Honestly, this is the 3rd video and I'm still digging the idea. I see these and think "What about volcanic/abyssal terrain?" or "How about lunar scape?" The idea that really grabs me would be bio-hive terrain. Something in the style of Tyrranid/Xeonomorph/Zerg where the landscape has been altered to be part of a larger living body. And of course anything you can think of to tie terrain in with undead. Necromancers are always fun!
I mean if you enjoy making the mats and go for more styles, just do it. The idea is great so why not explore further ? This channel for me is all about accessible easy crafting with great new ideas and techniques, so keep the theme going Jeremy, rock on dude !
I would love to see his technique for a frozen lake mat. Though... a snow mat using that stuff for Christmas villages might be durable. Just wouldn't want it to be the white version of the desert mat.
I would love to see something for Spelljammer. A space mat with fun fantasy-space themed scatter terrain. Maybe even a ship?? I got the Archvillains mind flayer set that would be ripe with inspiration!
That’s awesome. I’ve bought those mats from Harbor Freight a few times before. Anytime I keep quail I like to put padding on the ceiling of whatever pen they are in. Quail like to jump straight up in the air when spooked and they can injure themselves hitting a hard surface. I’ve had them break their own necks and even expose their own skull when they get spooked. This stuff helps with that. When you said that your American viewers we’re having trouble trouble finding it I was already pulling up the comments to say Harbor Freight lol.
LOVE this flexible battle mat series. Fantastic way to build a lightweight, easily storable collection of beautiful mats. Also thankful for showing your failures so we don't make the same mistakes!
I love that part. It also reinforces the idea that you're 100% going to destroy terrain that you worked on, at some point. Mistakes are a huge part of the hobby, and that's valuable information for newbies.
I love that you so excitedly embrace whatever the fans enjoy. I never feel like you do it reluctantly just because it will get views. You always put your all and try to be creative and bring something new every time. You’re the best man.
Been following for years and still to this day LOVE your builds. I like how you're considerate that other people may not have the funds to do huge builds
Funny as it is, I'm currently starting a game of Five Parsecs from Home and I got no scifi terrain at all. I've been wondering how I would do the mats and this mini series on how to craft them is something I am really looking for haha. Usually, I go with the fabric + caulk approach, but I really like the "fixed" mat idea you got going. Thanks man!
A nice frozen tundra / snow and ice themed one would be pretty cool. I think you could get another video or two out of this idea. I'd certainly watch a couple more.
Love too see a jungle version of this . These mats are great the perfect amount of realism versus the miniature they look like they exist in the same world.
A few years ago I actually made a very similar ocean tile with PVA "puzzle mat". I painted the whole thing with craft paints and I did use clear caulking and I can't remember which brand but it worked great. It wasn't super fun to work with, especially because it smells vinegar-ish and is hard to wash but it did a convnicing enough water tile. So clear caulking does work, just depends on which brand you use.
I would love to see more battle mat videos! Some ideas for terrain: underwater (might be too similar to ocean), volcanic, clouds, space/galaxy. You keep making the videos, and I'll keep watching them.
Two more cool and easy mats. I liked the little additions in the last one, like the cobblestone road and rocks to give it some depth. Having said that I would love to see a snow scape with some depth so it's not just plain caulking rolled on a mat.
Play mat video idea: taking these nice but "basic" mats to the next level, little upgrades and details you can add to them. Adding rocks, adding scatter terrain, how you do trees, etc. I know a lot of that is techniques you have gone over before but for new folks just finding your channel that could be fun and help them get that info.
Some dried-out air dry clay (Crayola) ground up in a coffee grinder makes great lightweight sand/pebbles! My kid loves the stuff & I'm always finding dried out little nugs of the stuff everywhere. I just grind it up & put it in a tub for basing later.
A medieval village map with roads that come to a "T" intersection and a bridge over a little stream. Maybe a well in the village square. Try to make it feel/look different depending on how it is oriented to the viewer. You do a wonderful job. Thank you so much.
Love these videos, so useful, and easy enough even for a beginner. Definitely like to see more. While it seems easy enough to get in N. America, latex caulking is really hard to find and expensive in the country I live in, so it wouldn't really be worth it for me personally. Its interesting the things you discover that are common place and cheap in one place, but virtually non-existent and expensive in another.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial I live in Japan. None of my local DIY stores stock latex caulking, only silicon. And online I can only find really expensive non Japanese imported brands. It seems latex just isn't used for caulking here. At least as far as I can tell. There are so many things I've found to be common in Europe/N. America, that are just not used here.
I'm enjoying the battle mats. I think you have one more video with them before viewers get board. The water mat looks real good in the close-up. The roller texture with white cap dry brush is surprisingly effective. The simple beach setup works well too. I immediately see an Egyptian coast with the way you have it laid out.
Loving these! Would love to see more. It would also be cool to see how you'd do some drop in pieces for where the edges meet of different terrain types. Sandbars at the beach, rocky outcroppings, things to break up the straight lines. Thanks for the videos!
Hey, just an idea, you might want to experiment with sand texture additive in paints. Pick up a quart of white flat paint and the sand texture from a hardware store then mix them together with whatever color you need and it makes a nice rough surface. Might work for well for dirt, roads and a desert look. Also sometimes the sand peeks through the paint to add a cool pebbled look.
I'd love to see a city/town one ❤ this is a an amazing idea. Maybe kids foam mats could be an alternative if you can't find what your using.... Or a roll of foam.
I love this series so far, as I am looking for projects for my kids and this is very accessible. For the water I'll try a different approach: leaving the caulking white and colouring in with DIY contrast paint. That way there should be an easy gradient. Love your stuff!
I like the idea of a lunar mat. I'm also thinking this would be great for a space mat to use with One Page Rule's FTL starship games. Mostly black with some silver/white/yellow splatters for stars and some drybrush "nebulae" in cotton candy colors.
The solvent for silicone sealant/adhesive or caulking is ascetic acid, so the domestic, solvent is distilled vinegar. I hope this helps in the future. 😊
I haven't found any of the cheap matts at the local dollar stores, but Harbor Freight does in fact have them. I'm going to take what you've done the last few videos and take a swipe and doing a wasteland style matt. Our group plays a lot of This Is Not A Test, Space Weirdos, and Stargrave so a wasteland style will probably be used the most.
You started releasing these vids exactly when I was thinking about making one of these mats! In my case I'm really taken with the idea of making more otherworldly mats inspired by things like Hellfire Peninsula & Zangarmarsh, but these are just neat regardless!
For the water map, gloss modpdge would have done a very nice wet effect, also they sell it at the dollar store. Gloss modpodge over the blue and then dry brush off white over the ridge.
After grass/dirt and stone tile, my go-tos are cobblestone and wood planks. A big cobblestone mat and a bunch of large-ish tiles of wood planks and you got the floor plans for a town. I've seen some interesting things done with wood grain vinyl floor mats & drawing lines with permanent marker, might be worth looking into?
More of these - please. Would like to see snow and cobblestone. Also, I like your water, but would love to see some more experiments with the water. Thanks!
Dollar tree sells these square carpet tiles that are rubber on the back. They look to be like 20" squares. I just used them for grass terrain and they came out ok. Also tried that crystal clear silicone and it looks good but if used in any thickness it takes weeks to dry lol
Can't wait to see more modern/cyberpunk builds! That's been the biggest thing I've been working on (your shipping containers were my inspiration). However these mat ideas are great, and I'm curious to see what you come up with next!
Definitely love these simple and straightforward ways to get some good looking battlemats. I’ll be on the lookout for these mats or something equivalent in Belgium.
Hey jeremy, greetings from mexico city! I suggest a redo of the water/sea batttlemat with a black or dark blue color, clear silicon caulk (i use ceys total tech) and acetone as the diluent for de caulk. First, make 2 clear mod podge coat on the surface on the foam mat (apply the first coat in one direction and the second in a cross section from the first, to avoid bending). Second mix some acetone, alcohol inks and the translucent cauk in a glass recipient and apply with a roller. Finaly, i recomend to let it dry in the open for 2 to 4 hours, and its ready to play.
I’ve tried that, but there’s always a bit of spatter. That can be a great look for certain themes though. Taping them off is neater but takes a looooong time using brushes and craft paint. Airbrushing your taped off grid lines can go a lot faster, as drying time is reduced.
Love the mats, cheap ways to increase immersion for a session. I'd love to see a hellscape, cracked terrain with red "glowing" lava running through it. In fact it could be easily painted a different color to make it a different astral plane. Swamp would be my another go to mat, nothing good ever happens in a swamp!
If you need to thin silicone again, try naphtha. You can paint silicone this way, using a silicone and pigment base, thinned out with naphtha to airbrush.
I have a challenge for you. I have cheap (£5 for 6 tiles) small interlocking square eva foam play mats about 30x30 cm and always wanted to make a town /city mat for a fantasy town setting and wanted the tiles to be modular so that you can have different street layouts keeping the interlocking edges for stability. Would love to see what you can come up with as it would be a great help. I have been sitting on them for a while now! 😊
I found yoga mats of the same, but maybe slightly thinner material at 5 Below. Might also work good for this if you are making a huge mat or are cool with cutting it into smaller mats.
What happens if you put magnets in the foam? Also I've got the idea for an aphid that is exposed to magic and starts eating magical items and combines, like if it is eating 1 magic book, it is like a large fly, 3 books = 1 bat, 6 = an enlarged worm, all the way up until it hits a critical mass and then becomes a rift styled portal to wherever. I'm not sure how to craft that idea or where to start, ideas?
I like how you're using your house carpentry experience in your builds. You're sorta inadvertently pushing us all that direction too. We're all out buying insulation foam and caulk guns that I'd imagine some people wouldn't buy otherwise. I see your evil genius there Jeremy. :D
In another water board video, someone recommended transparent silicone or acrylic, forgot which, and diluted it with alcohol, tinted it with ink. It looked great. Not as great as his sculpting acrylic (also transparent) but the silicone/acrylic remained flexible after curing.
To add on the people who might have issues finding these mats. At the very least I can try and help out for any fellow dutch folks over here, you can find similar mats in a store called "Action" at 8 euros for a pack of 6 (40 x 40cm on each mat) of these mats, they do come with these... puzzle like edges so they kind of click into eachother, but these are easily trimmed Hope this helps! 👍 As on the video, I've definitely been loving these mats videos, I might have to give a crack at this! I've been needing some oceans and I recently pulled a bunch of these mats away from under my carpet from when I tried to sound proof it, so I've got plenty of these to spare now 😂
Niceee, now I just need a proper snow ruins mat and a volcano mat and I'll be ready for every possible encounter I can think of and for Frost grave! The scifi one is my goal for Stargrave and planet 28 but frostgrave is my group's favorite.
Good old gloss mod-podge may be a good way to add back the shine you passed on for the 2nd ocean mat... another option is water based polycrylic. I've used it for a few terrain pieces as a final varnish, the matte version is, well it wasn't really matte, but in terms of creating a durable surface the stuff's great, with a similar easy level of cleanup to PVA products. For something that you WANT shiny it's a no brainer. I just finished my first war-gaming board ever a few days ago, mostly using your foamcore-on-woodframe method. Ended up spending more than I should have but final product turned out nice & I'm eager to get to some 5 Leagues from the Borderland :). I will comment that the differences between what Dollar Tree stocks in various regions is notable... In addition to none of my nearby dollar stores having floor mats (definitely gonna check Harbor Freight though), only 1 Dollar Tree actually carried the wooden artist panels. If you want to get proper 12x12 sized stuff here your only hope is someplace like Michaels too :/. One more interesting thing I found during this journey... you know that crumbly green floral foam? The kind everyone says is freaking useless for crafting? Well, I found a use. Take a hunk, crumble it up good, mix with equal parts baking soda, isopropyl, & mod-podge & it makes a fairly killer texture paste.
I'd like to see how you would make a river run through one, not just flat and painted on like a road, but with a little depth (maybe cut into it, or use an iron to burn it) and textured banks. It would be like taking the cheap mat to another level.
loving the series. would be awesome to see more of whatever genre you come up with. especially like your horror themed/hellscape stuff. fwiw, i found a pack of 9 12x12” foam tiles at a Christmas Tree Shoppe. $16.99. a little more than i was hoping but with 9 tiles that snap together like puzzle pieces, i can make them a little more modular and portable.
I love this project and would love to see more, would a gloss varnish have worked on the water mat? Conversely would a wash of some sort helped with the depth on the desert mat? Either way really simple and cheap method
Can you please make modular roads! I would love to see you make roads with the cobble roller/heat method! Or can you glue the mats together and then make a bigger mat?
I've been really digging this series. As boring/simple as it may sound a classic dungeon tile set would be cool and it also begs the question, could you then either cut it up into bits to make a whole dungeon tile set or could you come up with a good system for adding walls to fill in the negative space.
They look really nice and i will try this at my try of a modular table (6 tiles). Maybe you could do something like a semi modular tile (1ft x 1ft) with 1-2 in foam where you cut out like two circles or rectangles where you could change in the game like a crater from an explosion or a circle with a building that could be exchanged by a circle with a shattered building to simulate dynamic elements for a game (at least that is what i try to do but well i think if you would do something like that it would look a thousand times better) Cheers Sascha
These are fun, but I feel like we get it at this point! I’ve seen enough examples to spark creativity and incorporate this into my own crafting. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t watch some more, especially something with some higher color variance / more advanced painting techniques
Awesome video as always ❤ Can't get enough of these battlemat videos. I'd love to see you either add some easy and cheap terrain features like hills and craters. Also I'd be curious to see how you'd combine multiple mats to a bigger one, similar to the "hinges" cyberpunk mat you made, but for a lunar or more earthy surface
I'm loving these mat videos. I'm looking at making a few myself, one similar to the first one you made - perfect for Infinity, one for a spaceship interior (Kill Team), one for Gaslands another for Carnevale and I'm also considering trying to make a hex grid mat for Grid Wars. All these will be of the folding variety. It would be good to see how many variations are possible.
CHECK OUT THE AWESOME EMBER DICE KICKSTARTER: bit.ly/EMBERDICEKS
Should I make more of these dollar store battle mats? What themes do you want to see?
City theme, like for Marvel Crisis Protocol.
Thank you Jeremy, happy to welcome you all in our Ember Dice KS! :)
More mats!
Yes which DR"S you hit as well...mine runs out of those mats all the time(thou that might be my fault LOL) PEG UP!
Loving these mats! Just getting into frost grave and would love to a cobblestone city or snow mat!
I would love to see a volcano terrain theme for one of these
This. ☝️
yeah, lava/volcano one would be cool! And maybe a marsh?
Just a bog standard mountain would be cool too
A lava field terrain would be amazing 😁
Came to suggest exactly this!
For more in this series, I’d like to see a ruins, medieval city street looks, and maybe a futuristic starship look,
Starship is of particular interest to me.
Honestly, this is the 3rd video and I'm still digging the idea. I see these and think "What about volcanic/abyssal terrain?" or "How about lunar scape?" The idea that really grabs me would be bio-hive terrain. Something in the style of Tyrranid/Xeonomorph/Zerg where the landscape has been altered to be part of a larger living body. And of course anything you can think of to tie terrain in with undead. Necromancers are always fun!
I love the lunar scape idea. That would go well with my NASA punk space dwarfs
I love these. Bio-Creep is a great one, and fitting for the channel, I think. Very Nurgle or Eldritch as well.
Dude, now I really want a lunar scape!
I mean if you enjoy making the mats and go for more styles, just do it. The idea is great so why not explore further ? This channel for me is all about accessible easy crafting with great new ideas and techniques, so keep the theme going Jeremy, rock on dude !
This 100%
note for future silicone endeavors. white/mineral spirits is your friend for thinning it out.
I think that clear acrylic caulk may have worked.
A mountain and/or snow battlemap would be awesome! These are so fun and keep killing it man!
I would love to see his technique for a frozen lake mat.
Though... a snow mat using that stuff for Christmas villages might be durable. Just wouldn't want it to be the white version of the desert mat.
I would love to see something for Spelljammer. A space mat with fun fantasy-space themed scatter terrain. Maybe even a ship?? I got the Archvillains mind flayer set that would be ripe with inspiration!
That’s awesome. I’ve bought those mats from Harbor Freight a few times before. Anytime I keep quail I like to put padding on the ceiling of whatever pen they are in. Quail like to jump straight up in the air when spooked and they can injure themselves hitting a hard surface. I’ve had them break their own necks and even expose their own skull when they get spooked. This stuff helps with that. When you said that your American viewers we’re having trouble trouble finding it I was already pulling up the comments to say Harbor Freight lol.
LOVE this flexible battle mat series. Fantastic way to build a lightweight, easily storable collection of beautiful mats. Also thankful for showing your failures so we don't make the same mistakes!
I love that part. It also reinforces the idea that you're 100% going to destroy terrain that you worked on, at some point. Mistakes are a huge part of the hobby, and that's valuable information for newbies.
I love that you so excitedly embrace whatever the fans enjoy. I never feel like you do it reluctantly just because it will get views. You always put your all and try to be creative and bring something new every time. You’re the best man.
a medieval fantasy/age of sigmar city mat would be cool, especially with raised sidewalks
Dang, dude. You are on fire with this series. I gotta say, your projects are inspiring me to get back into the crafting game.
Been following for years and still to this day LOVE your builds. I like how you're considerate that other people may not have the funds to do huge builds
I would love to see more videos of other things from the dollar store, like terrain pieces, or converting cheap toys into minis.
I'd love to see more of these. I also wouldn't mind seeing some "next step" videos for how to take these cheap mats to the next level.
Love the series. It helps with a lot :) A mossy graveyard would be fun to try sometime
Maybe with flock or static grass texture too, just for fancy.
This would be awesome.
I've been loving the 'return' to cheap terrain recently. I like the more involved projects also, but it's nice to have more achievable terrain
Funny as it is, I'm currently starting a game of Five Parsecs from Home and I got no scifi terrain at all. I've been wondering how I would do the mats and this mini series on how to craft them is something I am really looking for haha. Usually, I go with the fabric + caulk approach, but I really like the "fixed" mat idea you got going. Thanks man!
A nice frozen tundra / snow and ice themed one would be pretty cool. I think you could get another video or two out of this idea. I'd certainly watch a couple more.
Love too see a jungle version of this . These mats are great the perfect amount of realism versus the miniature they look like they exist in the same world.
If you're wanting water texture, I'd recommend using Vallejo water effects, they have Atlantic, Mediterranean and pacific ocean colours
I love the idea of butting them together. That bridge is great.
As I stated last week, I'll be making my Idols of Torment board out of these techniques! 😁
A few years ago I actually made a very similar ocean tile with PVA "puzzle mat".
I painted the whole thing with craft paints and I did use clear caulking and I can't remember which brand but it worked great.
It wasn't super fun to work with, especially because it smells vinegar-ish and is hard to wash but it did a convnicing enough water tile.
So clear caulking does work, just depends on which brand you use.
Yes please, do continue, a short playlist of these will be useful for various folks :D
I would love to see more battle mat videos! Some ideas for terrain: underwater (might be too similar to ocean), volcanic, clouds, space/galaxy. You keep making the videos, and I'll keep watching them.
Two more cool and easy mats. I liked the little additions in the last one, like the cobblestone road and rocks to give it some depth. Having said that I would love to see a snow scape with some depth so it's not just plain caulking rolled on a mat.
Play mat video idea: taking these nice but "basic" mats to the next level, little upgrades and details you can add to them. Adding rocks, adding scatter terrain, how you do trees, etc. I know a lot of that is techniques you have gone over before but for new folks just finding your channel that could be fun and help them get that info.
Some dried-out air dry clay (Crayola) ground up in a coffee grinder makes great lightweight sand/pebbles! My kid loves the stuff & I'm always finding dried out little nugs of the stuff everywhere. I just grind it up & put it in a tub for basing later.
My wife got me an Ember D20 for our Iron Anniversary, and it is fantastic! Looking forward to these new sets!!
Yes, please make more mats. Love the ideas I get from your videos.
I love these mats, can't get enough of them. Thanks for this design, I will actually make one of these in my own style.
A medieval village map with roads that come to a "T" intersection and a bridge over a little stream. Maybe a well in the village square. Try to make it feel/look different depending on how it is oriented to the viewer. You do a wonderful job. Thank you so much.
Picked up some of these the other day for a snow terrain. Wish us luck!
Yeah, I want to see more. I love the budget videos. I'd love to see it with a subtle grid...
Love these videos, so useful, and easy enough even for a beginner. Definitely like to see more. While it seems easy enough to get in N. America, latex caulking is really hard to find and expensive in the country I live in, so it wouldn't really be worth it for me personally. Its interesting the things you discover that are common place and cheap in one place, but virtually non-existent and expensive in another.
Where do you live?
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial I live in Japan. None of my local DIY stores stock latex caulking, only silicon. And online I can only find really expensive non Japanese imported brands. It seems latex just isn't used for caulking here. At least as far as I can tell. There are so many things I've found to be common in Europe/N. America, that are just not used here.
I would absolutely love a swamp version of these.
I'm enjoying the battle mats. I think you have one more video with them before viewers get board.
The water mat looks real good in the close-up. The roller texture with white cap dry brush is surprisingly effective. The simple beach setup works well too. I immediately see an Egyptian coast with the way you have it laid out.
More mats please! I'm loving these back to basics videos!
Loving these! Would love to see more. It would also be cool to see how you'd do some drop in pieces for where the edges meet of different terrain types. Sandbars at the beach, rocky outcroppings, things to break up the straight lines. Thanks for the videos!
Hey, just an idea, you might want to experiment with sand texture additive in paints. Pick up a quart of white flat paint and the sand texture from a hardware store then mix them together with whatever color you need and it makes a nice rough surface. Might work for well for dirt, roads and a desert look. Also sometimes the sand peeks through the paint to add a cool pebbled look.
i don’t have any specific ideas but i really love these and would love to see more
I love the simplicity. I would also love to see what it would look like if you went all out on one of these.
I like it. A mat makes a big difference and ties together the terrain for your game
I'd love to see a city/town one ❤ this is a an amazing idea. Maybe kids foam mats could be an alternative if you can't find what your using.... Or a roll of foam.
I love this series so far, as I am looking for projects for my kids and this is very accessible. For the water I'll try a different approach: leaving the caulking white and colouring in with DIY contrast paint. That way there should be an easy gradient. Love your stuff!
I like the idea of a lunar mat. I'm also thinking this would be great for a space mat to use with One Page Rule's FTL starship games. Mostly black with some silver/white/yellow splatters for stars and some drybrush "nebulae" in cotton candy colors.
The solvent for silicone sealant/adhesive or caulking is ascetic acid, so the domestic, solvent is distilled vinegar. I hope this helps in the future. 😊
I haven't found any of the cheap matts at the local dollar stores, but Harbor Freight does in fact have them. I'm going to take what you've done the last few videos and take a swipe and doing a wasteland style matt. Our group plays a lot of This Is Not A Test, Space Weirdos, and Stargrave so a wasteland style will probably be used the most.
Wonder if adding some fine sand to the desert mix would help with depth and dry brushing.
You started releasing these vids exactly when I was thinking about making one of these mats! In my case I'm really taken with the idea of making more otherworldly mats inspired by things like Hellfire Peninsula & Zangarmarsh, but these are just neat regardless!
For the water map, gloss modpdge would have done a very nice wet effect, also they sell it at the dollar store. Gloss modpodge over the blue and then dry brush off white over the ridge.
After grass/dirt and stone tile, my go-tos are cobblestone and wood planks. A big cobblestone mat and a bunch of large-ish tiles of wood planks and you got the floor plans for a town.
I've seen some interesting things done with wood grain vinyl floor mats & drawing lines with permanent marker, might be worth looking into?
Love these! Please do your take on a lava/hellscape terrain play mat and flexible lava river. Thanks for the inspiration!
More of these - please. Would like to see snow and cobblestone. Also, I like your water, but would love to see some more experiments with the water. Thanks!
Dollar tree sells these square carpet tiles that are rubber on the back. They look to be like 20" squares. I just used them for grass terrain and they came out ok. Also tried that crystal clear silicone and it looks good but if used in any thickness it takes weeks to dry lol
Really love this idea and I'm looking forward to trying it with my nephews. Also, thanks for sharing the sponsor, I'm visiting their site now.
You should keep making the cheap mats you make awesome stuff! Much love to black magic crafts!
I love how you got into a groove on this concept!
I'd love to see woodland or mountain terrain. This is such a cool idea though! Absolutely amazed!
Can't wait to see more modern/cyberpunk builds! That's been the biggest thing I've been working on (your shipping containers were my inspiration).
However these mat ideas are great, and I'm curious to see what you come up with next!
Love this series! More would be amazing!
Loving this battlemat series!
Definitely love these simple and straightforward ways to get some good looking battlemats. I’ll be on the lookout for these mats or something equivalent in Belgium.
Nah man, keep going. These videos have been really cool and they're great sources of ideas.
Hey jeremy, greetings from mexico city!
I suggest a redo of the water/sea batttlemat with a black or dark blue color, clear silicon caulk (i use ceys total tech) and acetone as the diluent for de caulk.
First, make 2 clear mod podge coat on the surface on the foam mat (apply the first coat in one direction and the second in a cross section from the first, to avoid bending).
Second mix some acetone, alcohol inks and the translucent cauk in a glass recipient and apply with a roller.
Finaly, i recomend to let it dry in the open for 2 to 4 hours, and its ready to play.
Crackling varnish would probably look great on these desert battlemaps, also on canyons and vulcanic terrain, look it up.
I want to see you try a mat with a grid! You could maybe use a chalked string and snap it on there like you do when making long lines in woodworking.
I’ve tried that, but there’s always a bit of spatter. That can be a great look for certain themes though. Taping them off is neater but takes a looooong time using brushes and craft paint. Airbrushing your taped off grid lines can go a lot faster, as drying time is reduced.
I am loving this series!! Maybe some snowy ruins for Frostgrave? ;)
Love the mats, cheap ways to increase immersion for a session. I'd love to see a hellscape, cracked terrain with red "glowing" lava running through it. In fact it could be easily painted a different color to make it a different astral plane. Swamp would be my another go to mat, nothing good ever happens in a swamp!
If you need to thin silicone again, try naphtha. You can paint silicone this way, using a silicone and pigment base, thinned out with naphtha to airbrush.
More mats! Volcano terrain! Weird / eldritch terrain! Basic ass cave terrain!!! You know we want it all!
I have a challenge for you. I have cheap (£5 for 6 tiles) small interlocking square eva foam play mats about 30x30 cm and always wanted to make a town /city mat for a fantasy town setting and wanted the tiles to be modular so that you can have different street layouts keeping the interlocking edges for stability. Would love to see what you can come up with as it would be a great help. I have been sitting on them for a while now! 😊
I found yoga mats of the same, but maybe slightly thinner material at 5 Below. Might also work good for this if you are making a huge mat or are cool with cutting it into smaller mats.
What happens if you put magnets in the foam? Also I've got the idea for an aphid that is exposed to magic and starts eating magical items and combines, like if it is eating 1 magic book, it is like a large fly, 3 books = 1 bat, 6 = an enlarged worm, all the way up until it hits a critical mass and then becomes a rift styled portal to wherever. I'm not sure how to craft that idea or where to start, ideas?
Love all of the quick mats. The simplicity is awesome.
I like how you're using your house carpentry experience in your builds. You're sorta inadvertently pushing us all that direction too. We're all out buying insulation foam and caulk guns that I'd imagine some people wouldn't buy otherwise.
I see your evil genius there Jeremy. :D
In another water board video, someone recommended transparent silicone or acrylic, forgot which, and diluted it with alcohol, tinted it with ink. It looked great. Not as great as his sculpting acrylic (also transparent) but the silicone/acrylic remained flexible after curing.
I think you should make simple and inexpensive scatter terrain to go with the mats. Possibly using random foam inserts from packages.
To add on the people who might have issues finding these mats.
At the very least I can try and help out for any fellow dutch folks over here, you can find similar mats in a store called "Action" at 8 euros for a pack of 6 (40 x 40cm on each mat) of these mats, they do come with these... puzzle like edges so they kind of click into eachother, but these are easily trimmed
Hope this helps! 👍
As on the video, I've definitely been loving these mats videos, I might have to give a crack at this! I've been needing some oceans and I recently pulled a bunch of these mats away from under my carpet from when I tried to sound proof it, so I've got plenty of these to spare now 😂
Keep the ideas coming. I wanted to get into this but I need something that's on the cheap so this is fantastic
Niceee, now I just need a proper snow ruins mat and a volcano mat and I'll be ready for every possible encounter I can think of and for Frost grave! The scifi one is my goal for Stargrave and planet 28 but frostgrave is my group's favorite.
If you want to make the clear caulk spreadable, use mineral spirits. It will disolve in that.
Good old gloss mod-podge may be a good way to add back the shine you passed on for the 2nd ocean mat... another option is water based polycrylic. I've used it for a few terrain pieces as a final varnish, the matte version is, well it wasn't really matte, but in terms of creating a durable surface the stuff's great, with a similar easy level of cleanup to PVA products. For something that you WANT shiny it's a no brainer.
I just finished my first war-gaming board ever a few days ago, mostly using your foamcore-on-woodframe method. Ended up spending more than I should have but final product turned out nice & I'm eager to get to some 5 Leagues from the Borderland :). I will comment that the differences between what Dollar Tree stocks in various regions is notable... In addition to none of my nearby dollar stores having floor mats (definitely gonna check Harbor Freight though), only 1 Dollar Tree actually carried the wooden artist panels. If you want to get proper 12x12 sized stuff here your only hope is someplace like Michaels too :/.
One more interesting thing I found during this journey... you know that crumbly green floral foam? The kind everyone says is freaking useless for crafting? Well, I found a use. Take a hunk, crumble it up good, mix with equal parts baking soda, isopropyl, & mod-podge & it makes a fairly killer texture paste.
I'd like to see how you would make a river run through one, not just flat and painted on like a road, but with a little depth (maybe cut into it, or use an iron to burn it) and textured banks. It would be like taking the cheap mat to another level.
loving the series. would be awesome to see more of whatever genre you come up with. especially like your horror themed/hellscape stuff.
fwiw, i found a pack of 9 12x12” foam tiles at a Christmas Tree Shoppe. $16.99. a little more than i was hoping but with 9 tiles that snap together like puzzle pieces, i can make them a little more modular and portable.
I love this project and would love to see more, would a gloss varnish have worked on the water mat? Conversely would a wash of some sort helped with the depth on the desert mat? Either way really simple and cheap method
Can you please make modular roads! I would love to see you make roads with the cobble roller/heat method! Or can you glue the mats together and then make a bigger mat?
I'd love to see a similar take of this type of thing, but utilizing the Ultimate Dungeon Tile technique of having the circular mats
I've been really digging this series. As boring/simple as it may sound a classic dungeon tile set would be cool and it also begs the question, could you then either cut it up into bits to make a whole dungeon tile set or could you come up with a good system for adding walls to fill in the negative space.
I'd love to see more mats. Specifically, what would you make for Mordheim / Frostgrave, etc.?
I think you should do more! They're easy to do that anyone can get done cheaply.
They look really nice and i will try this at my try of a modular table (6 tiles).
Maybe you could do something like a semi modular tile (1ft x 1ft) with 1-2 in foam where you cut out like two circles or rectangles where you could change in the game like a crater from an explosion or a circle with a building that could be exchanged by a circle with a shattered building to simulate dynamic elements for a game (at least that is what i try to do but well i think if you would do something like that it would look a thousand times better)
Cheers Sascha
I love these! I’d really like to see what other themes you have in mind and watch them brought to life. :)
very cool! I used foam core to make a cobblestone city mat, but I like the idea of these better. Way more durable.
These are fun, but I feel like we get it at this point! I’ve seen enough examples to spark creativity and incorporate this into my own crafting. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t watch some more, especially something with some higher color variance / more advanced painting techniques
Awesome video as always ❤ Can't get enough of these battlemat videos. I'd love to see you either add some easy and cheap terrain features like hills and craters.
Also I'd be curious to see how you'd combine multiple mats to a bigger one, similar to the "hinges" cyberpunk mat you made, but for a lunar or more earthy surface
I'm loving these mat videos. I'm looking at making a few myself, one similar to the first one you made - perfect for Infinity, one for a spaceship interior (Kill Team), one for Gaslands another for Carnevale and I'm also considering trying to make a hex grid mat for Grid Wars. All these will be of the folding variety. It would be good to see how many variations are possible.
So awesome! I'm just now finding these videos. You are a legend sir!