The rebuilding of Providence (a modular modern city board and terrain)

[audrey]

I decided as a major project this year I am going to take my paper/foam board modern city and redo it to v2.0 with added dimensions, scratch built / resin cast buildings and streets. I am not very prolific so this project will probably take me a while.

Here is a photo of some of my paper terrain I made around 2008. You can consider this my mock up.


I like the modular aspect of the tiles I use for the paper terrain. Those are 9.5in x 9.5in tiles. So I am continuing with the concept but I am taking the tile size up to 10in x 10in to add just a bit more room. Plus I redesigned the streets slightly. In general the layout is the same.


I made a list of the key things I need with the tiles
1. Precise boards that keep their edge.
2. Resistance to warping. A warped tile can no longer be used.
3. A way to keep the tiles locked in place. Magnets or other concept.
4. Lighter weight if possible. Carrying this stuff around to local games and conventions can get heavy.

The first problem I ran into was deciding what to make the base tiles out of. I considered using 0.5in mdf, but the edges and corners can get banged up and I wanted precise clean edges. Plus mdf will get quite heavy when you have 20-30 tiles with scenery.

Another idea was to make them myself with a box frame and then using 3mm hard board on top. The issue there was that I don't have access to the best woodworking equipment so making exact 10in boards and frames concerned me. There are similar issues if I went for a wood frame with high density foam as the core filler.

Then one day I came across some artist panels at an art store and I thought I had found my answer. The problem is that they were not consistent. The label said 10 x 10, but the panel would be 10 x 9.875 or 9.9 x 10.1. So I couldn't use these either. Still they are a good idea for a diorama or something like that.


Last year I saw Back2Base-ix Battle frame 5000. Which now seemed like the answer. $7.50 a tile didn't seem too bad. Their tiles are roughly 11.8in x 11.8in, not the 10in I wanted, but I decide to suck it up and get over it.  Though this option was scratched once I added shipping and realized the price almost double.

A few weeks ago I finally I contacted someone here in the US about doing custom laser cut pieces for me. I took the concept of the of the Battle frame 500 and made my own 10in version. Here is the Template. The holes in the sides are for magnets.


The final price was lower than I expected. But the material used is Taskboard, not 3mm mdf. In the end I decided to move forward with it and hopefully it will work.

Just this week I received my laser cut pieces. The template was slightly revised. The Taskboard does have a texture to it which concerns me a bit, but I don't think it is a big issue. Here are the basic pieces. The circle and small cross pieces go under the tile to provide support.


Here are 2 of the tiles assembled.


This is the 2 tiles side by side.


The next step is to assemble all the tiles and then glue the magnets into the holes on the side. After that I will finally start working on the side walks and streets. My fingers are crossed that the Taskboard works as I am hoping. So far so good.

[Cory]

Those look great.

I never thought about laser cutting a terrain board before, but it's a great way to get boards that are more consistent in size than the ones I miscut by hand.

[commissarmoody]

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

[Hellbeard]

Cool project! I think make sure to seal the wood before priming and sand it to to take care of the texture (before and after sealing).