On the road again

I'm working on one more terrain board. This one will be a basic design but will be useable with several games by Two Hour Wargames (Red Sand Brown Sky, Qwik and Machinas are what I will be playing on this board.) I wanted it to look a little dynamic considering it's such a simple board, so I set the road at a nice diagonal.

The board is around 20 inches by 24 inches. It started as a low-priced sketchboard from Hobby Lobby (hence the handle already cut into the board.) Then I glued down a swath of gray VFF suede (a faux suede fabric that gives a great foundation for playing games on; it's soft, so provides great padding for falling minis.)

I had a little trouble finding a good adhesive that worled well on wood and fabric and that I could use great quantities of, so I settled on good old PVA (white glue.) I was still able to peel the edges back a little bit with light force, so I went primitive and framed the edges with duck tape.

Next came the sidewalks, which are more incidental pieces used mostly to wall in the "Machinas" portion of the board. They are made from 1/4-inch blue foam. The sidewalk markings and cracks were engraved using a sharp pencil.

Next came lots of masking tape so I could paint my lane markings (and the crosswalk, which I think makes the board look a lot more legit.) I also stained the middle of the lanes with black to represent where oil stains haven't been worn away by tires. The yellow center lines and the oil stain lines actually serve a purpose: They are the horizontal borders to my area movement zones that will be used in Qwik and Red Sand Brown Sky. The sidewalk lines were also engraved to serve as area movement zones -- don't worry, everything lines up.

And that's where I'm at with this easy and fun project. Next up will be to paint the sidewalks. This will be followed up with plenty of weathering to add dust over everything. The final painting will then be a series of cracks, tar marking and road sections to delineate the vertical lines of my area movement zones. After all the painting is done, then I will add grass to the areas inside the sidewalks (as if they're sidewalks bordering yards.) I will also add plenty of grass along many of the cracks in the sidewalks and the road cracks.This will be a post-apocalyptic road, after all.

Having a flat board will make it easy to add modular pieces, debris and barricades and such (to mark the edges of my qwik field, or to wall off the arena for my post-apoc gladiators.) When the board is done, I will take photos of it showing how each game fits on it.