Gaming Mats (OCEAN MAT added 12/31/13 pg 3)

[janner]

Great work 

[doctor_ocks]

Started working on a Mordor themed mat. The only problem, as you can see, is that I failed to iron the canvas first, thinking that the weight of the material and stretching of the canvas would flatten it out. I was wrong. It seemed to actually accentuate it.



I may try to iron it from behind once it dries. If it doesn't work out, it'll be given to my nephews who love to play on my other mat when they come over.

[Mason]

Other than the creases, it looks great.
Plenty of uses for that, not just Sauron's backyard.
 

Lets hope the ironing works.
At the very least you will have very happy nephews.
A win-win situation.
 

[doctor_ocks]

Other than the creases, it looks great.
Plenty of uses for that, not just Sauron's backyard.
 

Lets hope the ironing works.
At the very least you will have very happy nephews.
A win-win situation.
 

Agreed. I don't currently play any LotR games. Just wanted something that looked barren and destroyed

[Spooktalker]

Mats are the way to go, imo and yours look great! That's a bummer about the creasing. I had fantastic luck making a dark forest mat with black felt, turf and spray matt medium, but have been wanting do do something representing underground. I was wroth to discover they changed the formula of the previously incredibly flexible concrete patch I was going to use and made it extremely brittle and inflexible, so that was out. Then I tried "Elastomeric Patch" as recommended by War Artison and that was even more brittle and completely useless. Given how great War Artisans mats are I think they must have changed the formula on that too. Long story short, though, caulk and sand looks like the option for me. Thanks for the tut.

[doctor_ocks]

Mats are the way to go, imo and yours look great! That's a bummer about the creasing. I had fantastic luck making a dark forest mat with black felt, turf and spray matt medium, but have been wanting do do something representing underground. I was wroth to discover they changed the formula of the previously incredibly flexible concrete patch I was going to use and made it extremely brittle and inflexible, so that was out. Then I tried "Elastomeric Patch" as recommended by War Artison and that was even more brittle and completely useless. Given how great War Artisans mats are I think they must have changed the formula on that too. Long story short, though, caulk and sand looks like the option for me. Thanks for the tut.

I've never used those products before. Sorry they're no longer working for you though. Caulk has worked great for me. Never an issue.

I was able to get most of the big creases out of the new mat by ironing the back of it.



I'm gonna skip dry brushing it though as it will make the small creases that are present just pop even more. I do like how rough and rocky it turned out though.



Sheriff Woody doesn't seem to frightened though

[FramFramson]

Hmmm... let's say you wanted to add a few extra features for this, like some buried low-profile rocks (i.e. very low-relief rock textures).

What could you get that was flexible enough to be rolled up with the mat, but could be cut into the shape of low-relief rock outcroppings? 

[doctor_ocks]

Hmmm... let's say you wanted to add a few extra features for this, like some buried low-profile rocks (i.e. very low-relief rock textures).

What could you get that was flexible enough to be rolled up with the mat, but could be cut into the shape of low-relief rock outcroppings?  

My idea is to use caulk. Squirt some out onto some wax paper and shape it however you'd like. Peel it off and glue it on top of the mat before painting.

I haven't tried this yet, but it should work. You'd have to be conscious of how thick you made it as too thick and you'd mess up the curing process.

[FramFramson]

That might work. I could even roll a foil ball across them to add rock-like texture.

[doctor_ocks]

Made this river mat this past summer but failed to get it posted up here!



Frankly, the water didn't turn out like I wanted. I used a different brand of clear acrylic for the water which wasn't nearly as glossy and took a while to cure.



Not too bad but I'm just calling this the prototype Excuse the little white dog hairs. My kids and their cousins enjoy playing with this on the floor and my pug enjoys laying on it.

[Elbows]

One of these days I'll get around to trying this out...I know how to do it - just never bothered tryin'

[YPU]

Hot damn, I really should try this some time! Looks a lot better then the plain brown felt I am using right now.

[Too Bo Coo]

I followed that discussion with interest. Your results are very good, the mat looks great!

I'm still considering zuzzy mats, but I'm more and more impressed with how people's drop cloth and caulk mats have come out!

Zuzzy is a great mat, I bought the 4x6 and made it into 2 2x2 and a 4x4 mat.  That said, i got the street post-apoc mat.  If I were interested in grass field, I'd do it this way....

[smokezombie]

Aaaarrgghh!! All these mats look great. I want some now.

[Double W]

Sadly, the only thing that keeps me from trying this is I live in an apartment and don't have access to a garage or even large yard. I've seen a few of these and really love the look of them.