Special Terrain

**Aero825** · 02-01-2011 14:59

Hi everyone!

I was just wondering if anyone knows how to make their own terrain. Ive seen many other playmats, but I don't know if anyone makes them themselves. However!!! If anyone does know how, it would be cool if they could design a playmat, much like the terrain from the balloon battle (part 3) in the Red Baron movie. If you aren't familiar with this movie, refer to USMC's "GREAT AIRIAL COMBAT VIDEO" thread (officer's club).

Thanks!!!
Hunter

**richard m schwab** · 02-01-2011 17:08

Hunter!

Look at shot below, you will see one i made last year. It is around 6 ft square i started out as a large piece of green felt. Then used craft paint and started painting different colored shapes and squares. Then added rivers and lakes, i could paint a 2x2 foot area as fast as the paint would dry. The paint is water based so i treated it with two coats of Scotch Guard! This was an inexpensive project, the felt came from Walmart an the paint from local craft stores! If you look at my photos you will see some more shots.

Rich

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/alb...achmentid=5184

**vacca rabite** · 02-01-2011 17:26

I agree with Rich.
I have made LOTS of game boards over the years, and it is dead simple to do. I also have used felt. For WWI, I would go with shades of muddy brown, black, grey and only very little green. Especially if you are around the trench lines. You could use spray paints as well as brush paints to do the work. For WoW I'd keep it 2D. You can paint a very good looking map quickly with spray paints to get the bigger blotches and craters, and then brush on some details later. If you make you map in panels (I make them in 2x4 foot sections) you can make some very interesting play areas. My game table (before I cut it into 2 workbenches for the garage) was a 4x8 foot table, and the felt mats I put on it were configurable in many different ways, depending on the scenerio.

Zach

**Aero825** · 02-02-2011 06:32

Hmm... nice board Richard! And Zach, I don't think I'm able to do it on my own. I was just wondering if anybody had one like the one I described.

**Aero825** · 02-02-2011 06:33

But if you have one that is like that please post pics.

**vacca rabite** · 02-02-2011 17:15

Hunter - you totally CAN DO IT!

You have painted your own plane. This is, IMHO, even easier. If you have ever flown before, think about what the ground looked like from a few thousand feet up. Its all basic shapes and blotches of color. The french front lines would be even easier. The ground around the trenches is nothing but mud, craters, and ruins. Its all patches of browns, with irregular circles of black and gray (craters), with darker browns and blacks to mark trenchlines.

Check this out.

This is in your backyard (well, Newville PA, so in our home state)
That is a recreation of a WWI trench system as seen from a satellite - so it is a smaller scale then you would want, but that is not an big issue. WWI reenactments are held here a few times a year (complete with Fokkers and Sopwiths buzzing overhead and straffing the trenches). Its about as close as you can get to WWI France without half decomposed bodies and blood and tons of TNT.

To make it what would you need? Some brown felt as the base (lets say 4ft x 4ft), and a little black and brown paint. Use tape for masking trench lines, and just paint them right on there. You have rough circles - these are craters. You have a rough tan road going through it. This is easy. And remember IT NEED NOT BE PERFECT! Trenches moved. They were dug, abandoned, blown all to hell. Rain might make ponds in the spring and fall, filling in the craters. Sometime you might find a little bit of green in no mans land.

You could do this if you wanted to - and do it for ~$10. Thats less then a new plane.

Zach

**vacca rabite** · 02-02-2011 17:27

Hunter, here is another picture of the GWA trenches. Whoa... What is the pic taken in? I bet the altitude is just about right... :-)

But look how easy this would be to paint 2D. its just irregular circles and lines.

Same trench system. Look at the colors in the trench. Brown, and more brown. The green field in the background? That should also be brown. And muddy. Its not an ACTIVE war zone, so stuff does grow there. What can you do?

Motivated yet?

Zach

**The Cowman** · 02-03-2011 00:17

Originally Posted by vacca rabite

Hunter, here is another picture of the GWA trenches. Whoa... What is the pic taken in? I bet the altitude is just about right... :-)

But look how easy this would be to paint 2D. its just irregular circles and lines.

Same trench system. Look at the colors in the trench. Brown, and more brown. The green field in the background? That should also be brown. And muddy. Its not an ACTIVE war zone, so stuff does grow there. What can you do?

Motivated yet?

Zach

Zach you are so making me want to come check out these reenactments sometimes... looks incredible!

**Shiraz68** · 02-03-2011 00:22

Aaarrrrggg. My unstarted projects list is getting bigger. I already have the WoW game mats which are great, but a mat made to your own design would be fantastic.

Now where is that large piece of brown felt I bought last year???...

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 02-03-2011 01:54

This link was originally posted by George last year. Should be of great use for anyone doing their own playing surface.
Rob.

http://library.mcmaster.ca/maps/ww1/ndx5to40.htm

**MayorJim** · 02-05-2011 16:47

Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte

This link was originally posted by George last year. Should be of great use for anyone doing their own playing surface.
Rob.

http://library.mcmaster.ca/maps/ww1/ndx5to40.htm

Rob,
Your link looked interesting...but can't seem to actually pull up any maps or aerial views from the site...;-(

**vacca rabite** · 02-05-2011 16:55

I could not get them to work for me either.

Tried Firefox and IE. I figure there is a special plug in needed to view them but I don't know what it is.

Zach

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 02-05-2011 23:23

Hi Guys.
I checked them before I posted , to see if they were still live and they were O.K.
Now I can't get them either.
Rob.

**Bluedevil** · 02-06-2011 01:12

Is that a Belgian aircraft flying over those trenches ?!

**jbmacek** · 02-06-2011 04:19

Yes, it is.
You can see video of all the planes here.
http://www.weekendwarbirds.com/video/
I don't know if this link will work, but here's my friend Mark's trench-eye view of that Nieuport.
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7637352_n.jpg
And there is a pic of her here on the ground.
http://www.gwaero.com/Aircraft_Projects.html

**Bluedevil** · 02-06-2011 05:13

Thanks for the link! I never thought I would ever see Edmond Thieffry flying over the trenches...what's more unbelievable is that the pilot flying the Belgian machine even looks like E. Thieffry...weird an marvelous at the same time...

**Aero825** · 02-06-2011 07:35

Amazing pics everyone! Zach, I'll try to do that myself if I can get my hands on the stuff.

**greenbull** · 02-07-2011 12:30

The only thing that bothers me about the WWI recreation of the trench-system, is that it looks way too manicured... All clean craters, not one overlapping another etc. If you look at the real pictures, it really was one chaotic muddy scene!

**grumpybear** · 02-07-2011 14:47

Thanks for the tips I was wondering what materials were used for mats

**vacca rabite** · 02-08-2011 10:22

Originally Posted by greenbull

The only thing that bothers me about the WWI recreation of the trench-system, is that it looks way too manicured... All clean craters, not one overlapping another etc. If you look at the real pictures, it really was one chaotic muddy scene!

Its far from perfect, and I have not been there for over a decade. When I was last there, it was overgrown wigh vegitation that would simply not exist "for real."

But it is about the only place I know of where you can be standing in a trench system, shooting (blanks) at the enemy, have a morter round land between your feet and not die. The morter guys knew the place like the back of thier hands, with measurements to nearly every crater from thier firing position. They could drop rounds in with frightening ease.

All things told, I was there reenacting WWII. After being there once, I never really wanted to go back, and was the main reason I never joined the WWI groups during my reenacting haydays. Too many ways to accidentally get really hurt. Even blanks can kill.

erictholmes · 02-09-2011 07:23

Great web site. Take a look at the VIMY area, Map 109 http://lt1.mcmaster.ca/ww1/wrz4mp.ph...ap_id=109&view It looks like the artillery was using this map to sight in targets. There are range circles noted at the top and angles or degree markings on the western edge of the map. A lot of hand written info on this map. Way cool.

erictholmes · 02-09-2011 07:59

One more to really study...Grid 51b, 433WW1MAP.sid (51b SE, 51a SW, 57c NE, 57b NW) It has timing instructions for an advance in the Cambrai area, with the 11th British and 1st thru 3rd Canadian Divisions. Even cooler.

http://lt1.mcmaster.ca/ww1/wrz4mp.ph...ap_id=433&view

**MayorJim** · 02-09-2011 18:18

Originally Posted by vacca rabite

After being there once, I never really wanted to go back, and was the main reason I never joined the WWI groups during my reenacting haydays. Too many ways to accidentally get really hurt. Even blanks can kill.

Yep...I did Rev. War for about 10 years...we did a once a year get-together with about 1,000 reenactors...even with stringent safety precautions we had an occasional accident. 2 years ago I had a pound and a half of black powder go off about 18" from my face...pretty messy...I had a split lip, split ear and split nose! Fortunately, I had my glasses on...head turned black after a few days! Lost my ensign to a double load going off near his head...concussion took him down in a second...it was fun, but the clock was starting to catch up with me...

**vacca rabite** · 02-10-2011 06:20

Jim, what Rev War unit?
I have been reenacting Rev War since 1996 or so, and commanded the First Maryland Regt for a few year until my son was born and I started grad school and got fat and ran out of time. :-) Jbmacek is another rev war guy of old.

Rev is one of the safer periods to reenact IMHO. People will get hurt, but its mostly heat stroke. The public aspect of it tends to keep the guys in line and the umbrella groups require us to carry a lot of insurance and institute safety rules which simply don't exist for WWII (at least the groups that I was in) or WWI. Now that I am done with grad school I hope to be able to trim down enough to get back into my rev war kit w/o looking too much like a boat. I miss it.

Zach

**Albert Ross** · 05-09-2011 22:48

I'm still active with Rev War, 1st Virginia Regiment. I've done WWII (29th ID) when I was younger and fitter, and civil war too years ago. Back on topic! I started out with a terrain cloth but found a styrofoam insulation board spray painted worked much better. Currently working on a 'portable' version made from 3 sheets of foam core that will be duct taped along one edge to fold up.
I bought some 1/600 scale field guns, trucks,a Rolls Royce Armored car and even a train to make 3d ground targets. http://www.picoarmor.com/pages/produ...s.php?pid=1186
I mount these on peel & stick rubber foam my wife found in Wal Mart cut to the size of a regular WoW card

Scallywag06 · 05-15-2011 10:07

Hunter, We need more of everything for the game. More Maps, More measuring devices and cool props would add some much visual effect.

We could use another map. Maybe North and South maps. Put the four maps together.... more playing room.... More playing room...

And what is this cotton balls as clouds. ghetto.....

But what ever lets us do the best imagination!

Scallywag06