Custom Battle Mat

[bliss_infinite]

Hi all,

I've been slowly collecting a few of the minis to play the game but wanted a battle mat to play the game on. After some research on printing a photographic mat which turned out to be too expensive I found Wombat's mat tutorial (which is fantastic, btw, thanks for posting that!). It seemed perfect for me so I went with that. I changed the material to a wool fabric though. The whole thing cost me about $9 and about three hours of my time so far.

Here's the full mat and the mat in action:





I still have to add some craters and trenches in No-Man's Land but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

You can see more pictures on my blog: Warlock's Home Brew

[Nightbomber]

Congrats Paul It looks really cool. Frankly the most important thing is the fun time spent on making such a mat and the satisfaction of a great looking surface for your games. Creativity is what really counts. I too followed the Wombat's mat tutorial and spent a great afternoon/evening/night drawing lines and airbrushing the fields.

Now you owe us an AAR, don't you?

[diceslinger]

Great looking mat! I'm still trying to decide if I should wait for the Ares mats to come out, or make one myself using Wombat's tutorial as well.

[bliss_infinite]

Thanks Nightbomber, you are totally correct. It's always fun creating these custom elements for games. For me that's the 'hobby' part of it.

er....Sorry for being such a noob, but what is an AAR?

[Nightbomber]

After Action Report
Just look how we post them - in Campaign section, Over the Trenches Solitaire or F2F game

[Marechallannes]

Well done Paul - this self made mat looks great!

[bliss_infinite]

An AAR quicky. Played with my wife and brother-in-law over the weekend using the mat.

My wife shot me down three times.

Seriously, there's nothing behind that!

[crashx]

Great idea!!! It goes along with painting aircraft!!! Gotta love our hobby!!!!

[gully_raker]

Very well done Paul. You should be proud of that.

Incidently mate you need to choose an Avitar for your self. Go to your profile page & you will find a link on the bar on the Left Hand side to many pages of Allied & Central Power Aircraft.

[bliss_infinite]

Thanks, Gully. I was trying to figure that out earlier today.

[Jack Hooligan]

Awesome!

Two things:

1) Where'd you get the fabric? Anyone know where those 'patio fabrics' that wombat mentions can be found?

2) I don't see an avatar link on the left hand side. Is it called something else (I don't know why it would)?
EDIT: Nevermind

[grumpybear]

It looks great, well done

[Flying Officer Kyte]

A very good way to achieve a good looking and inexpensive mat.
Rob.

[MoonSylver]

Never dreamed such a thing was possible. Great tutorial. Got me seriously considering having a go at it, as soonas I finish the million+1 OTHER projects I've got going for this+other games... Wish I could afford to quit my job. It's seriously cutting into my hobby time.

[sparty]

That does look good. You have some real talent there and an eye for detail. I particularly like the little shading on the buildings and where you've clumped the colors so it feels more organic than mechanical