Quick Nasty and Cheap Terrain Board

I've been getting into Frostgrave and Rangers of Shadow Deep lately and I see the need for a small table. I was going to go for a 4' x 4' but opted instead for a 3' x 3'. I had two 4' x 2' x 50mm foam boards in my garage. So that's where I started.

I cut both boards to 3' x 2' and then split one of them into two 12" x 3' sections. I then glued one 12" section the 3' x 2' section so that I had a 3' x 3' slab. I used Liquid Nails glue to do this.

I then decided to score the foam with my hot foam cutter and coat the finish result with grey caulk.

But I soon got jack of that and made a coffee and sat down for a re-think. I didn't have to think too hard and when I had re-thunk enough, I decided to use vinyl floor tiles with a sticky back. I'd need 9 of them so I went and got them. They cost about $17.

I took them home, peeled the backing off them and one by one, I stuck them on the board. This took about 5 minutes - Less time than it took to buy them. I then gave the foam a slight trim.

After these pics were taken, I gave it a  few coats of mat spray varnish take the shine off it (making sure not to spray the edges).

Now, I could have stopped there but I thought (I've gotta stop all this thinking)... I thought: "Why not do a basic flat outdoors side too. So I did.

I wanted the foam to be pretty sturdy so I thought I'll add a surface of green marine carpet. I bought lots of this 20 odd years ago for covering some 6' x 4' table tops. I peeled it off the tables long ago and I still have some of it so I used the final a 3' x 4' piece I still had left over. I glued it on using Liquid Nails again.

I first made up a mix of light brown caulk, pva gule and water. I brushed this concoction onto the carpet and threw lots of different types of flock on to it. I have a lot of flock. I learned to make it about 5 years ago and I made lots. I've never needed any flock since, but the time is coming where I'll need to make another few batches.

 The brown caulk...

When it had a good overall covering of flock, I rubbed it into the carped fiber. I then made up a watered down pva concoction and sprayed the whole thing several times whilst adding more detailed types of flock (stones, gorse, shrubs, etc.). Make sure you pat this stuff down if you decide to add them and give them some close up bursts of pva spray.

And here it is. It's still damp at the moment but we're having a nice patch of weather so it will be fully dry tomorrow. I had all the materials for this part ready to go. If I were to put a cost on it, I'd say: $15 for the caulk and the glue.

A shot of the surface detail.

So there you have it. It took about 3 hours all up with several coffee breaks (and one of my teeth fell out - It was cracked and due to be removed in three days time anyway). Now I have two new gaming tables. Because it's constructed on foam it weighs in at about 2 kilos and I'm hoping to use it on the kitchen table because it has no sharp edges or abrasive surfaces. Or I might even buy a card table for it.

Also, I might put some sort of seal on the edges. Then again, I might not.

Hey, I took a little video. I don't know if this will work because I'm a bit of a tech numpty. But I'll try:

UPDATE: It was dry this morning so I gave it another heavy spray of watered down pva and put it in the sun to dry. Now the grasses are as solid as a rock! I put some black gaffa tape on it for some easy edging. Nothing special but it looks tidy.