Building a Light Weight 4'x4' Foldable Wargaming Board

Now that a larger board is desirable for DBA 3.0, I decided to retire my 3' boards and go for 4'x4'. To make it small enough to fit in the car I have hinged together two 2'x4' boards. The boards themselves are made of pink insulation foam board for light weight. The hinges and edges are made from black gorilla brand duct tape. The board was then painted, sprayed with adhesive and flocked. I'll do a protective over spray once I am satisfied with the flocking.

Now a 50/50 mix of white glue and water was applied to secure flowers, shrubs, rocks and larger details that might otherwise rub off. Looks pretty ugly until it dries. The initial application of flock was not very smooth, so rather than fight it, I decided to vary the flock and ground materials.

The finished board. In the first shot you can see how the thick 50/50 glue mixture mashed down the flock and darkened it. It looks a little funky in this picture in bright sun, but actually on a table and lying flat in a room the effect is quite appealing. After this thick white glue mixture was applied, the whole board was sprayed with a much more dilute white glue and water mixture.

My only concern at this point is that the shrubs and rocks will be to rough a surface for elements to lay flat.  The rocks and bushes are pretty well spread out so I suspect will not be a big deal, but I'll report back after the first game.  Now I just have to make another one so I can get out my triple sized Big Mac Attack and the Persians to put on a big battle DBA game.

Mindstalkers 40mm Italian medieval fantasy figures

 

These figures are from the 40mm Mindstalkers game that came and went a few years back.  I picked up the figures on eBay for a song, so bought a boatload of them.  Many are still available I think from 99 cents to about $2.50 for a 40mm mounted knight.  I've been working on them off and on with the intention of playing Melee or In the Labyrinth with them.  Just thought I would post some pictures.  They are a little fiddly to put together, but really excellent sculpts.

Arthurian Legends Mordred Army and Castle Fortress

Here is the army arrayed for battle.  Basically this army was an excuse to use all of those old figures I had lying around, themed around a late medieval version of Mordred's forces.  I looked at old illustrations from NC Wyeth and Howard Pyle for inspiration, but also tried to operate within the confines of what I had available.

Essex billmen to protect the bowmen.  Being minions of Mordred and lazy, evil types in general, they don't bother to polish the rust off their armor

Splintered light bowmen left over from my Pict and Welsh/Robin Hood project.

Warband using mostly some of Splintered Light's excellent character figures (including Grendel) with some Old Glory Normans mixed in.

The hordes.  These were painted by David McBride as part of a huge Robin Hood prize army I was fortunate enough to win.  I spun off some of the excess to serve with Mordred.

I think these started life as part of my Welsh historical DBA army, but were really too late in appearance for that army so they ended up as the Black Knight (hero) and the knights of Mordred (Below - play as knights)

Howard Pyle describes Arthur's knights fighting a giant in his series on King Arthur so I figured Mordred had to have one.

No evil army would be complete without something that makes things go boom.  Like Saruman in the Lord of the Rings, I just figured Mordred and Morgana would have a thing for gunpowder.

Speaking of Morganna - here she is.  I had to sculpt hair and clothes for her as well as a staff, but at least I can show her to the kids now.  She is mounted on bits of Hackberry bark - a trick I learned from Paul Potter.

Not quite Sean Connery, but it will do for the green knight.  I painted his armor normally and then washed with Green ink which gives it a nice translucent green quality.

Mordred surveying the battlefield.  His base is made from a combination of Sculptamold paper mache, Hackberry bark, and dyed plaster debris.

My favorite part of the army is the Stronghold.  Paul Potter originated this idea in a camp of his design incorporating the castle and tree of woe.  I decided I wanted to minimize the scale differential between the tree and the castle, so constructed the mountain on which it sits out of styrofoam, Sculptamold paper-mache, plaster and dyed plaster debris.

I love this view of the path from the tree of woe leading up to the castle!

Look forward to trying out the army in this year's Good, Bad and Ugly tournament.

Berbers and Bolt Action

Just finished up a few additions for my Berbers and Waffen SS armies

The unit of eight elements of four figures each displaying their standards.  The figures are a mix of Ral Partha Moors, and Ottomans from the condottieri line, as well as a smattering of Citadel Arabs from their Dark Ages line.  The banners are mostly inspired by Little Big Men, but the middle banner is completely scratch built and painted ala El Cid.

I particularly like the way the shields of Ben Yusef's Black Guard came out.  I used a variety of metallics with black lining to bring out the detail.

The black banner is simply folded paper painted and stiffened with white glue, but what really adds a nice touch is the addition of the horse hair tassels on the ends of the cross pole.

 I've really enjoyed the Bolt Action games I have played and painting WWII camo is a nice change from all of the Ancients and Dark Age figures I've been working on.

 

 Flowers might be a bit much and would probably have been trampled into the ground, but you have to love the way they set off the figures.

 Here we have an HMG pouring fire into the unsuspecting Americans (or Russians).  I decided to base them separately to facilitate taking casualties off the board.  The tufts are by a gentleman in Australia known as Leadbear.  I highly recommend them.

Islamic Berber/Moorish Spearmen Finished

Just finished up the Moorish or Berber Spear elements. The standard bearers are converted Citadel Arab Ghazi fanatic swordsmen from their DA line. I'd love to get some of their slingers and command elements so let me know if you find any at reasonable prices. http://www.fanaticus.org/discussion/...ad.php?t=17200
Here they are in all of their fanatic glory:

 Next up will be some more spear elements to represent the Black Guard units of Ben Yusef himself.