Making a desert/arid terrain mat

[TacticalPainter]

Been working on a colonial project for The Sudan and it's inspired me to have a try at making a terrain mat. Not quite as daunting as I thought it might be but still a few lessons to learn. I thought I'd document the progress in a blog post which you can find here https://thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2021/09/making-desert-mat-for-sudan.html

[Barry S]

Great looking mat.

Thanks for the writing up the tutorial.

[marianas_gamer]

Great blog post and a very effective battle mat. I will remember your advice on sprinkling the sand on top as well. My only question is how will you store the mat? Will you be able to fold the mat without damaging it or causing unsightly creases?

[TacticalPainter]

Great blog post and a very effective battle mat. I will remember your advice on sprinkling the sand on top as well. My only question is how will you store the mat? Will you be able to fold the mat without damaging it or causing unsightly creases?

Thanks. Folding would put creases in it, but it rolls easily and that’s the ideal way to store it. To avoid it getting creases or crushed the recommendation is roll it around a piece of tubing, like PVC plumbing pipe or a cardboard tube.

[marianas_gamer]

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks.

[gweirda]

"...roll it around a piece of tubing, like PVC plumbing pipe or a cardboard tube."

Flooring/carpeting stores are a good source for sturdy tubes that are, for them, just trash to be disposed of.  A few calls to local shops and a trip to pick up is the only cost.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Thank-you for the tutorial. I have been planning to do one of these mats for a long time.
The comparison pictures and tips are much appreciated.

[Burgundavia]

Thanks. Folding would put creases in it, but it rolls easily and that’s the ideal way to store it. To avoid it getting creases or crushed the recommendation is roll it around a piece of tubing, like PVC plumbing pipe or a cardboard tube.

All of my mats are now rolled about 4" PVC tubing. Works really well with a few elastic bands. Just need to rig up a method of slinging them over my shoulder

[Burgundavia]

I love the colour variation on your mat - at some point I want to do an arid/desert mat too, so definitely going to follow where you went with colours.

[TacticalPainter]

I love the colour variation on your mat - at some point I want to do an arid/desert mat too, so definitely going to follow where you went with colours.

In many ways it helped that I went through a few variations because that helped to vary the colours. In fact my recommendation is not to be too precise in painting, working up from a dark base colour I didn’t get too bothered if I missed a spot here and there.

[dampfpanzerwagon]

The finished mat and scatter terrain look great.

Tony

[TacticalPainter]

The finished mat and scatter terrain look great.

Tony

Thanks. As I mentioned in the blog post, I wasn’t totally happy with the rather uninspired grey colour that I painted the rocks for the scatter terrain so I’ve given them a repaint in tones similar to the colour palette for the mat. I think these look much better.