"Yet another banner company gaming mat!" Topic

Well it seems to be all the rage nowadays TMP link So I thought I would take advantage of their sale and order a two sided banner, one a star field the other an aerial view of what might pass as a WWI field. The star field was a Hubble image. hubblesite.org/gallery/album The fields were a Google Earth image I saved. In addition, I superimposed a hexgrid in GIMP for use in Canvas Eagles and Silent Death. I used the SmartPress company mentioned in the earlier TMP post. My original uploads were too low res. The star image was easy to improve since NASA includes mutliple resolutions. I just used the largest one. The Google Earth image was more limited. I could get a bit sharper but not the same quality as the starfield. But for what I will be doing it will serve. The final size is 5'x3'with the whole thing running arond $40.00 USD.

The glare on the fields is from a table lamp. Each hex is a bit over 1 inch across. The WWI aircraft are 1/300 scale, the starships are Silent Death. Stands are lego with magnets to hold the aircraft. Overall I was pretty pleased. I may need to start looking for some seascapes. If anyone knows a source of high resolution ground images, please let me know.

really cool idea

Those are very cool.

The possibilities for microarmor gaming are incredible. Find an image, make it to scale, and have it printed as a banner. Pretty nifty.

They can do a 5' x 9' mat? Cool!

Waco Joe – what is the name of the image you used for the star field?

Al | ravenfeastsmeadhall.blogspot.com

This was the image link

Those look great, but I especially like the grass fields one.

Did you add in the hexmat overlay, or did they take care of that for you?

This is really starting to look like the smart way to buy gaming mats. I wouldn't want to be a company selling painted felt mats or anything similar. These put them to shame, and if anything they're less expensive.

How do you add the hex lines and also make sure they will come out the right size?

The only downside I see is that they may get easily scuffed, if some sort of spray, or other finish isn't applied over top of them.

I guess you could always put a sheet of clear plastic on top as well, to save the finish, but that would be impractical in the larger sizes of gaming mats.

That field mat is great, well worth the money!
Since the original post I have been searching for desert overviews and sea scapes…..difficulty is finding the right height perspectives……
There was a site with original Luftwaffe recce shots of southern England…just right for the Battle of Britain……..

The hexes were added in a photoshop clone called GIMP. There is not a hex pattern in GIMP to start but a quick google search found a script which could be installed to provide the hexes. When activating the hex pattern a dialog box opens which allows you to control the orientation of the hexes, the size, line thickness and even the color. I played around with finding the least intrusive color for each side, settling on a green for the fields and black for the stars. If I did it over I would have lightened the black on the star side since the black of the hexes blends in with the black of space towards the edges.

Thank you, Waco Joe!

Hey, Waco Joe!]

I have GIMP and Irfanview, but not sure I have the sort of hex grid source you mentioned. Would you please post here the URL of the site so we can all grab it?

Gratefully,
TVAG

I think this is the one. (I am at work so can't compare the name of the download files)

registry.gimp.org/node/15852

This will give you an idea of where to save the file and how to install it.

link

Do you have an order number and the printer so we could just get your order duplicated? :)

Thanks for the links and instructions, Waco Joe. Those are very useful.