Building Better Boards

[Andym]

Another one I found recently....


https://robhawkinshobby.blogspot.com/?m=1

There's a few good Star Wars themed boards on there and his Wild West Exodus table with the Devils Tower from Close Encounters and the built in infinity mirrors is inspired!

[OSHIROmodels]

I do like the things Rob does. Very inspirational 

[Calimero]

Did someone mention Black Magic Craft, yet?

This guy have quite a few useful tips on his YouTube videos list;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Rlv-ug-mtnXuMwlpcqFgg/videos

He mainly work with foam board type that are available in Canada (the "pink one") and dollar store (Dollorama) stuff...

[von Lucky]

Boulder Creek Railway / Luke Towan YouTube channel has been mentioned before in this thread (and elsewhere on LAF), but if you haven't heard/seen his stuff, he's very skilled:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjRkUtHQ774mTg1vrQ6uA5A

This video is an example of the stunning results:


Some builds are more complicated, but others drill down to individual elements. At the end of the day, building better boards is about a whole lot of elements coming together to add layers of detail.

[Jack Jones]

Hi All

I got my terrain boards out yesterday … I had them made a very, very long time ago, so long I have forgotten by whom.

Anyhow, I want to make some additional boards (undulating terrain and a wadi) but I’m struggling to find raw materials at the size I need them.

The boards are 24" x 24" (610mm x 610mm), made of dense polystyrene (not the flakey packaging variety). They are 40mm deep, but this isn’t so much of a problem as I will need to laminate for the heights and depths I need.

So … does anyone know where I might source boards cut to size … craft foam (the blue stuff – styrofoam?) would probably work too.





Cheers
JJ

[Jack Jones]

I had these guys suggested – look ideal:

https://www.custompac.co.uk/polystyrene-cut-to-size

Cheers
JJ

[Muddlingthrough]

Did someone mention Black Magic Craft, yet?

This guy have quite a few useful tips on his YouTube videos list;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Rlv-ug-mtnXuMwlpcqFgg/videos

He mainly work with foam board type that are available in Canada (the "pink one") and dollar store (Dollorama) stuff...

I'm just getting back into the hobby and have been following him. I made some of his rubber flooring mat rocky dirt roads for my Republican Romans to stub their toes on. Working on some proper, paved Roman roads too.

One great advantage of living in a wintry hellhole like Canada is the easy access to extruded polystyrene foam insulating board. One of the major manufacturers has realized hobbyists use it and has started selling 2'x2' sheets at the Home Depot for $2.10Cad.

And the Dollarama is, obviously, a national treasure.

Though I'm having trouble sourcing corrugated paper currently.

[Andy in Germany]

I came at this from the other direction, having built model railways for some years now. My main interest was because I was building in 1:55 scale, which is close to 28mm scale wargaming. However, 1:55 scale is a very unusual scale for model railways, mostly based around narrow gauge models from the 1960's and a few even more niche oddballs who use it to make models of metre gauge European narrow gauge.

I very quickly realised what others have already mentioned; TT models will get bettered in comparison to model railways because they're handled so much more, but equally I'm learning a lot in this area that I'm able to take back to model railways, or will take back when I finally have space to make my model railway...

One major aspect I'm interested in taking the "other" direction is the idea of a game/story session. I think model railway builders often make lovely complete scenes, which I notice isn't always considered important in TT gaming, but we then just trundle trains about a bit in a haphazard manner. I'm working on a way to operate a model railway like a TT skirmish game with dice and a goal, and probably with some kind of chance cards to simulate things like breakdowns, delays, and customers wanting their goods transported on the train and the railway having to respond to these issues. It's a vague idea at the moment but as I get  more experienced in TT gaming I'm hoping to develop a working scheme.

[Codsticker]

One major aspect I'm interested in taking the "other" direction is the idea of a game/story session. I think model railway builders often make lovely complete scenes, which I notice isn't always considered important in TT gaming, but we then just trundle trains about a bit in a haphazard manner. I'm working on a way to operate a model railway like a TT skirmish game with dice and a goal, and probably with some kind of chance cards to simulate things like breakdowns, delays, and customers wanting their goods transported on the train and the railway having to respond to these issues. It's a vague idea at the moment but as I get  more experienced in TT gaming I'm hoping to develop a working scheme.

That does sound interesting. I could see that being a really popular game at a convention. I have used a lot of (simplified) model rail road techniques when building terrain boards. The model rail road stuff is lovely, but can be a bit fragile in the hands of war gamers; I am still trying to find that balance between playability/hardiness and the realism of a model railroad layout.

[Cat]

I started in model railroading as a teen before discovering miniatures gaming.  Came into gaming modelling knowing how to weather everything!

I came at this from the other direction, having built model railways for some years now. My main interest was because I was building in 1:55 scale, which is close to 28mm scale wargaming. However, 1:55 scale is a very unusual scale for model railways, mostly based around narrow gauge models from the 1960's and a few even more niche oddballs who use it to make models of metre gauge European narrow gauge.

When I was more actively doing Bolt Action, and Canadian army, I was quite tempted to build some 1/56 metre gauge on HO track for the Antwerp Streetcar Wars.  Still a somewhat tempting project.

One major aspect I'm interested in taking the "other" direction is the idea of a game/story session. I think model railway builders often make lovely complete scenes, which I notice isn't always considered important in TT gaming, but we then just trundle trains about a bit in a haphazard manner. I'm working on a way to operate a model railway like a TT skirmish game with dice and a goal, and probably with some kind of chance cards to simulate things like breakdowns, delays, and customers wanting their goods transported on the train and the railway having to respond to these issues. It's a vague idea at the moment but as I get  more experienced in TT gaming I'm hoping to develop a working scheme.

It would be tricky getting a confrontational style game.  Competitive gaming as a solitaire challenge works well with John Allen's Time Saver Puzzle, or the Inglenook Puzzle for shunting challenges in the least number of moves.
 
I've brought dice into model railroading for handling freight operations.  Car card and waybill systems are popular in the US for determing where freight cars are going to at the start of each operating session.  Instead of doing cards, I worked out dice tables with probabilities of where each car starting at any given industry might be heading towards.  Empty coal cars always got moved back to the coal mine.  Other empties were presumed to be loaded up from where they sat to be sent to likely customers.  I also diced for all cars coming in to a freight yard with a small chance that each one would fail inspection and have to be sent over to a repair track til the next session when they could resume their journey.  Was very happy with the probability mechanics, but not exactly a skirmish game.
 
If you build one of the shunting puzzle track designs into a game board, you can always play shunting games in between gaming sessions.  Or play shunting games simultaneously while others are playing a gangsters gang or whatnot.  The shunters get to make one move at the start of each turn, or if you're doing card based movement, put a number of Train Moves cards into the deck.

[Colonel O Truth]

Hi everyone.

It's been a VERY long time since I was last here, but I'm still alive and mucking about with glue. I hope you're all well.

May I humbly add my YouTube channel to this discussion? I've been building a fantasy city for the last year. I hope you'll all find something useful.

All the best!

https://youtu.be/O-RCKUfr2wc?si=r_hIyw8cCbdF1SoO

[OSHIROmodels]

I’ve been following this and it’s looking fantastic

[Colonel O Truth]

I’ve been following this and it’s looking fantastic

Thanks heaps! Always a pleasure!

[Bloggard]

loved the stuff on your blog, Colonel, rivets and all in yrs. past, but the YT stuff you've been showcasing / tutorialising is just amazing.