I used to use them extensively, for bases for miniatures, and terrain pieces. I applied PVA Glues (White Elmer's and yellow Wood versions) to apply colored sand mixtures, as texture. I found that they warped, severely, after six months of drying, ruining my work. I had to replace them with chipboard, and/or MDF bases. I now use laser-cut MDF, exclusively.
I also used them, briefly, to build cardstock models of castle wall sections and towers. I printed the artwork on regular paper, in my color laser printer. I cut these and applied them to the glue side of vinyl floor tiles. I assembled them using Hot Glue.
They had tremendous heft, they were easy to build with, easy to use. Unfortunately, they warped, badly, over time, without any PVA Glue applied.
I used them for making modular 2D terrain tiles for dungeon crawls. I printed the PDF terrain pieces on my color laser printer, applying them to the glue side of the least expensive vinyl floor tiles I could find -- don't care what they look like, I put that side down. They warp, somewhat, in storage, but I easily flex them into shape, when I deploy them.
I laminated the paper printouts with adhesive clear vinyl shelf lining, to protect the paper surface from wear and tear of miniatures scratching them off. this is why the one piece appears so reflective, above.
In all fairness, I use a similar construction technique: printing PDF building components (walls, for example) onto full sheet label paper, which I apply to 3mm Chipboard. The Chipboard will warp, over time, but I solved that by gluing square wooden dowels inside the wall sections, and buildings' walls, to prevent warping. This could work on vinyl constructs, but the vinyl warps more severely than does Chipboard.
Even the Chipboard and wooden dowels give plenty of heft to my modular castle pieces, due to their sizes (28mm-sized pieces). No need to use vinyl floor tiles any longer.
I used to buy vinyl floor tiles for $0.38 USD per 1-foot square piece. Those prices are long gone. The cheap ones now sell for around $1 USD per square foot tile. Chipboard is much more affordable, buying it in large pieces from the local framing shops. Cheers!
