"bed sheets and table tops?" Topic

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of help on improving our wargaming table.

I only got into wargaming last march because my 8 year old son wanted to. We've played a few games of kings of war(fantasy and historical) and we're painting up a waterloo starter set to try black powder. We play every couple of months so I don't want to do anything to drastic to setup a decent table, but at the same time half the fun of playing is having a cool looking set up.

The dinning room table is 5ft by 3 ft which is just big enough for kings of war, but probably not for black powder. We dont really have room for anything bigger. Ideally I'd like a table tennis table, but thats not really going to happen.

We cover the table in a Dark green single bed sheet and then add tress, rivers, teddy bear fur fields etc, it looks pretty good.

So 2 questions, First – how do people get the room for bigger tables, do you just add three 2x4 foot bits of wood on top of your dinnng table squeeze round it ? Do you go to a club only ? Do you play on the floor ?

Second – The dark green bed sheet is easy and packs small and looks ok, I'd really like it to be a lighter colour, does anyone know how to fade/decorate a green bedsheet to look more like a battle field ? I've seen various clever solutions like flocked MDF boards and GW battelfields and lots of clever things but they all look a bit serious for our few games, I'd like a bed sheet that looks cool really.

Any top tips ?

Check out fabric stores

You could airbrush some lighter colors on to break it up a bit. You can move the table and play on the floor.

I've got a collapsible 6'+ by 4' trestle table that my Dad actually made somewhen around 45 years ago. Among other advantages, it's higher than the usual dining-table so better suited for standing players. Nowadays I have room for it to stand permanently (though I can't remember the last time I actually used it – I do only play at the club these days), but back when I didn't have room, we used to clear the furniture away from most of the living room and set the table up there, and store it dismantled in the garage. But if your dining table is in the biggest room or biggest space in the house, then yes, a couple of 3' by 4' boards on the top is probably the best way to go.

I bought a 6x4 sheet of MDF, cut it in half and then screwed some wooden batons to it so that it fits securely on top of the dining table. I have a nice textured battle mat to put on top of it.

4x3 feet is still quite big an difficult to store so if I was doing it again, I would use three sections of 4x2 feet (small enough to put behind a sofa) but again with the batons fixed to the underside to stop it sliding about.

A cheap and easy to store option is to use wallpaper tables. If you put a couple side-by-side you end up with close to 6' x 4'. They are easy to store and are higher than regular tables so are a bit easier on the back. The one disadvantage is that the design of the fittings usually means that there is a small gap between the tables but you can cover this with card of a strip of hardboard under your cloth. Also, some makes aren't as sturdy as they claim to be so check before you buy.

My best "in house" arrangement is two 2x4 folding tables and a 4x4 chipboard board with a grassed felt glued to one side and a ten felt glued to the flip side. Taken down, the board goes to the back of a double-wide closet, and the tables go to one end of the same closet. If the cost of a commercial mat is a problem, fabric shops will sell you a dark green which you can lighten and make more varied with cans of light green and brown spray paints.

There are lots of methods. But if you rest your table on good furniture, I strongly recommend felting the side which comes in contact with the furniture.

If I had room for another table, I reckon 2 of these would do well, but I think we'll have to stick with the dinning room one
link

MDF and Batons maybe the only option, is that what 'most' people Do ? Adding felt to the bottom is a top tip, that will definately get a vote from the wife!

I'll have to have a go at spray painting the bedsheet, I wondered if you could dye it or something ? Spray paint could be a bit odd(I dont have an airbrush)

Happy Hiker – how much room have you got in your loft? This is pretty much the only option for non millionaires in the UK. Or if you are very unusual your garage might not stuffed full of junk and you could do something in there – wrap up warm though !

HappyHiker,

Here's some info on how I dyed and painted white sheeting material. While the piece I did is much larger than yours, the process is the same:

link

I use flannel from the fabric store or a flannel sheet. Flannel is not perfectly smooth, so it has a better grip on the table than a sheet that can slide and pull. Flannel also looks more like real ground as well.

In the US, you can go to a Goodwill store and pic-up several white sheets quite cheaply. Then using a fabric dye(Rite is the US) choose a light green or brown, dye the sheet and bingo. I did this for conventions 20+ years ago and it works great. Because the sheets are cheap I made up a half dozen in different basic colors including some desert colors. I also put dedicated roads on some of them using liquid shoe polish. And to break-up the uniform color of the sheet I used cheap cans of various spray paints and lightly sprayed various portions of the sheet(do this bit outside obviously). This will take a little effort but they store easily and take hills under the sheets very well.

Dave
wargamingminiatures.com

It might be better to have a folding table you can set up in the living room. The dinner table tends to result in some unrest with the other residents. I used to set up games on my bed because I always got chased out of the kitchen.

If you dont have access to an airbrush,You can always get some cans of cheap spraypaint with browns and greens to dress up the bedsheet a bit.You can always apply masking tape to the sheet as a road and paint it brown,or blue as a stream. Books/styrofoam underneath the cloth to make hills,if you havent already tried that.Lichen scatter can be used for rough going and to mark the edge of woods.Just some simple and inexpensive tips.

A cheap way to texture a sheet, is to buy a sea sponge at Lowes/Home Depot/Paint store. Wet it, squeeze it dry, apply brown or tan or green craft paint to it. Make sure you get a sea sponge though – a regular sponge won't do.

Practice tapping it on a paper towel to get the paint to a fairly dry state, and then dapple the surface of the sheet by tapping lightly. Keep moving – don't do the same spot twice. Then try another color.

I've got a canvas mat that I sponged 20 years ago that I still use, even though I've got some great commercial mats as well.

Polyester blankets are fairly reasonable, and one that's green will look a lot like grass. Lighten a bit, if desired.

Felt is another good option too.

So you have a few more options; go to yard/garage sales and look for old U.S. army wool blankets. Perfect shade and rugged for the table top. I use a two to cover a7.5' X 6" area. I also use up to four 2.5 X 6" tables I bought from Costco. I host almost all of our games in my garage aka – man cave. The can't handle a bunch of gamers in the house…for the obvious reasons. When its just my son and I for a game night, then we go into the spare bedroom…aka…gaming room. There I can set-up up to two folding tables as mentioned before.

If the wool blankets not your flavor, hit any second-hand store/Goodwill store, I bought a few King Size sheets for few dollars. On one of them, I wanted it to look like early winter/early spring…so a little snow cover…I used a few spray cans to get the effect.

There are a lot of easy and hassle-free ways to get your gaming on.

Good luck!

P.

Another great option is to buy some big painting tarps from a DIY store like Home Depot or Lowes.

They come in like 9 x 5 or even bigger, and the cool thing is that you can use both sides to make two different types of boards.

I bought two to make a snow board and a wasteland board.

Basically all you do is buy some spray paints in the colors of what you want the board to be. For the wasteland I just used two different shades of brown and sprayed it in random shapes over the whole thing.

For the snow board I did the same brown first, and then sprayed white over it, leaving some areas of the brown showing.

You could just as well do green, or even a blue for a water board if you wanted.

They look as good as any gaming mat that you would buy, and for far cheaper.

I have gotten pretty good results from crumpling up a cloth, dusting it with spray paint, spreading it out again, and then repeating those three steps a few more times with other colors.

You may be able to use a few large binder clips around the edges of the table to secure the cloth to the table top, if the table top is not too thick.

It sounds as though the room limits how bog the table is, rather than the table itself. If you do have space in the room and you have some money (or just need a new table), look for a drop-leaf or removable leaf table.

We have this one, essentially. Both sides fold down, making it extremely compact when you don't need it. Since it's three of us, we only put one side up when we eat. Plenty of room.

Thanks for all tips I'll have to get the spray paints out and see what I can do with the bedsheet. Crumpling and sponges both sound good ideas.

I think British houses are smaller than US ones as room size is a limit too and even the garage is too small(after junk). I think some 2ft x 3ft boards with batons might fit though. Once the kids leave I'm converting their bedrooms into a cinema and a game room. Only 10 years or so to go….

I haven't seen statistics, but that was my impression too--only the very high-density (and price controlled) areas of the US, like New York City had wargamers as cramped for space as the median British gamer--which was why you have a stronger club network.

But as several people have advised, consider a folding table which is not the dining table. Yes, you'll have to set it up and take it down with each game, but it's not as though you can avoid that with the dining table, and using the dining table causes more tension in the family.

If I knew I was headed back to a small apartment, I'd give serious thought to just a card table and microscale or 10mm.

Most spray paint (almost all in fact) comes up matt when sprayed on cloth. Our baize mat took about a dozen cans, but it is 20 foot by 6 (and a 6 x 6 extension). I suggest you use three colours.

If you have the room in the dining room, and the room to store boards, you can use your dining table as a trestle for the game surface. It sounds like 3 2x4' boards would fit over your 5x3' table with only 6" sticking out all the way around, to make a 6x4' surface.

For the boards, I have had 3/4" plywood cut to this size and stuck felt on the back to protect the table underneath. This is very sturdy, but very heavy.

I've done the same with 1/4" hardboard – this is a little thin in that the play surface is sturdy but if not stored properly the material can pick up a warp. Reinforcing with edge batons might be a good idea.

You could also use 1" thick rigid insulation foam. This is not real durable (you don't want to lean on it and you should cover the edges with tape to control chipping). But it's very light and easy to store for that reason. And you can always replace every few years and cut the previous boards up to make terrain.

These three sections can be hinged with tape or hardware to keep them together better.

Maybe you could just substitute centimeters for inches in Black Powder and use smaller stands? That would make your 5 x 3 big enough.

HappyHiker wrote, "Once the kids leave I'm converting their bedrooms into a cinema and a game room."

If the rooms have a common wall, you might consider removing it to make a nice big game room.

Yeah knocking a wall down to play toy soldiers, top idea, let me just tell the wife…😳😳😳😳😳😳😳

I'm in the same situation as you . I've bought 3 fold-in-half trestle tables . Added a 2.2m Sq piece of Grass Green Soft fabric .
At the Fabric stores get some blue felt and what I've done for River/ Creeks for now until a better version is constructed I cut Blue Felt into a winding simulated water way 80mm wide .
Cut up a few MDF Table Mat/cake boards into Forest clumps of odd blob shapes .
But I am also finding building DIY scenery is time consuming while at the same time creating my Regiments . So dont be afraid to PVA glue the figures to Sabot bases and add a weak water down colour and or buy ready made previous painted scenery