Not quite sure what to use as the main base of my board. Having tonnes of flock is going to cost a lot and I'd like to find a way which is fairly easy and cheap to get something that looks effective.

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

try a grass mat for example from mearklin or somthing similar

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Eru was the one who on Arda is called Ilúvatar

-The silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien, first line-

you could also glue and paint sand on it and the glue a bit of flock on some places.

but the grass mat is a good idea, noch sells them with quite long grass aswell

A completly flocked board wouldn't be able to survive a lot of gaming.

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“People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served up.”
My wip

Misread...

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Can't touch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uztj3vp-RI

Well yes i agree there's always the option of having a grass mate, yet they just don't look up to the job if your wanting it to look realistic.. I often give the board a thick brush of ruff polytex stuff.. they come in large tubs, or you could use ceiling paint (which is also very ruff with plentys of bits) Once you've done that give it an undercoat of black (once it's dried of cource) then paint it to the colour you wish, add the patches of sand around & then your flock/grass whatever.. An idea for grass could be to go to your nearest saw mill & get some uber thin sawdust, mix that in with a bit of paint (stir it well, and it will soon lose the moisture & you'll be left with the colour you put in - green)

Drum

Sounds good, I was thinking of mixing sand with PVA and then painting on a few layers of the mix but IDK how that would work.

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

yep that works just as well, just means you may have to give it 2 coats.. Really depends if you are going to be making a lot of scenery/terrain, if so it would be worth getting a big tub - it's faster & easier.. but I think sticking with the sand + PVA is a sound choice

Thanks. How much would you say I should take % wise with the sand and PVA?

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

em... for % wise I couldn't really say, I'm not really a fan of maths lol. Add your sand, but make sure it's still runny enough and doesn't splodge out, which means there's too much sand.. In the end just experiment, if there's too much or too little you can always change it.

For example I used that sand technique on this board, but I think you could make your board look a lot better, mines... .. well


Drum

sorry for duplicate post . would some one let me know how to delete the whole thing.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Sand vs saw dust. I have been doing this a long time and I have tried a lot of things. Sand last a long time. One of the members of my Flames of War group has some sand covered white Styrofoam trenches I gave to him when he was a little boy. That was probably at least 20 years ago. I was really surprised they were still around.Saw dust and foam flocking gets dirty but you can repaint it just like sand. All of it will rub off with use. The main reason I do not use sand for table tops anymore is that it is abrasive. It is very hard on painted miniatures and terrain. I wont mention fingers and elbows when you try to transport it because most people don't do that very often.



We used to dye the saw dust in a wash tub of hot water. When I inquired of one of the model Rail road gurus why he did not recommend that method any more, he explained that the salt in the dye rust the track. However, a lot of the saw dust is not just wood any more so it wont dye consistently. Mixing with paint will work fine. You should sift it first.
A very old post:
http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/infopages/page252.html

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Here's a god walk-through that could help you..
(Start around 1.30)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jNiiTr8Lq8

I used sand on my board.

I just had a tub of PVA glue and worked in sections. I watered the glue down a little, but not heaps, maybe 33% at the most?

Anyway, I'd just "paint" an area with the glue, then sprinkle over the sand, then wait a few hours, tip the board to get rid of the excess sand, then wait a little longer, then "paint" it with glue again.

You just need to make sure the glue is watered down enough not to pool on the surface.
It's super tough once it's done.

As has been mentioned, it's abrasive enough that you don't want to use a nice brush when you drybrush it =)

After leaving it for overnight to dry properly I then spray undercoated black then drybrushed greys (because it's underground) but I don't see why you couldn't drybrush it whatever colour you wanted.

The advantage I see is that I have both the modular gaming hill and the board. The board has sand, the hill doesn't. Miniatures slide around on the hill slopes, but not on the board, the sand gives a good gripping surface.

Anyway, that's what I did and I've been happy with the results!

This page on the blog has the process with pics:
http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com/2010 ... r-two.html

And here's a shot showing the hill and the board so you can see the difference:

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My LotR and 40k blog, Realm of Battle board, dwarves, gobs, space wolves and battle reports. http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com/

Cool. Thanks for all the help! I'll try the watered down PVA and then the sand technique.

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel