"My Huge Custom Star Mat from Banner Company" Topic

I have a ping pong table (9x5) that we use for gaming and I wanted a big star mat to cover the whole thing. My original plan was to buy some black paint and create my own, but then I saw an ad for a banner company and started wondering…

I priced it out and it was about $65 USD for a 9x5 custom mat in their heaviest vinyl, matte finish. Seemed like it was worth a shot, so I searched around and found a really HQ picture of a nebula from hubble. I ordered it up, and worked with a graphic designer on the staff a little to get what would look best. They said it might be a little grainy as they prefer 100dpi and mine was slightly less than that after they cropped it. They sent me a real-sized pdf so I could look and see and I thought it was fine. It arrived about 4 business days after I approved the the order and I think it looks fantastic.

I used this company: link with 18 oz vinyl, no grommets or stitching. The edges are fine just as they come and it lays completely flat right out of the shipping tube. The vinyl is pretty thick and won't wrinkle or bunch up. You can send them a huge file or point them to one on a web site if you want. Their communication is good and you can see exactly what you're getting via life size pdf they send for approval. It's even waterproof. I haven't found any drawbacks so far. To order one in standard 6x4 would be about $34 USD plus shipping.

I think you could also use it for aviation or naval games.

Steve

Pics (I think they're too big to show here):

link

link

Very economical. Thanks for the link.

That is pretty sweet.

Wonder if you could get a grid overlay on that?

Cool mat!

FYI The website automagically shrinks pics to fit:

I don't see why a grid couldn't be overlaid on it. Just add one to the image file that you send them and you are good to go.

That looks great! I might get one. Where did you find the Hubble image?

hubblesite.org/gallery

Is the place to go for images. The bigger, the better. They have a lot of options there and they're all free to the public.

Steve

That mat is drop dead gorgeous. BUT, more importantly to me what is that ship miniature?

Al

The miniatures are all Firestorm Armada. That is part of the Aquan Prime range. However, I didn't paint it, I bought it from ebay and I hope I can come close to matching my new ones to that great paint job.

Steve

A clever idea has created a gorgeous and affordable
space battleground………well jealous :)
and well done

Perfect!

Thanks for the info on the Firestorm Armada starship. I hope you are able to match the paint job. My experience with buying painted miniatures and trying to match paintjobs has not been very good. It may be that I am not a good painter to start with. I usually do not try to duplicate the paint job and just do something similar and slightly varied on all the ships in a fleet containg minis painted by someone else.

In another post I read the fellow tried a viny mat and found that it tended to wrinke too much and that the color scratched off. How much use has yours had and how is it holding up over time?

Thanks,

Al

I have not played on it but once, so I can't comment on the durability. But it is made to be an outdoor banner, so I don't think anything will come off. It is very thick, so it won't wrinkle at all. It wouldn't drape over terrain for example.

As far as the ebay ships, the seller was kind enough to give me very detailed painting instructions when I asked. If I get close I will be happy…

Steve

Fpr me that mat is drop dead gorgeous. Please let me know in a month or so how it is standing up. eMail is althegamer@yahoo.com. I need a space mat but dont have a lot of money to make a mistake with.

Thanks,

Al

Done a couple like this, helps being a raughtsman, if you need hexes can provide a "blank" pdf that can be overlaid in photoshop etc.

My first one was a map of Vietman for a B52 raid, it's help up very well, as these things are made for external uses.

Not tquite the same, but my Pearl Habour game from a few years back used a similar method.

link

So, no issues with cracking or peeling from being rolled and unrolled over time? That would have been my only concern since I can't leave a big mat unrolled all the time, but with good-quality vinyl it shouldn't be an issue anyway.