"Home-made latex gaming mats?" Topic

Storage space is a very major concern to me. So is durability and ease of transport for my gaming scenery. The Zuzzy gaming mats would be perfect for me but for the price of the product and the shipping combined. So I'm thinking of making something like it (less fancy, but cheaper) myself. Has anyone tried this and does it work?

The way I'm thinking of doing it, is to glue some sand to a piece of MDF, make a latex mold of it (or alternatively make an imprint of it on some dense styrofoam) and make latex mats out of that. Seems very easy in my head, but am I being naive?

I've never actually worked with latex before, so here are some things I'm wondering about:

How viscous is it? Do I need to pour it or can I just brush it on thick?

Is it flexy yet durable in thin (around 1-3 mm) sheets/mats?

Can I mix it with paint to make "pre-coloured" mats? Even very dark ones?

A few folks have made roads using latex link or commercially (for example) link

but I do not know if you can scale these up – if you use felt as a backing will it remain strong enough as it gets heaver?

Best example of mat making I can find is link

Having tried to cast latex before (many years ago) I found that it ripped very easily and needs a backing sheet. Maybe the more modern compounds will hold in thin sheets?

You may find terrainmat.com cheaper – at least they are this side of the Atlantic

Andrew
blog.kings-sleep.me.uk

Thanks for those links, very instructive! I'm now starting to think I might be overambitious in trying to "cast" textured mats. Might be easier to spread some latex-like material on a piece of fabric and stipple it with a brush or sponge – honestly, I don't need it to be beautiful as long as it looks decent enough for gaming.

Interestingly, both those tutorials use DIY store caulking instead of the kind of latex I've seen in craft stores. I'll probably start with that and see if it'll do for my purposes.

I've visited the Terrain Mat website before, but only now do I realize how good those mats look up close. At the moment I'm feeling enthusiastic about making my own mats, but if that fails I'll re-consider buying from Terrain Mat. I do wonder how exactly those mats are made as I'd like to duplicate the process. Probably a trade secret.

I've been making caulking roads and rivers for quite some time. I think it would work on 1 foot tiles, but I don't know about larger. The key is to put it on a cloth backing.

You can make your own, very quickly and very cheaply.

Applying flexible latex caulk to canvas drop cloth or to interlocking foam rubber floor tiles, and then covering them with flock will yield durable, storable and easily transportable game terrain. Here are pictures of how I use the cloth version:

link

link

Here are pictures of what games look like on interlocking foam tiles:

link

link

And, finally, step-by-step pictures of the cloth a friend of mine made using this technique:

link

Regards,

Jeff
warartisan.com

Awesome stuff, thanks!

For my part I'm a little suspicious of using flock and sand on the finished product, and am keen to try a stippling effect on the caulk itself. Being mainly a fantasy/sci-fi gamer, photo realism isn't that important to me. Might turn out looking awful, but it's worth a try.

am keen to try a stippling effect on the caulk itself.

That would work, too. The caulk I use will definitely take and hold a texture or pattern. For example, the roads you see in the photos are made of bare caulk with ruts added using pencil points.

Jeff
warartisan.com

One thing to be careful about before using a lot of latex is that there are a lot of people who are allergic to it.

Casting in latex molds is one thing, but having it as most of the mat could be asking for a lot of problems if someones allergies kick in, possibly even lawsuits.

Easiest way to deal with it is to make sure that all latex is completely covered and still warn people to make sure.

Fantastic info Jeff.

Well, I've got my felt and my DIY store caulk, and I've done a small test piece now. The caulk was stickier than I expected, so on a loose piece of felt the stippling was a bit tricky to do. Next time, I'll pin the felt in place and maybe water down the caulk a bit (says on the tube it mixes with water). The texture turned out less sandy/grainy than I'd been wanting, but I know from previous experiences that stippling with different tools will produce different textures. This time I used a crinkly ball of tin foil followed by a wad of wet felt. Next time I'll try the rough side of a sponge. Failing that, I guess mixing the caulk with sand before applying it will be necessary.

In any case, this is working! The end result seems to be a lightweight, durable gaming surface that can be folded or rolled away like any piece of fabric, without having the visually displeasing texture of woven cloth or felt. And I can make multiple ones cheaply, for different environments.

Sounds like your technique is working for you. As an alternative, here's how I made my own mat by cobbling together various techniques I found here on TMP.

Go to you local fabric store and look in the clearance bin for some vinyl. At the Hancock Fabrics near me, I found yards and yards of nice, heavy vinyl, the kind used for upholstery. It has a subtle grain and is nice and heavy so it will stay in place and takes paint really well. Buy a piece with an appropriate base color. I got 5 yards for $15.00 USD total; enough for two different 4x7' mats. Spray it with textured paint or make your own textured paint by mixing sand and paint. Drybrush with a roller and acrylic paint from Walmart (cheap and not sticky after drying). Looks professional, rolls up for storage.

Vinyl sounds like a good idea too. I gather, then, that the paints you use all flex after drying? That's good to know.

I've now tried stippling with a sponge and it did produce the grainy texture I was after. One caveat is that it's a good idea to "seal" the felt with a thin layer of watered down caulk before applying and texturing the main layer of caulk. Otherwise the stippling can lift some of the felt from the surface, producing a slightly "stringy" look.

Different kinds of stippling produce different kinds of terrain. The crinkly tin foil and wet felt made muddy/mossy/mulchy-looking ground which could fit jungles, swamps, moorlands and WW1 style battlefields (sealing the felt beforehand is not really necessary for this – it looks good anyway). A dry sponge makes a generic grainy surface that could be painted up as anything from grassland to asphalt. A wet sponge makes a smoother surface that could work well for snow.

I haven't tried painting it yet, but I'm feeling fairly confident that thin layers of acrylic paint won't compromise the flexiness or the durability of the mat.