"Cork tiles for terrain boards: large project" Topic

I've been meaning to get my head around this for a while now:

link

I hope it makes sense!

Good skills.

I use Siesta Magicork self adhesive tiles.

Thanks for that! I might go for those depending on how much my budget stretches…

Caliban, a few years ago I did a whole system of cork tiles. I had a really good time making them and they are still holding up well. Here is a link with a few pictures of my system. The rivers are cut into the boards. I have updated since these photos and I made tiles with the roads built in them as well. Have fun with it!

link

Allen

Thanks, Allen the roads and rivers look great. So do the sort of rough sections. This is very similar to what I was thinking. I'm also pleased that it isn't just a daft idea, and seeing how other folks have managed it is very encouraging.

Thanks, the roads look better now. I also bought some cheap vinyl floor tiles that are 12" square and glued them on the backside of each double cork tile. Tha gives it some strength even though it adds a little weight. I mixed paint and sand as a mortar alsmost to give my river banks a little uneven look then just highlighted. Good luck!

Allen

Ah well if you want a how to type article here is one>

link

You will need to register to see the posts but hopefully it will be worth it.

Michael.

Thanks, Michael, that's a really good tutorial. I'll be doing mine for 25mm, but the concept is almost identical. It's especially good to see how the rivers/sunken areas work out. I'm hoping that the arid look I'm after won't be too onerous…

Cheers
Paul

I made a pile of terrain tiles in cork. Double sided the terrain. Also built hills using cork but in sections.

The hill pieces and double height tiles allowed contours.
Had river and streams with link pieces. Coast pieces, roads, village bases etc.

Double siding doubled the choices and the weight.

Being in New Zealand the heat did cause a bit of warping in summer. I stored them flat.

Got rid of them when I no longer had a gaming table at home and am now in a small flat.

Hi Ming – were you able to use the terrain for different scales? I'm planning to do mine for 25mm, but there's no reason they couldn't be used for, say, 20mm or 15mm desert WWII as well.

Phil Sabin has a full set of cork tiles for the compact version of his Lost Battles battlefields, as recently used to stage Bibracte at SELWG

It looks very effective. I was quite surprised at how effective the rivers are. Basically, the base of each block is a blue (mottle) carpet tile, the cork is the upper layer (cut, obviously, so as to expose the recessed blue where the streams are represented)

This might show up better in a picture from the Sellasia game at Cavalier last year

PS on scales … Bibracte was 25mm, Sellasia 15mm. same tile set. For an 'ancient' layout, there's nothing in the landscape that generally gives too explicit a clue to the scale until the figures and the loose components go on.

Good Luck

Phil steele
soawargamesteam.blogspot.com
ecwbattles.wordpress.com
Off to Fiasco tomorrow!

Thanks, Phil, I'd seen the photo but I didn't realise the board was made from cork. It does look good.

Cheers
Paul

I remember an old print article on this topic but using textured acoustic ceiling tiles. If you're in the right place at the right time the material can be cheap to free.
Some are also thick enough the it's easy to model additional depressions for stream beds by basically pressing down with a rounded tool. One advantage for some of the old time game boards of 6x8 feet or larger is most of tiles were in 1.5x1.5 feet or larger and didn't need that many tiles.

Those sound really good, especially since they come in relatively large sizes. The cork tiles are already coloured the way I want them, but something a lot cheaper does have a certain attraction.

First test shot:

I'm hoping that the overall look of the things works out in practice.