"Gaming Mats" Topic

Hi all,

With the exception of Hotz Mats in Canada. Can anyone recommend a good company that makes mats for gaming or a good technique for making mats????

Thanks in advance

Scott

Cigar Box Mats.

There are several companies, and each is a gem according to personal taste, or table size, but my own favorites are here:

link

I find them to be beautiful and very versatile on my smallish table because I can reconfigure them by folding them in half. Definitely worth looking into.

I hope you find a good manufacturer that suits your needs and tastes.

Another vote for Cigar Box mats. As Wulfgar said you can fold them for smaller tables. I have three and they are great.

That depends on the "style" you're looking for. There is a trend nowadays towards mats with printed terrain features on them, whether in vinyl or light fabric. These look great in photos especially because you can't easily tell that the river (for instance) is just printed on the surface of the mat and is not a 3D terrain piece. Examples are the mats from Cigar Box, Deep Cuts and FAT Mats.

I personally prefer plainer non-printed textured mats that I place my own 3D scenery on top of. I have a grass warmat from Barrage Miniatures that's been great – it's a teddy-bear fur style mat. I've also ordered a textured winter one from them.

Hope this helps.

w.

I made two different sets out of the interlocking rubber mats made for putting down in front of your work bench, in your garage (Harbor Freight). I used a simple sponge painting technique, to make brown ground, and gray ground, to simulate brown caverns, and gray dungeons. The techniques are easy to adapt to represent water (oceans, lakes, etc., using blue's, green's, and white paint), as well as grasslands (3-4 shades of green, and brown), or even desert terrain (browns, yellows, tans). Here are some photo's of my mats:

I plan on making grassland mats, as well, using the aforementioned techniques. The sponge painting is simple, and straightforward:

1) I used a white ceramic bathroom tile as my palette ($1.00 at my local DIY store, around 6"-square);

2) Use only natural sponges, wetted with water, to apply the paints;

3) Squeeze out a half-dollar sized pool of craft paint on your palette, and press the wetted sponge into it 6-12 times, to allow it to soak up the paint, and to thin/spread it out on the palette, then press it gently onto the smooth surface of the mat sections, painting one mat section at a time, only;

4) While the paint is still wet on the mat, squeeze out the next color (move from dark to light), and repeat the process, blending in the new color somewhat, using less of it than the last color;

5) Repeat the process with the remaining colors, reducing the amount of each successive color applied, blending them all together, somewhat -- this is the artistic part, trust your eye, and your gut;

6) Clean off your palette, and your sponge brush, thoroughly, before you start on the next mat section, starting with a clean, palette, and a clean sponge brush, with each new mat section;

7) Repeat the process until done.

The paint will need an hour, or so, to dry completely. Use only inexpensive craft paints as you will be using a high volume of paint on your mats. Cheers!

Hey Sarge, that looks great.

Xin

Thanks for the comments. No, I have not sealed them, but it would be easy to do so: paint on a coat of Pledge Floor Shine (clear acrylic), then matte coat. I've only used them once, so far, so durability is a question unanswered.

The mat sections are 24" squares, which interlock. The sets come with edges, which leave a smooth edge, but I have not painted them yet, and I doubt I will, as I am comfortable with the scalloped edges on my table. They are scalable, so if you need more terrain, just add more sections.

When not in use, they simply stack, one atop the other. While they are flexible, I would not roll them, as the rubber will then curl, until rolled in the opposite direction, to flatten them again.

They come four sections, per set, including edging. While they are around $10 USD per set, they are still inexpensive compared to some alternatives. Cheers!

Hey all,

Many thanks for all the info. I think I will give Cigar Box a try.

@ Sgt Slag, great concept, Ireally appreciate the example of the homemade and the description. Will give that a try in the spring and let you know how it worked out.

Again many thanks everyone.

I saw these and thought the Steppe's mat was brilliant, sent off my money just last week!

link

Well done Sgt…looks very good!

In the UK check out Ceri Designs. 3' x 3' mat for £19.00 GBP

ceridesign.xyz

If you're needing grassland or desert mats, green or brown tye-dyed fleece looks surprisingly good, is pretty cheap and requires no additional painting.
link
Being fleece rather than a traditional fabric, it doesn't even require any hemming or stitching.

What material are those Ceri Designs mats made from?

One of the nicest mats I ever saw was made from t-shirt material, painted, stretched over terrain underneath. It was a 6mm game, so he had painted fields and such similar to what Hotz does with their European Fields mats.

The other use for those interlocking rubber mats is a surface UNDER a normal terrain mat, with your hills placed between the two. The neat feature of using the underlying interlocking rubber mats is that you can pin trees through the mat into the rubber mat and such. The interlocking mats also give a uniform level surface when you are using multiple tables that have ridges or beveled edges where they meet.

Another good and insanely cheap alternative if you are happy with a plain surface that you add your own terrain to is felt from a fabric store – I picked up FOUR 6x4 pieces of felt in a variety of colors (dark grey for urban games, rust orange for martian-esque games, desert sand and a really cool pale scrubland color) for less than $3 USD a piece from Jo-Ann's Fabrics. And here I am sitting on four 6x4 FAT Mats too at $95 USD a piece! Lol