"Ocean terrain mat?" Topic

Who makes good solid terrain mats or terrain boards for naval warfare? My requirements are that they be reasonably transportable, easily stored and be able configured to cover a 4'x8' table. I want to use them for 1/2400 WW2, 1/1200 Napoleonic & ACW, and 1/600 ACW.

Try these guys….pricey but meet all your requirements. Plus you have a range of sea colours from which to choose. There is also a wait.

terrainmat.com

Get some Nagahyde at a fabric store. Comes in 5 foot widths. Pick a color that works for you (mine is a dark blue)

Reasonably believable water color, compacts for storage, reasonable size for 1:6K ships, all else is extra.

Nagahyde is a great choice but not cheap – but, in my opinion, runs circles around what I just saw at terrainmat. They may make nice land mats but those are some of the ugliest ocean representations I've ever seen. Three yards of that nagahyde, probably around $60 USD – $80 USD USA dollars, will cover your 4' x 8' table. And you can enhance it with a little judicious use of spray paints if you feel the need and have the talent.

See how you like these:

link

link

Here's what I replaced my old felt mat with:

PDF link

Produces a very nice mat. It also solves the "end of the world" problem. And its cheap!

I keep looking at the commercial terrain mats with the idea of having three to cover dry, mixed and green. My problem is that I have a 10 x 6 table and most don't make them that big. I could get two of each I suppose, but what I cannot get straight in my head is how much extra length and width I would need if I plonked things underneath to make hills etc. I'd want the mat to extend to the edges of the table still.
Right now I have a set of pimped up TSS 2 foot tiles and a set of scratch built ones made from blue insulation board.

I really like the look of the Deep Cut Studio's ocean mat out of mouse mat material. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of their mats in general and their ocean mat in specific?

Charlie 12: nice pdf and explanation.

For UK viewers: latex paint = emulsion.

A king size top sheet for a bed will cover nearly 10 x 6.
They are available in a massive range of blues, greys and green shades, and you can pick them up for around £10.00 GBP -£15, they are light, washable, easily transportable and easy to store, and if you fancy some waves just add a bit of paint.

In case it wasn't clear, that PDF is by War Artisan. As Charlie 12 noted, they solve the "edge of the world" problem handily, plus they're adaptable to nearly any table size, waterproof, light, flexible, nearly indestructible (they were meant to be walked on). I got the tiles from Harbor Freight ($10 per set of 4) and the paint and rollers at Lowe's. Following War Artisan's PDF, you could do the entire project in a single weekend (and most of that time will be waiting for paint to dry).

If you also buy some brown and green paints, you can cut some extra tiles into geomorphic shorelines. If you mix a little sand into the latex before applying it, you can get a nice texture you can drybrush, like Skull and Crown did on this lovely canvas and the styrofoam hills that match it. If you want to get really fancy, you can use latex caulking to make roads, rivers, or to just glue down flocking and rocks and sand.

The one caveat to know before making foam tile terrain: buy all the tiles you will ever need at the same time. The puzzle-piece edges are different from manufacturer to manufacturer, and even from lot to lot by the same supplier. If you ever want to add more tiles, you will probably have to start over. I made a set of 32 sea tiles so I could cover a 6'x20' table if I ever had to. They break down into a 2' cube for transport.

- Ix

In case it wasn't clear, that PDF is by War Artisan. …

I bought some of these. It looks good for the large-scale models used by War Artisan, especially since he favors a mottled paint treatment acceptable in a larger scale. Unfortunately, the joints are too imprecisely-cut (hence visible) to be usable in scales smaller than 1/2400, IMHO (I was hoping to use them for 1/6000, with chalk wakes). In evaluating this, one must distinguish between "in place" joints (such as that associated with the smooth border pieces machine-cut and left in place), and "random" joints, such as that associated with another randomly chosen tile. The latter is of course what is important for our purposes.

An additional problem for small scales is that the material is compressible and has compression "memory". Thus it is difficult to avoid minor elevation differences at the joints.

Mark H.

I haven't used mine with anything smaller than 1/2400, so I hadn't thought about the "sea canyon" problem. Good point.

On the bright side, another issue solved by foam floor tiles is that they smooth over the joints between abutting tables – another typical source of fissures and rogue waves in the ocean surface.

- Ix

Our group uses the mats with 1/6000s with no problem with the "sea canyons" (but we base all our ships, even our 1/2400s). If you use unbased ships, then I can see that as a problem.

We did buy all the mats in one shot out of the same lot to avoid the mismatches that YA mentions.

For a terrain board, there's a relatively easy option.

Look for the textured light fixture cover sheets intended for the large, overhead lights.

Most of those can be purchased cut down to useable size squares and attached to heavier material if needed.

Paint the underside of the sheet in reverse color order (lightest to darkest) in your ocean colors, then on the top hit the texture with a very light drybrush of white and/or pearlescent before giving it a gloss coat.

Instead of the fixture covers, you can also just use acrylic sheets painted largely the same way, though with hot glue applied for the wave patterns before painting the top…

I've helped a few friends make a pile of those for various things, though not interconnected and more of a nicer, finished look so that it could be left on the table with games in progress by buying a picture frame of the right size for the battlefield with acryllic rather than glass and after assembling, glued some of the round wood discs from the craft store to the backer piece to prevent bowing while it sat in place, but those would be unnecessary for just laying it out as tiles, and a cork backer would protect the table top just as well…

Borathan
I would like to see photos of what you are talking about.

I got mine from the company in Dallas Texas that makes 1:900 sailing ships. I love the hexes. Portsmouth miniatures, l believe.