I already did my table years ago, with much more money spent and a LOT of time more for completing. Your way is wordefully easier and cheaper. Now I have 3 table for my kill team games. Thanks.
When I textured my table I sealed it with watered down PVA, made up a mix of paint, PVA, various sand grades and premixed filler, it created a nice through-colour textured paste that dried like rock, as the paint is mixed into the filler, even if it chips it's still the same colour
Just made myself one of these for Malifaux - entirely thanks to your fantastic tutorial. Thank you very much dude! I am chuffed with it; grand total of £9 spent!! Can't argue with that.
That finish looks absolutely brilliant and baring in mind that GW want about £170 for their 6 piece plastic gaming board, your creation looks better, because you can design it exactly how YOU want, so is this another of your brilliant videos Mel... 100 percent YES :-)
Greetings from Australia Mel! Another Great vid! It worked a treat for me. 1 issue I had was some of the ridges were too high (4/5 mm) after I spackled them. So rather than sanding it with sandpaper I used the base of a standard soup/spaghetti/ baked beans can (that I was using under the board). Made it down to about 1mm. A tip maybe others "CAN" use. I have dropped in $20 to you and encourage others to do the same! Keep up the good work. Cheers mate!!
Frank Von Hi Frank Im in Straya too, Brissie. I was just wondering what filler you bought over here, the only ones I've ever worked with are stuff like Selleys Spakfiller but that's very dry. Mel another great vid mate, I learn so much from watching them.
Thanks for doing this. I worked on a gaming board this past summer. I wanted to do the same technique, but I couldn't find any good tutorials on it. I ended up using the stucco popcorn-effect stuff. It turned out a bit bumpier than I had hoped, but it still works great as a warhammer game board, and painting and dry brushing was a breeze. I will definitely be using this thinner spackle next time around. Thanks!
Hey guys! Really not sure if anyone will read this in an older video. But lets just give it a try! One of the first things I want to craft is a solid forest board. Im VERY new to this hobby and i realy love this board! I just dont want it to look all brown, but add in some greenish colours to give it an earthy forest character without adding any flock. Maybe with your browm base colour and then a mix of greens as a dry brush. Do you think thats possible and makes sense? Or do you absolutely need to use flock?
Well Mel, i tried this and it absolutely failed for me. The filler was too thick, and when I watered it down the water thinned it down so much that I was basically painting with water with a slight white tint. So, I panicked. I grabbed a flat piece of plastic nearby and scooped up golf ball sized chunks of filler and plopped them on the board. I watered my brush down repeatedly and spread the globs out. My initial coat was much,much thicker than yours. It still looked like brush-spread filler with brush marks in it though. So, i grabbed a nearby sponge, soaked it in water and dapped the whole board. In the end it ended up being much faster than your way and the end result is passable. Stipling adds a much nicer effect but the sponge did it's job. I did have minor warping issues, but I just flipped the board over, poured water on the board and spread it around. Then I placed some heavy things across it and bam, back to flat. I always screw things up, but in the process i learn things. Thanks for your tutorials, sir. They are a massive help!
Awesome tutorial - exactly what i wanted for my new table! Also must say your tutorials are sort of mesmerizing - i see you do stuff and i want to do it myself instantly :) since subscribing last week i built 4 ruins while watching your back to basics tutorials and half my gaming table is now textured with some leftover filler i found after watching this tutorial (gotta buy more to finish the job :)
Im making a board based on this. 2x2 desert board. Ordered a 500 point italian army from warlord games, as well as more british common wealth forces. I built a little mud house, a hill, ordered a meditterean house, market stalls/benchers, a pump well, and an ox cart from Sarissa Productions. With all that Im gonna have a pretty nice little board. I need some trees or foilage though.
Nice tutorial. The texture looks like the texture on the GW Real of Battle boards. And I like the new video quality. Looks like you've been working on the lighting and the pip looks great. :)
***** Cheers buddy, it's a cracking technique. Loving the new filming and editing, just got to learn a new style of filming but I'm getting there slowly mate.
This is really great mate. I am on the cusp of starting a modular terrain board system and this has been very helpful. I am off to view more of your work. Thanks.
This again really makes me think about drywall texturing. If you used a thick nap paint roller, used a knock down or skip trowel or slap brush method you could cover a 4x8 in a far shorter amount of time. Keep up the vids...definitely making me think. :-)
Chris, how about a sponge, would that give a similar lightish stipple effect as well as speed up the process? I mean one of those 6" x 4" decorator sponges :-)
Terry Bass Absolutely, sponges are used by drywall artists regularly. You pick up some of the filler with the sponge, dab it onto the surface...wait a few minutes as TTT suggests, then for different effects you can do a "knock down" by dragging a flat trial over it lightly, or you could just leave it as is for a more course terrain. The more I research this, the more I realize there are a LOT of cross-over skills in terrain building and general construction. It's pretty much the same things that home builders use for speed....you can apply those techniques to terrain building for speed as well. Paying close attention to the materials used and be consistent with your experiments and it's repeatable.
Great tutorial! I'm not at all handy with any sort of DIY thing, but your videos are easy to understand and I think even someone like me could do it without much trouble! xD
I just wanted to share my experience with this method as I learned two things from practice that might help other people with a project like this (I stippeld spackle (love how that sounds to say) on 12mm MDF boards sized 2'x2'): 1. The filler you buy might be of a different consistency than what Mel is using. When thinning it down with water look at how it behaves when you spread it. Compare that to how it looks in this video and keep in mind what you are trying to archive. Maybe you even want to do a test run on some MDF offcut to try things out, but if you are as impatient as I am you can also figure it out on the go. 2. Even though I took all precautions I could think of, my MDF boards did warp. They sagged a bit in the middle or the rims rose respectively creating a concave shape about half a centimetre deep. And when I picked the boards up, I realised that a small seam had formed on the bottom of the board edges (I had them propped up on paint pots aswell). This seam actually helped hiding the warping quite well when looking at the boards from the side. So since all the boards had warped in about the same shape, they still had nicely fitting sides with one another and actually lay perfectly stable on my kitchen table. My tip is to have a look at your boards after the filler is dry and test them out before you start worrying about what is looking like a problem, they might be just right the way they are.
Nice tips mate, remember that paint pot in the middle to prevent the sagging and if your boards to warp, flip them over and paint a 3 inch wide cross going corner to corner on the underside, as it dries, it'll warp it back straight again ;-)
Thanks for the tip, Mel. Sadly painint on the underside of my MDF board did nothing, it didn't warp back at all. So I decided to experiment: I propped a board up over my cooker, filled a pot with water and let it evaporate completly. Then I filled the pot again and repeated the process (turning my kitchen into a temporary sauna in the process). Afterwards I turned the board over, propped it up on some cans (again with one supporting the middle) and rested about 10 kg on top of it for two days. After that the warping was much less pronounced. I wouldn't recommend this though, because it doesn't solve the problem completely, uses a lot of energy and time; I would have been much smarter to buy a new board, but that's not why I'm into terrain building.
thanks! i'm building my own GW realm of battle board, using foam to carve the hills in the corners and this technique will be perfect for the texturing.
Awesome. I've been looking for a way to do custom game boards that will tie in with GW Realm of Battle boards nicely, and I think this technique will fit the bill, so long as I match the width of the MDF board to the width of the Realm of Battle board. The finish you have achieved looks like a very good match for the texture molded onto the RoB boards.
It was a very helpful video for me. I am planning to make an "alien planet" terrain table like "tyranid planet" so I guess If I make more meshy stripling and paint it in purple/pink color it will look like as slime.
I'm really interested in basing techniques to simulate soil, bare ground, tracks and paths through terrain. Suggestion to add to your huge database of topics.
As always Mel, it's great, both educational and entertaining. I have used Relief (textured) "paint" (it's more of a primer I think) mixed with a bit of fine sand on my boards. But I do like the alternative
I always learn something from Mel that is not obvious to the inexperienced (or even those like me who have years of the same limlted expertise!!). Look him up before you start a project.
Awesome video Mel I'm in the middle of doing 4 boards like this for an easyily storable gaming board for 40k great idea with the filler I recently failed with sand and glue and saw this after lol
yeah i didnt do a test peice and went strait to the gaming board. it looked different and didnt have quite the same effect as your peice in this video but it still looked decent. my mistake
I'd love to see how you create a board with pink/blue foam. I was starting on one but when I went to glue the 1/4" board to the 1.5" foam, the pieces (or one, not sure which) warped pretty heavily despite having close to 50 pounds of weight scattered over it. I did use wood glue (not watered down) for the adhesive if that makes a difference. Otherwise, I may do similar to what you have here and simply use a much thicker piece of board. Thanks and keep up the AMAZING work.
Dan Bellinger Yeah, 1/2" is the best starting point for boards mate, hopefully a proper terrain board will be on the boards soon .... sorry about the pun lol
So, I've been trying to find a video or post on how to finish the surface on modular foam board tiles, before the flocking. Can't seem to find anything that gives me an exact answer. I'm new to terrain making, so I don't have any failures to learn from yet. Do you have any videos that cover this that I'm missing, or does this technique work just fine for the pink foam boards?
Love your videos and DIY approach. I'm now thinking of building a cheap modular 4x4 foam board 40k battle field. Made up of 4x square pieces of thick insolation foam board held together with wooden downs or BBQ sticks. But as my dining table is only 4x2. Do you think I'll need to reinforce it as there is going to be a bit hanging off both ends? I would like it to still be light and easy to store.
you can get away with a 1/3 of a board hanging over, anymore than that and you'll have issues, especially with all metal armies in the deployment zones. Buckaroo!
really need to make this exact board right down to the colours and everything but want to know how to do it with out the streaks (brush strokes) in the dry brushing
I'm planning on putting together some boards next weekend! This video is PERFECT for what I need!!!! Thanks mel! I'm gonna go for a concrete look. (What do you think, light gray basecoat and white drybrush?)
When I textured my table I mixed PVA and sand 50: 50 and used a paint scraper as a spatula to spread it down to a thin layer, which gives a very firm consistent surface but takes a lot of paint and is extra messy. I'd almost say it's too consistent though, and is prone to lines from the edge of the scraper. This method seems great and gives a nice consistently inconsistent (so to speak) organic surface, and I think I'll definitely give it a go for the next table I do. What brand/type of filler do you use? Might not have it over here in Aus but should be able to track down something similar.
Hello, I made the board following your tutorial on a 14mm MDF board. Unfortunately It is too weight, to avoid warping May I use a 6mm ? or 8mm is the minimum for the MDF? thank you
Paint a pva cross, 6inch wide on the bottom, it'll warp it back straight mate. Main thing is the initial thickness is sturdy enough before the techniques mate
Awesome technique and finish. I have just made my first lot of boards, and they have come out great. I did make a mistake by not laying a couple of them flat and they have warped. So to unwarp them would you suggest I dampen the back of the board and lay flat again? Cheers
Mel could you use plaster bandage instead of or alongside this technique? I guess you'd use it more as an under layer, to create elevations beneath the stipple?
Hey Mel, I've read a lot of warnings online about MDF warping over time. Do you have that problem with your boards after you use this method? I know you say to use 12 mil or thicker, which I plan on doing, but just wanted to get your two cents on the issue.
If I were to place the board on a large project table (bigger than the board) would this keep the MDF from warping or would you suggest resting the board on paint pots even if this is an option? Thank you very much.
Nice tutorial, but I have a few follow up questions. Would you combine this technique with normal sand over it and how would it look? Do you have a comment on how to do like muddy streets into the texture? Maybe do this under sand and have the streets not covert, so it would more act like the muddy underground? How is the texture of this filler compared with fine sand + small rocks on miniature bases (28mm) ? Ok enough for now :) Thanks!
tae1000esd You could combine it in patches but completely covering it would probably obscure the texture. It would depend on what you mean by muddy street, is the surface dirt that's got wet and well travelled or is it a cobblestone/tarmac street that's become muddy? The last one is a difficult one because the texture can vary considerably depending on how much effort you put in and also how well textured the sand/grit/gravel is done mate, best suggestion is give it a go.
hey do you think this would work well for giving texture to a plain wall i.e no brickwork or shall i just use the same technique you used in your foamboard ruins video ?
By the time you reply to this it might be too late, but I was wondering if I could mix in sand with the final coats of filler to give it a more interesting and "realistic" texture. Should also help avoid some of the lines I'm guessing and I've heard it makes dried filler surfaces harder and more durable. Any experience or tips on this?
Should I "paint" on a thin layer of watered down pva glue before or after the filler has dried up? Like finish with it as a final coat? I'm gonna paint the texture with a good layer of brown paint either way, so i'm curious when I should apply the PVA then. Speaking of, what ratio do you use water to pva and water to paint when using either?
Speaking of storage. How would you store this compactly with and without flocking/rocks? If it was just the "flat" rocky look then I can see just stacking them against a wall or in a box would work fine. Once you add a bit more I see it being an issue. Ideas?
Zach Cash I normally use layers on bubblewap between the boards and then have them on their side in a box. Storage does get more challenging as the boards get more involved but that's one of the cons of fully featured boards mate.
Love your videos Mel, and I'll be using this technique to texture my display boards for Adepticon. I'll be adding hills and rocks etc as you mentioned in the video - but did you say that you should put down the first layer of filler first to seal it, *before* you glue on rocks and hills? Wouldn't the texture of the sealing layer make it hard to glue down say, an extruded polystyrene hill? Thanks and keep up the great vids!
I just bought a 4 by 8 foot board to make my DbMM terrain table. Thanks for the tutorial. How durable is the spackle to scuffs, etc over time? Is it prone to chipping?
My filler keeps reactivating and melting when I come to paint it the next day. Even when I use extra tough filler. PVA even melts it a little so that brush strokes form. Any ideas?
what paint do you use? im looking to do an africa themed board. and wondered what colour youd reccomend for the same? thanks for taking the time to reply (As you always do when i ask you questions)
Brilliant! Shared, subscribed and liked. The lowest lip on the GW Realm of battle boards is about 6mm 1/4". I'm looking to add variety to that set. Any ideas on countering the warping? I've heard painting the backside will help warp it back.
Joe Boster Painting the back does help but it's easier just to avoid pva, texture with filler, flock with spray adhesive, seal with matt varnish ..... no pva, zero warping! ;-)
TheTerrainTutor Good to know! I'll give it a go and post in the FB group.Oddly enough over here the board come in 2'x4', I was also thinking you could use 12" wide MDF shelving cut in 1x1 squared for even more modular terrain.
Thank you - This is a great video - i have always wanted to know how to do a textured gaming broad. Question: what would be the right colours and order to put them on for a desert landscape ? (and yes i know some kind of desert yellow)
Would using a foam paint roller be an option for creating the stippling effect, as I think about it, there are painting rollers designed to give certain texture effects..... what would your thoughts be on this?
what's a good brand to use found commonly in the US home improvement Stores (Lowe's or home depot)? I attempted Wood filler tonight for small Scatter terrain, and we'll see how that goes. However, I'd really like to use regular filler as I'm the vid. Due to being in the US I don't know what a good common brand that's found easily at a good price! Any help here is truly appreciated
I know this is an old thread, but if you're still in the market, you're looking for "DAP all purpose spackling paste". It's widely available here in the US, and it's dirt cheap. Happy gaming :)
Hi, 5 years later - I would love to see you make a game board for the new World Of Tanks miniatures game, please. I have purchased the game for me and my son and I am hoping to make a game board with him but no idea how to make it look like a WWII tank battle ground, - a new project for you!!!
I already did my table years ago, with much more money spent and a LOT of time more for completing. Your way is wordefully easier and cheaper. Now I have 3 table for my kill team games. Thanks.
I just built my first 6x4 table and used this video as a guide on how to make the texture, it looks great, thanks!
Awesome sauce matey
What I like about that, is that you could paint the other side grey and then you got two battlemaps which are modular as well
You channel pure Neil Buchanan in your tutorial videos.
When I textured my table I sealed it with watered down PVA, made up a mix of paint, PVA, various sand grades and premixed filler, it created a nice through-colour textured paste that dried like rock, as the paint is mixed into the filler, even if it chips it's still the same colour
Just made myself one of these for Malifaux - entirely thanks to your fantastic tutorial.
Thank you very much dude! I am chuffed with it; grand total of £9 spent!!
Can't argue with that.
+Elliot House Awesome sauce mate
That finish looks absolutely brilliant and baring in mind that GW want about £170 for their 6 piece plastic gaming board, your creation looks better, because you can design it exactly how YOU want, so is this another of your brilliant videos Mel... 100 percent YES :-)
Terry Bass Cheers buddy, fair difference from £17 to £170 lol
Been looking for a tutorial like this for a while. Thanks a lot for sharing it!
Greetings from Australia Mel!
Another Great vid!
It worked a treat for me. 1 issue I had was some of the ridges were too high (4/5 mm) after I spackled them. So rather than sanding it with sandpaper I used the base of a standard soup/spaghetti/ baked beans can (that I was using under the board).
Made it down to about 1mm. A tip maybe others "CAN" use.
I have dropped in $20 to you and encourage others to do the same!
Keep up the good work.
Cheers mate!!
Awesome tip mate and thank you, it's appreciated!
Frank Von Hi Frank Im in Straya too, Brissie. I was just wondering what filler you bought over here, the only ones I've ever worked with are stuff like Selleys Spakfiller but that's very dry.
Mel another great vid mate, I learn so much from watching them.
hey mate, what filler did you use?
Saw this when it first came out and now returning as I’ll be starting my own boards. Great tutorial, helpful and inspiring. Many thanks.
Hope it helps mate
Thanks for doing this. I worked on a gaming board this past summer. I wanted to do the same technique, but I couldn't find any good tutorials on it. I ended up using the stucco popcorn-effect stuff. It turned out a bit bumpier than I had hoped, but it still works great as a warhammer game board, and painting and dry brushing was a breeze. I will definitely be using this thinner spackle next time around. Thanks!
FoeJred No worries mate, hope the retexture goes well for you :-)
Hey guys! Really not sure if anyone will read this in an older video. But lets just give it a try! One of the first things I want to craft is a solid forest board. Im VERY new to this hobby and i realy love this board! I just dont want it to look all brown, but add in some greenish colours to give it an earthy forest character without adding any flock. Maybe with your browm base colour and then a mix of greens as a dry brush. Do you think thats possible and makes sense? Or do you absolutely need to use flock?
Did you end up doing this? Because I'm aiming to do similar. How did it go?
Well Mel, i tried this and it absolutely failed for me. The filler was too thick, and when I watered it down the water thinned it down so much that I was basically painting with water with a slight white tint.
So, I panicked.
I grabbed a flat piece of plastic nearby and scooped up golf ball sized chunks of filler and plopped them on the board. I watered my brush down repeatedly and spread the globs out.
My initial coat was much,much thicker than yours. It still looked like brush-spread filler with brush marks in it though. So, i grabbed a nearby sponge, soaked it in water and dapped the whole board.
In the end it ended up being much faster than your way and the end result is passable. Stipling adds a much nicer effect but the sponge did it's job.
I did have minor warping issues, but I just flipped the board over, poured water on the board and spread it around. Then I placed some heavy things across it and bam, back to flat.
I always screw things up, but in the process i learn things.
Thanks for your tutorials, sir. They are a massive help!
Nice one mate!
Wow this is really good stuff. Once I get a more solid base table I'll 100% be referring back to this when I make my new boards.
Purdius Prime Awesome mate, let me know how you get on :-)
Awesome tutorial - exactly what i wanted for my new table! Also must say your tutorials are sort of mesmerizing - i see you do stuff and i want to do it myself instantly :) since subscribing last week i built 4 ruins while watching your back to basics tutorials and half my gaming table is now textured with some leftover filler i found after watching this tutorial (gotta buy more to finish the job :)
Денис Чемакин That's brilliant mate, love it when people actually use the tutorials and build stuff :-)
I'm just about to start stippling some modular terrain boards and so came back here for some pointers. Thanks.
+Euan Smith Let me know how you get on mate
Im making a board based on this. 2x2 desert board. Ordered a 500 point italian army from warlord games, as well as more british common wealth forces. I built a little mud house, a hill, ordered a meditterean house, market stalls/benchers, a pump well, and an ox cart from Sarissa Productions. With all that Im gonna have a pretty nice little board. I need some trees or foilage though.
Nice tutorial. The texture looks like the texture on the GW Real of Battle boards. And I like the new video quality. Looks like you've been working on the lighting and the pip looks great. :)
***** Cheers buddy, it's a cracking technique. Loving the new filming and editing, just got to learn a new style of filming but I'm getting there slowly mate.
This is really great mate. I am on the cusp of starting a modular terrain board system and this has been very helpful. I am off to view more of your work. Thanks.
This again really makes me think about drywall texturing. If you used a thick nap paint roller, used a knock down or skip trowel or slap brush method you could cover a 4x8 in a far shorter amount of time. Keep up the vids...definitely making me think. :-)
Chris Hinson It's got to be worth a try, especially for mass production mate
Chris, how about a sponge, would that give a similar lightish stipple effect as well as speed up the process? I mean one of those 6" x 4" decorator sponges :-)
Terry Bass Absolutely, sponges are used by drywall artists regularly. You pick up some of the filler with the sponge, dab it onto the surface...wait a few minutes as TTT suggests, then for different effects you can do a "knock down" by dragging a flat trial over it lightly, or you could just leave it as is for a more course terrain. The more I research this, the more I realize there are a LOT of cross-over skills in terrain building and general construction. It's pretty much the same things that home builders use for speed....you can apply those techniques to terrain building for speed as well. Paying close attention to the materials used and be consistent with your experiments and it's repeatable.
Chris Hinson Chris, many thanks for your time in replying and helpful suggestions... Happy gaming :-)
My friends and I LOVE all of your videos!!
Inspiration for Soo many amazing projects!
Thank you Sir, Regards from Canada :)
Awesome sauce mate
Great tutorial! I'm not at all handy with any sort of DIY thing, but your videos are easy to understand and I think even someone like me could do it without much trouble! xD
I just wanted to share my experience with this method as I learned two things from practice that might help other people with a project like this (I stippeld spackle (love how that sounds to say) on 12mm MDF boards sized 2'x2'):
1. The filler you buy might be of a different consistency than what Mel is using. When thinning it down with water look at how it behaves when you spread it. Compare that to how it looks in this video and keep in mind what you are trying to archive. Maybe you even want to do a test run on some MDF offcut to try things out, but if you are as impatient as I am you can also figure it out on the go.
2. Even though I took all precautions I could think of, my MDF boards did warp. They sagged a bit in the middle or the rims rose respectively creating a concave shape about half a centimetre deep. And when I picked the boards up, I realised that a small seam had formed on the bottom of the board edges (I had them propped up on paint pots aswell). This seam actually helped hiding the warping quite well when looking at the boards from the side. So since all the boards had warped in about the same shape, they still had nicely fitting sides with one another and actually lay perfectly stable on my kitchen table. My tip is to have a look at your boards after the filler is dry and test them out before you start worrying about what is looking like a problem, they might be just right the way they are.
Nice tips mate, remember that paint pot in the middle to prevent the sagging and if your boards to warp, flip them over and paint a 3 inch wide cross going corner to corner on the underside, as it dries, it'll warp it back straight again ;-)
Thanks for the tip, Mel. Sadly painint on the underside of my MDF board did nothing, it didn't warp back at all.
So I decided to experiment: I propped a board up over my cooker, filled a pot with water and let it evaporate completly. Then I filled the pot again and repeated the process (turning my kitchen into a temporary sauna in the process). Afterwards I turned the board over, propped it up on some cans (again with one supporting the middle) and rested about 10 kg on top of it for two days. After that the warping was much less pronounced. I wouldn't recommend this though, because it doesn't solve the problem completely, uses a lot of energy and time; I would have been much smarter to buy a new board, but that's not why I'm into terrain building.
Excellent as always. You cant beat the clear descriptions. Thankyou.
thanks! i'm building my own GW realm of battle board, using foam to carve the hills in the corners and this technique will be perfect for the texturing.
Excellent matey
Awesome. I've been looking for a way to do custom game boards that will tie in with GW Realm of Battle boards nicely, and I think this technique will fit the bill, so long as I match the width of the MDF board to the width of the Realm of Battle board. The finish you have achieved looks like a very good match for the texture molded onto the RoB boards.
+Curran Egan Sounds like an awesome project mate :-)
Your videos are awesome. I will definitely try to apply this ideas to my models.
It was a very helpful video for me.
I am planning to make an "alien planet" terrain table like "tyranid planet" so I guess If I make more meshy stripling and paint it in purple/pink color it will look like as slime.
One word: EPIC! Two more words: THANK YOU!
xxxxNIGHTBRINGERxxxx No worries matey
A really nice and simple way of texturing a terrain board there, and with great looking results give your self a Gold Star for that one :)
Terrain Direct A shiny one? ;-)
Yes mate has to be a nice shiny one :-)
I'm really interested in basing techniques to simulate soil, bare ground, tracks and paths through terrain. Suggestion to add to your huge database of topics.
+Vikki Wilson Coming soon, gotta build a test board first ;-)
ProForm is only $15 a bucket in the U.S. its already ready or can add water and mix for an even thinner terrain builder and/or filler.
buddy you are always there....helping me out thank you very much...
It's what I'm here for matey
Really nice technique. I have always used PVA and sand but this looks great. I will give it a go.
+Tony Hind Hope you like the effect mate
Great idea - think I'll use this for sea and/or river bed and shore lines/waves too. THanks
Carsten Dittrich Glad it helped mate
As always Mel, it's great, both educational and entertaining. I have used Relief (textured) "paint" (it's more of a primer I think) mixed with a bit of fine sand on my boards. But I do like the alternative
George Panopoulos Thanks mate, I'll have to give that a go, thanks for the heads up.
Thank you very much for this. It's inspired me to make some boards for naval gaming.
So you just painted the exact boards with different colors of blue? How did it turn out?
I always learn something from Mel that is not obvious to the inexperienced (or even those like me who have years of the same limlted expertise!!). Look him up before you start a project.
Thanks buddy!
Awesome video Mel I'm in the middle of doing 4 boards like this for an easyily storable gaming board for 40k great idea with the filler I recently failed with sand and glue and saw this after lol
Remember to do a test piece first bud!
yeah i didnt do a test peice and went strait to the gaming board. it looked different and didnt have quite the same effect as your peice in this video but it still looked decent. my mistake
Nice tutorial, been working with filler and this has given me a lot of nice tips.
SnailMasterWargaming Glad it's helped matey ;-)
The longer brush was a “happy accident” whereas you could paint this to look like ocean tiles!
I'd really like to see the rock blending tutorial thanks for all your informative videos learning alot from them
+Jonathan Senkow in the hills playlist mate
I'd love to see how you create a board with pink/blue foam. I was starting on one but when I went to glue the 1/4" board to the 1.5" foam, the pieces (or one, not sure which) warped pretty heavily despite having close to 50 pounds of weight scattered over it. I did use wood glue (not watered down) for the adhesive if that makes a difference. Otherwise, I may do similar to what you have here and simply use a much thicker piece of board. Thanks and keep up the AMAZING work.
Dan Bellinger Yeah, 1/2" is the best starting point for boards mate, hopefully a proper terrain board will be on the boards soon .... sorry about the pun lol
Very useful tutorial matey. Love the channel.
Another invaluable video. Thank you!
Looking forward to seeing you flock it up. I'm building a board using this technique in the very near future
Will Rosenow hopefully it won't be too long but check my foliage playlist in the meantime, i cover flocking in there mate ;-)
great video, love how many times you said stiple
This video was super helpful for creating a my first little board, Thanks a lot!
Still a fantastic video. All the best to you in 2024.
"man.... im glad i found this channel, awesome".
Welcome aboard mate
awesome job! cool technique just did it myself but it would be nice if you showed how to put grass and stuff on it
+GOD OF GODS Check the foliage playlist, plenty of tutorials on grass in there
So, I've been trying to find a video or post on how to finish the surface on modular foam board tiles, before the flocking. Can't seem to find anything that gives me an exact answer. I'm new to terrain making, so I don't have any failures to learn from yet. Do you have any videos that cover this that I'm missing, or does this technique work just fine for the pink foam boards?
Works for pink foam but checkout the back to basics playlist mate
Awesome as always! I'm learning so much from all these videos!
LeSadW666 Glad you're finding them helpful matey
Superb gaming board Mel
Thanks for this great texturing technique! I will definitely be using this in the future.
The Great Hobbit no worries mate, hope it works out for you
Love your videos and DIY approach. I'm now thinking of building a cheap modular 4x4 foam board 40k battle field. Made up of 4x square pieces of thick insolation foam board held together with wooden downs or BBQ sticks. But as my dining table is only 4x2. Do you think I'll need to reinforce it as there is going to be a bit hanging off both ends? I would like it to still be light and easy to store.
you can get away with a 1/3 of a board hanging over, anymore than that and you'll have issues, especially with all metal armies in the deployment zones. Buckaroo!
Thanx Mel im just about to do a 4x4 Necromunda board and now i know how the bottom layer will be :) cheers bro :)
TribalwarsLedgend Awesome, love Necromunda
really need to make this exact board right down to the colours and everything but want to know how to do it with out the streaks (brush strokes) in the dry brushing
drybrush lighter mate, if you have streaks, it's too much paint on the brush
thanks sir
bloody fantastic! wish i had watched this video a month a go when i was making my display board.
GREATJOJOMAN Thanks matey, isn't it always the way ;-)
I'm planning on putting together some boards next weekend! This video is PERFECT for what I need!!!! Thanks mel! I'm gonna go for a concrete look. (What do you think, light gray basecoat and white drybrush?)
frenzykitty Awesome mate, that should work well :-)
Great tips! I plan to use this. What ratio do you use to water down the paint when you cover the board with the base coat?
2:1 paint to water mate
When I textured my table I mixed PVA and sand 50: 50 and used a paint scraper as a spatula to spread it down to a thin layer, which gives a very firm consistent surface but takes a lot of paint and is extra messy. I'd almost say it's too consistent though, and is prone to lines from the edge of the scraper. This method seems great and gives a nice consistently inconsistent (so to speak) organic surface, and I think I'll definitely give it a go for the next table I do. What brand/type of filler do you use? Might not have it over here in Aus but should be able to track down something similar.
***** I generally use whatever budget brand filler I can find, just grab a small tester tub and give it a go, you should be ok with normal filler mate
Hello, I made the board following your tutorial on a 14mm MDF board. Unfortunately It is too weight, to avoid warping May I use a 6mm ? or 8mm is the minimum for the MDF? thank you
Paint a pva cross, 6inch wide on the bottom, it'll warp it back straight mate. Main thing is the initial thickness is sturdy enough before the techniques mate
How do you guys stop spackle from cracking or being too brittle? Mine just kept on cracking.
Excellent work, Mel
Awesome technique and finish. I have just made my first lot of boards, and they have come out great. I did make a mistake by not laying a couple of them flat and they have warped. So to unwarp them would you suggest I dampen the back of the board and lay flat again? Cheers
Paint the underside with neat pva mate
Mel could you use plaster bandage instead of or alongside this technique? I guess you'd use it more as an under layer, to create elevations beneath the stipple?
You could but you'll still next to texture it
Hey Mel, I've read a lot of warnings online about MDF warping over time. Do you have that problem with your boards after you use this method? I know you say to use 12 mil or thicker, which I plan on doing, but just wanted to get your two cents on the issue.
+Shallowleaf I use this method because it allows me to texture the board without using pva, so yes, this is a lot less likely to cause warping matey
Alright, thank you so very much, sir!
Hi.I bought 12mm MDF and supported it as in this vid, but mine still warped :( What did I do wrong? Could I have made it too wet?
Love your work.
If I were to place the board on a large project table (bigger than the board) would this keep the MDF from warping or would you suggest resting the board on paint pots even if this is an option? Thank you very much.
Nice tutorial, but I have a few follow up questions. Would you combine this technique with normal sand over it and how would it look? Do you have a comment on how to do like muddy streets into the texture? Maybe do this under sand and have the streets not covert, so it would more act like the muddy underground? How is the texture of this filler compared with fine sand + small rocks on miniature bases (28mm) ? Ok enough for now :) Thanks!
tae1000esd You could combine it in patches but completely covering it would probably obscure the texture. It would depend on what you mean by muddy street, is the surface dirt that's got wet and well travelled or is it a cobblestone/tarmac street that's become muddy? The last one is a difficult one because the texture can vary considerably depending on how much effort you put in and also how well textured the sand/grit/gravel is done mate, best suggestion is give it a go.
I’m using brown filler, pva, paint and chinchilla dust all at the same time for a muddy covering 🙀
hey do you think this would work well for giving texture to a plain wall i.e no brickwork or shall i just use the same technique you used in your foamboard ruins video ?
foamboard ruins one mate, this is a bit too textured for brickwork. Check my very lastest vids on concrete bunkers, that might help you
Oh wow great help thank you, love your channel keep up the good work
Is filler the same thing as Dry-wall compound? I am assuming so based on the look of it but not 100%.
By the time you reply to this it might be too late, but I was wondering if I could mix in sand with the final coats of filler to give it a more interesting and "realistic" texture. Should also help avoid some of the lines I'm guessing and I've heard it makes dried filler surfaces harder and more durable. Any experience or tips on this?
Yep, throw a bit of pva in as well for good measure bud ;-)
Should I "paint" on a thin layer of watered down pva glue before or after the filler has dried up? Like finish with it as a final coat? I'm gonna paint the texture with a good layer of brown paint either way, so i'm curious when I should apply the PVA then.
Speaking of, what ratio do you use water to pva and water to paint when using either?
Nah, just add some to your basecoat paint, say 10 parts paint, 1 part pva
Speaking of storage. How would you store this compactly with and without flocking/rocks? If it was just the "flat" rocky look then I can see just stacking them against a wall or in a box would work fine. Once you add a bit more I see it being an issue. Ideas?
Zach Cash I normally use layers on bubblewap between the boards and then have them on their side in a box. Storage does get more challenging as the boards get more involved but that's one of the cons of fully featured boards mate.
Love your videos Mel, and I'll be using this technique to texture my display boards for Adepticon. I'll be adding hills and rocks etc as you mentioned in the video - but did you say that you should put down the first layer of filler first to seal it, *before* you glue on rocks and hills? Wouldn't the texture of the sealing layer make it hard to glue down say, an extruded polystyrene hill? Thanks and keep up the great vids!
Glue you're main terrain first, then stipple with filler mate
I want to make a double sided board, if this was face down could it scratch up a table?
Thanks for the great video. Would you be able to do something as large as a 4x3 foot mdf board without having to worry about warping?
+Stuart Page Should be fine mate :-)
I just bought a 4 by 8 foot board to make my DbMM terrain table. Thanks for the tutorial.
How durable is the spackle to scuffs, etc over time? Is it prone to chipping?
+Ronald Brow (HestonFan) I've given it some serious play hammer without any problems. If you've got worries, seal it with varnish mate
Very nice., been thinking of doing boards. But might try this way.
Jonathan Cox Give it a go on a test piece mate, see if you like it ;-)
My filler keeps reactivating and melting when I come to paint it the next day. Even when I use extra tough filler. PVA even melts it a little so that brush strokes form. Any ideas?
Some fillers do that, Diall ready mixed filler from B&Q doesn't mate, took me a few brands before I settled on Diall
im brand new to the hobby, and i was wondering for making a game board, what material do you use as the board itself?
what would you do differently if you wanted to have a road within the board? scrape away the stipling?
what paint do you use?
im looking to do an africa themed board. and wondered what colour youd reccomend for the same?
thanks for taking the time to reply (As you always do when i ask you questions)
House paint mate
Brilliant! Shared, subscribed and liked. The lowest lip on the GW Realm of battle boards is about 6mm 1/4". I'm looking to add variety to that set. Any ideas on countering the warping? I've heard painting the backside will help warp it back.
Joe Boster Painting the back does help but it's easier just to avoid pva, texture with filler, flock with spray adhesive, seal with matt varnish ..... no pva, zero warping! ;-)
TheTerrainTutor Good to know! I'll give it a go and post in the FB group.Oddly enough over here the board come in 2'x4', I was also thinking you could use 12" wide MDF shelving cut in 1x1 squared for even more modular terrain.
I own some dwarfs from warhammer fantasy, how would you make a gaming board that size to look like stone slabs?
+Sean Edgar Engraved polystyrene sheets mate
Thank you - This is a great video - i have always wanted to know how to do a textured gaming broad. Question: what would be the right colours and order to put them on for a desert landscape ? (and yes i know some kind of desert yellow)
Ocre and a cream drybrush highlight mate
Fab, Thank you :)
Brilliant as usual would artex work as well or is it too soft
Absolutely perfect mate.
Great video, easy to understand! Have to try it sometime soon. Many Thanks!
Sang1957 Cheers buddy, glad you found it useful
i may have bitten off more than i can chew, i'm going to try this on a 6x4 board :S any tips for doing large areas?
Work in 2x2 sections and then work on blending the sections together, there's a time limit for stippling mate
TheTerrainTutor awesome, thanks.
Hi Mel, would you do this the same way on insulation foam?
yep, it'll work fine
How would you recommend sealing the surface? Watered down PVA? Varnish?
I'd go with varnish mate but pva would work
Any varnish recommendations?
Would using a foam paint roller be an option for creating the stippling effect, as I think about it, there are painting rollers designed to give certain texture effects..... what would your thoughts be on this?
Spydah666 i imagine the texture would be softer but it's gotta be worth a try matey
TheTerrainTutor Was just a thought
I saw an old video of you making modular trenches on your old channel. Any chance you could repost it from start to finish or make a new one?
Rob Hurding I'd have to make a new one mate, I'll put it on the list ;-)
TheTerrainTutor It looked cool.
Where do I find info on commission a game board?
what's a good brand to use found commonly in the US home improvement Stores (Lowe's or home depot)?
I attempted Wood filler tonight for small Scatter terrain, and we'll see how that goes. However, I'd really like to use regular filler as I'm the vid. Due to being in the US I don't know what a good common brand that's found easily at a good price!
Any help here is truly appreciated
Sorry mate, I don't know the US brands, but if you find a good one, let me know for future askers please :-)
I know this is an old thread, but if you're still in the market, you're looking for "DAP all purpose spackling paste". It's widely available here in the US, and it's dirt cheap. Happy gaming :)
Absolutely love your work- thanks!
Hi, 5 years later - I would love to see you make a game board for the new World Of Tanks miniatures game, please.
I have purchased the game for me and my son and I am hoping to make a game board with him but no idea how to make it look like a WWII tank battle ground, - a new project for you!!!