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Friday 1 April 2016

Back to the construction table

One of my favourite things in this hobby is terrain making. It has been a while since I have actually gotten around to get my plans back in order. With Easter coming up (potentially in the past when this goes live) I was hoping to get some time with my saw.

So here is my next project:

A gaming table


My meager Sketchup skills threw together this plan a while back. I even have all the materials. The plan is to have a central gaming table, it is raised in this pic, but I am not sure it will be it depends on if I put in a foam base or work straight on the wood.








It might be easier to see my plans in the next pic.




Here you can clearly see the:

  • support beams (white); 
  • boards for a base (brown); and
  • the playing surface (green).














The green I used in this picture is a little misleading. My aim is to do a Victorian streets table. I am still deciding if I just cobble the entire table or to do some sort of street design. If I cobble the entire thing it means I could place any buildings or terrain with complete flexibility, but it might look a little dull. The alternative of having streets and separate land area for the buildings and other terrain will lead to a more realistic look. But it does limit the layouts.

So that is on my to decide list.

The brown areas will actually be covered in felt. This is to have areas off the table to store cards, models, tape measures etc. I have not decided on a colour for the felt, nor have I sourced that, but that will be a finishing touch so there is no rush for that.

Next up, I need to decide on the terrain. My plan is to build a large number of smaller Tudor style buildings. I will also need to build quite a bit of scatter terrain.

My thoughts on pieces:

  • Barrels
  • Crates
  • Small gardens and lined garden walk ways
  • Some old crumbling walls
  • Alcoves with benches and fountains
  • Potentially raised areas - older cities tend to be built on multiple levels, so this will require stairs, ladders and other raised walkways
  • Potentially aqueducts
  • Ponds
  • Some sort of lamp post system. Not sure if I will do some magnetic system.
  • Dustbins and trash piles
  • Grave sites - of various sizes to add flexibility
  • Carts, caravans and other little shops

I have also thought a little bit about other buildings:

  • Barn
  • Smith
  • Distillery, brewery
  • Stables
  • Church
  • Mausoleum
I have also started on my basic master for my buildings...but you will need to wait to see that in another post.

2 comments:

  1. Funny, I build myself a table some weeks ago. It has a simple raised frame and nothing to place material though. The frame is painted but I have the same problem as you, I have to decide about the battle field itself. Uniform with maximal freedom of terrain placement or themed leading to restrictions (at least if you care about the looks).

    When it comes to terrain itself I am also planing to do a few buildings, luckily I did some a few years ago for mortheim which fit perfectly.
    For barrels etc I decided to buy a few (two or three) sets of a company and I will reproduce them either in resin or some plaster. I know, that's not the most legal variant and probably not the nicest but that's the way it has to work in the beginning. I also modeled some accessories myself which I will cast in resin or plaster.

    So in total I am watching this article of yours very closely ;-)

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  2. I've made little progress on the table but done quite a bit of experimentation on the pieces I want to add. The articles and pictures are all loaded up.

    Hopefully there is some sun in sunny London Town so I can actually do some construction.

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