Saturday 17 February 2018

Fakearse builds a tabletop.

Hi all,

Many moons ago,when I first moved to sunny Bangkok, I brought a small skirmish tabletop along with me. It's a pretty simple construction, just a grass mat glued to a mid sized whiteboard. If your mad keen to see what it looks like just have a look at the the last picture on this post I did ages ago. It's done the trick for a while, but it's a tad too small for anything other than a pure infantry battle. Also, it's and a little too fertile (green) for my vision of what a Sci-fi setting should look like, all blown up and shit.

So, not too long ago, while wishing I had a larger, blasted landscape for a tabletop, my wife and I decided that we wanted a new telly. What the hell has this got to do with a tabletop you ask? Simple, it came packaged in a massive, sturdy box. The moment I saw those poor delivery guys lugging that big arse box out of the back of their van I just knew it had the makings of a gaming table.......I got the vision you see.

Want to know more? Read on.......or is that "look on"?........whatever......just scroll down to see more, but only if you want to ok.......no pressure!


Original shape of the box.

Cut in half, along the spine, and opened up.

Hot glued it together with a few scraps and added some simple bracing around the edges. 

More bracing, to keep this fucker rigid as fuck. 

Then fully enclosed it by glueing scrap cardboard, with caulk, to the entire surface.   

Sketched out a rough plan, cut a few trenches and made a few hills.

Tried out a couple of old terrain pieces and added some more details. 

Screwed down the larger terrain pieces with wall screws.

Broke out the dunny roll & PVA and went to town with it.

Used scrap foam to make some rough rock features.

And used polystyrene to make some steps leading down to a blast door?

More bog roll. This stuff is great for adding texture. And it's cheap too!

Door from Ramshackle Games, cheers Curtis :)

Another door from Curtis, plus a poo looking shape for the top of the hill.

Old, half finished CD terrain. This will force me to finish them off.

All the terrain features glued and screwed down. This shits not going anywhere!

This tabletop is pretty big, measuring 165cm x 155cm x 7.5cm. And if I'm not careful during the rest of the build, with the box being made out of double ply cardboard, I could end up with a fucking heavy monstrosity. So, while I'm building it I'm being overly cautious with the weight of the materials I'm adding to it. Unfortunately, I'm the only one in our household that can lift heavy things, and seeing as I'll be the one storing it away vertically every time I'm finished using it, the final product has to be as light as possible. I bloody well hope it is anyway!

Anyway, there's obviously a lot more to be done, but I'm hoping to have it completed within the next few months.

Cheerio :)


21 comments:

  1. Looking awesome! Get it painted now! 😍

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    1. Hahahaha, it's not ready for paint just yet Andrew :D A few more details to go and then I'll hit it with colour.

      Cheers mate :)

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  2. Sir, you had me at Dunny Roll... looking good mate - that’s a dream for me, British property prices ensure I stay in the realms of gaming mats & scatter terrain :-/

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    1. Commonly known as "arse paper" among the elite as well.....or so I've heard :P

      Actually, regarding the size, I too live in a place that is not overly large. It will have to go up against the wall on a bookshelf or somewhere else. I feel like one of those guys who starts off building a boat in his house without thinking about how to get the bloody thing out when it's done. But yeah, I get your dilema.....space is always an obstacle to these projects.

      Cheers Jelly :)

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  3. I like it, especially the sunken bits. They work really well. It's always impressive how something as simple as cardboard and loo roll can be used to make something great. Sometimes with these big projects you've just got to keep going and watch it slowly come to life!

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    1. Yeah, the sunken sections just occurred to me as I was building it, good use of the empty cavity I thought. This is the first tabletop I've built, so it'll be interesting to see how it turn out. It'd be great to have a large board to play on. I'll keep plugging away and we'll see where it ends up.

      Cheers Toby :)

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  4. This table is ball’n dawg! Can’t wait to see more. I really like how you went multi level. It will be fun having bad guys pop up, or defend the tunnels. Lots of scenarios to be had. 😉

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    1. Thanks Grover :) I set out to make the tabletop as versatile as possible. I didn't want to
      spend all this time making something that I could potentially get bored of, scenario wise, after the first few games. The more I look at it the more happy I am with the terrain elements and layout I ended up going with.

      Crazy idea, imagine if your massive killa carrier made a landing on my huge pretend battlefield? Now THAT would be a fucking epic gaming experience! Balls deep bro, balls deep!!!!!!


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    2. It would be the stuff of legends!!!!

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  5. You've thrown yourself into this 100%! It looks like it will be an amazing skirmish table - packed full of interesting terrain and playability! Can't wait to see how it all comes together once you get cracking on the paint :)

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    1. Once that telly turned up my mind just drifted across to the manifold possibilities with the cardboard packaging....much like a child :) It's a fun project, and yeah, once it's done it should provide a tonne of enjoyable gaming.

      Cheers mate :)

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  6. Gasp!! That's huge! Wow, I love the way you envisioned it all, the trenches and way to integrate real 3D into the board. I'm afraid you'll have to be careful about storage, buit certainly looks like the deal to me. Looking forward to seeing it finished!

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    1. I'll let you in on a little secret though, there was never a grand vision, more like making it up as I went along. But once I made the basic construction I thought it'd be a waste not to use the depth of the board as well.

      Storage issues, yep. It's strong enough to handle without it creaking and flexing, I'm not worried about it breaking on me. It's the shelf that I'll have to make to go above the stairs that's a pain.

      Glad your liking it so far Suber :)

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  7. Looking great so far, although I worry about long term durability of cardboard (even double ply)

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    1. I think it should be fine, it's not as if I'm gunna be hammering on the thing while playing :D

      Cheers lasgun.

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  8. I love the step by step photographs -- I can't wait to see what the table finally looks like!

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    1. Thanks Matthew, I like seeing the process of peoples creations too. It should be finished soonish....I hope :)

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  9. That's a great tutorial. Making those trenches 3d into the table is impressive.
    I cannot wait to see progress.

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    1. I even impressed myself with that trench idea too Major :D Why waste vertical space I always say....or never actually, just now.

      I had a kind of loose plan right from the outset actually, make the tabletop with as much variation in gradient as I could realistically get away with. My thinking was that it would add more ooomph to the board.

      Anyway, I've had a bit to drink, better stop with the carry on.

      Glad you like it so far Major :)

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