers

James

[Michi]

Would the turntable work as a separate element that could be attached to the run off track in picture three and four?

No James, he turntable will be installed on the center board. This is how I started:

First I bought a double sided copper plated resin sheet for electronics. It had to be 10 inches square.


Then I scratchbuilt an aid to make it circular.


I scraped off the copper from the center line to separate electric polarity.


Finally I soldered some H0 scale rails on it.


The longest tender engines fit tightly, but they fit.

[OSHIROmodels]

Looks good 

cheers

James

[Papa Spanky]

I love the idea of combining model railroading and mini gaming, but have always been too busy to try. I will have to keep my on on this thread...

[Steve F]

Looking very good - the engine is a fascinating example of the wargame mini aesthetic applied to model railways.

So is a model railway layout used for wargaming a choo-choo terrain?






Sorry.

[sundayhero]

Weathering effects (for both rails and engine) are really well made ! 

[Michi]

After 2 years of doing nothing on it I finally managed to finish it within two weeks and can show the photos.

This shows the board sanded and soaked in white glue:


Complete board, dried and ready for painting:


Painted in basic chocolate brown (three steps of highlighting drybrushes to follow after drying):


Finished board (drybrushed, the occasional static grass added and rails cleaned):








Switches to cut currency on the loops for marshalling more than one train on the layout:




Power intake:


And this is what it looks like when folded:


You can witness that it works here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hzZ_bffpzM&feature=youtu.be

[von Lucky]

Well done!