"Sand tables ?" Topic

Anyone use an actual sand table? For your desert games?

Yeah. I used too. Was dumb enough to use metal tanks. After first battle we had to dig all the tanks out lol. If you're going to use sand better stick to 1/72 scale plastics or your army's going to get swallowed up by the table lol

We use it for pretty much all of our games. And we use metal and plastic figures. Never have any problem with them. You have to dampen the sand to keep the surface solid.

The key to using a sandtable is to use a small amount of white glue mixed into the spray bottles. This forms a crust on the sand. The sand then holds the contours longer.

The next important thing, is to us Woodland scinics fine turf to cover the sand(unless you want the sand to look like, well, sand), this makes the terrain look great. Its expensive, to be sure, but it makes the whole thing look great.

When we had our sandtable in my basement(8'x8') we all kicked in so we had plenty of the different colored and courseness turfs on hand. We played micro armor. From 1978 to 1988. It was a great time to wargame.

Oh, and this is John, Shirleylyn's husband making this post. Shirleylyn does'nt know anything about sandtables, LOL.

One more thing: I was thinking of revisiting my youth and putting up a new sandtable. But if I did it these days, I'd go with soil. Even with the above mentioned colored turf, sand will begin to peak through. I figure, if I use soil, I will still use the colored turf, but the soil will hold contour better, and when it peaks through, it won't look bad…

Back to my wife! Take it, Shirleylyn!

My cats would use it for alternate purposes

Only place I've ever heard about on seen a sand table was old Don Featherstone books very 1960-70s :)

Used one for quite a while back in the day (roughly
1968-1982).

Tips above (glue in spray, etc.) are good, but you
also need to put a mold-killer in the moistening
water. Note 'moisten' NOT 'soak'.

We also used tempura paints (powdered water-color) to
do the terrain. It takes a while, but really nice
tables can be created. Lot of work, though.

Larry Brom used to use kitty litter at conventions
to create a sand-table like terrain. It worked well
for TSATF games.

Anyone have pictures?

Only sand in my house is in the aquarium. To me the cons (weight, mess) outweigh the positives.

Sawdust is lighter.

Jack Scruby advocated a standup table. In around 1974 I started using one for some of my games. I could put table tops over them if I did not want to game on the sand.

Are you at the tannish construction sand, not the white play sand. I should have pulled out Jack's article on it. If I remember correctly he recommended mixing 50% soil with it. It was more trouble than it was worth. Wetting it down prior to the game was a hassle. Sand got all over.

I finally got rid of the sand.

Tom

You beat me to it Jlunberg!

I had a sand table for years! I still remember the smell of wet sand. I loved it and miss it dearly, but the weight and logistics of moving it were not much fun.

Figures stand perpendicular to the surface, so on slopes they don't always look that good.

YouTube link

You don't need to put glue in it – just enough water to wet the sand. Like playing at the beach. A little chlorine in the water helps keep any mold at bay. We've been playing for years on my friend's sand table and it's never been a problem.

Here is a link to my flickr page. Sand table pictures.

link

That's very sweet Doug.

Thanks. The biggest problem for most people is having space for a permanent table.

That looks a lot of fun. Loved how you made the hexes (just messing). The table seems to work really well. Definitely one for a permanent room but thanks for sharing – inspirational stuff

I understand the concept and have played on a sand table (rather a huge room full of sand tables, crazy!), I still feel its more "playing" than playing. Getting sand on my figures (and fingers) and bases does not appeal. Other, less dirty options may work, perlite? Dreaded polystyrene (mix in some talc to stop static)? Maybe crushed/ground fired brick or clay may be a great idea, especially for ruined city.