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[guess]
picked them up yesterday. 1/2inch thick MDF squares.
only problem?
[the problem]
i got them from home depot, and the guy who cut up the 8x4ft sheet didn't actually measure, he just lined stuff up on very rough hand drawn lines on the cutter, so they aren't anywhere near uniform size.
i'd wanted 2ft by 2ft squares.. and i got that within about an inch either way.. i've gotten more accurate cuts from home depot before, i think the guy had just half assed it.
now i'll need to track down a guy from our church who has a real, fully equipped woodshop, see if he can trim them for me to be a bit more uniform. going to delay construction.
i also picked up some black, grey, and green spray paint..

my goal is to make something similar to this
i figure i can hit them with black paint, then use painter's tape to block out the roads, then spray them with grey to make the concrete areas where the buildings will go. buildings will be on separate bases, so i can store this whole assembly when it's not in use.

with 8 sections, i figure i can make 4 generic boards like the above (maybe with slightly different road layouts in the center), and 2 with some more unique layouts (though sharing the same 4 roads edge bits..thinking that parking lots and other such features might be fun)
the last two i'm hoping to make into 'parkland' boards.. instead of room for building's they have green open areas for hills and woods.

Buildings will be easy.. Burn In Designs and Gamecraft Miniatures both make fairly simple card, wood, and plastic building kits big enough to serve as mecha cover.. and have package deals where you can buy lots of them in bulk affordablely. though i'll probably look at some GHQ and other manufacturers farther down the line to add some variety.. it's just resin and metal is expensive.

Hey GB - I have never do e wargaming before. But how about this: buy a roll of grey cloth. Have the wood planks big enough for a city block. Put buildings to the edge w/ sidewalk. Place buildings on the cloth. The cloth would be your road, while the buildings/city block sit on top. Should be fairly easy to set up

i've done cloth and such for a long time actually.. but it looks very adhoc, and gets old very quick. this project is aimed at producing a much nicer looking set of terrain than i've had in the past.

it'll go well alongside my Battlehex hexed foam terrain i've used for battletech for some time.

I was thinking about that. A giant piece of Plywood would also do the same trick. And if your savvy enough you can put magnets into the plywood and your MDF pieces to keep it stable.

i'm going with sections mainly because then i can store them more easily when not in use. plus i plan to make the central street layout a bit different on each one, and modular design allows for the board to be mixed up each game, keep things a bit fresh.

great idea

Update.
The panels are now all trimmed and equal sized. Some sanding still to do on the recently cut edges but nothing bad. Currently planning out street and block layouts for each. I decided to not make all of them urban. Instead 4 will have a purely urban layout, 2 will have a layout that is more 'city fringe'/'industrial' with more open space and some grassy areas, and 2 will have a 'rural'/park layout with gravel roads and grassy areas. I also realized I can paint the undersides of the boards as well with alternate layouts, to give me more options. I will probably make the urban boards have an alternate 'rural' option so I can do non-urban fights easier.

Though at the moment I'm helping family move house (parents got a new job elsewhere in the state) so work has not started just yet.. trying to get the place speed up enough in certain spots for the landlady to come and get pictures taken for when it goes back on the market

another brief update.. still not had time to paint the panels (less time related actually, more "the weather here is not good for painting when i do have time".. until last week it was too cold.. now its too sandstormy/windy.. will try to at least get the base coat on soon)

i've also had to rethink my buildings.. can't afford premade ones right now, so going to build an industrial type sector from scratch using various items i've saved from food purchases (yogurt cups, containers for drink mixes, those spherical soda bottles you can get at Xmas, etc.) will pick up a few cheap plumbing fixtures and various other bits to disguise their nature a bit more.
probably won't fill more than 2 of the panels though, once i've got them blocked out.. but its a start.

update!

3 days ago i was able to spray paint 4 of the boards black, step one of creating the city blocks on them. the downside? it took 3 cans of cheap $1 spraypaint to cover those 4. (well, more like 2 1/2 cans) the result is a bit mottled where the spray went on a bit thicker, but i don't think anyone will notice once the grey areas cover most of it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/glitterboy2098/games/battletech/Terrain%20Project/IMG_20140609_203958_zpsaaf6db5b.jpg

the spray paint issue has forced a change of plans for the grey paint part.. instead of using spraypaint, i'm going to get some light grey latex interior wall paint and use a smooth surfaces foam roller to apply it. should be cheaper in the long run, and look a lot nicer.

i'm working on using painters tape (the blue stuff that is less sticky) to block out the roads right now (just took a quick break) and since the boards are sized within a 1/16th of an inch, it has been easy to set up marks (in ink pen) to follow to make sure the road edges are smooth and fairly straight.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/glitterboy2098/games/battletech/Terrain%20Project/IMG_20140609_203958-mockup_zpsbf87e5f4.png

a quick mock up to show the layout of this first section. the 4 edge roads will be the same on each of the 8 board sections i'm making.. but i plan to change up the interior on each so things are less repetitive, and i can get some interesting shapes for the city blocks, and some interesting tactical options.

Nice! Good weathering on the square. Cant wait to see them when your done.

finished the taping for the first square last night.. need to remember to pick up more tape.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/glitterboy2098/games/battletech/Terrain%20Project/IMG_20140609_222657_zps2cf05e62.jpg

the wide roads (basically 4 lane roads, wide enough to give plenty of movement room for mecha on bases) didn't leave a lot of actual room for terrain.. so i had to trim the inner roads back a bit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/glitterboy2098/games/battletech/Terrain%20Project/IMG_20140610_101017_zps47c51550.jpg

so learned 3 lessons on this one..
1st, this will use more of the tape than i thought, so i need to invest in extra rolls.
2nd, narrower roads in the center will work better over all.. i'll just have to remember to leave plenty of extra "sidewalk space" when making buildings.
3rd, when peeling tape off the spraypaint, the paint sometimes comes with it. will need to remember to use a wet sponge to loosen it up prior to peeling when i am finished painting, to avoid that. though i might have to resort to minor touch ups anyway. (and will probably need to hit the sections with some good clear sealant just to be sure)

You mentioned earlier about using food containers and what not as buildings...Have you thought about paper buildings? There is a ton out there that can be used as is or shrunk down for the 6mm world.

Any chance of you coming to the OH in '15, and if so, can you bring this with you?

i'm planning to go to the OH in '15, assuming my work schedule allows it.

and if i'm done i'll try to bring it. at the rate i'm going, no promises.


and in the past, i've had mixed experiances with paper buildings. they tend to be fiddly to build and not very sturdy. they are on the table should i not be able to get what i want to use in time (a mix of Gamecraft miniatures and Burn in designs 6mm buildings) but if i use them i'll probably try to reinforce them with some foamcore boxes on the inside. (basically making a box the same size, and pasting the paper walls onto those)

i'm going to see what i can come up with recycling though.. since this table is going to double as terrain for my battletech games, i'm hoping to add a fair amount of more scifi stylings, and containers work well for some of that. but i'm starting with an industrial sector.. tanks, silo's, factories, ec. stuff you can make with junk and it looks fine.

Well, at least you'll try, that is all I ask. Good luck with it!

i'm considering making tile #2 using this layout, or something similar.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/glitterboy2098/games/battletech/Terrain%20Project/IMG_20140609_203958-layout2_zps14ee5948.png
mainly to break up the sight-lines more, which is good for creating better battles.

Thanks for the update.

Anything like this for Rifts or Heroes Unlimited in the works??

Not at the moment.

a preview of the tile layout i have planned

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... b69642.png

note that only the top half is going to be worked on in the near term (still need to spraypaint the other 4 tiles)

Again, nice update.

the squarish ones are just placeholders right now.. will probably change them up a bit. thinking of making one a kind of heliport/market thing, with some VTOL landing pads and space for smaller buildings to represent shops.

Sounds like it will be very nice when your done.

4 boards half finished..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... 3b88ac.jpg

might toss a few extra parking lots to the "+" ones, for variety, but basically all that is left is to get the grey paint and one of those mini-rollers..

terrain boards are finished. learned a few things.. the color i picked for the concrete parts is a bit too white, though not enough to be an issue. and you have to use good quality painters tape.. the board i did first the tape peeled away some of the black paint. the tape was stickier due to being cheap.. plus it had sat for awhile, had a chance to set..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... f47044.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... f1f347.jpg

Thanks for the update!

First building finished.. a storage tank.
since most of the junk i have to work with at the moment is things like bottles and boxes, the first section of the city is going to be an industrial sector. so this would be like a LNG tank or maybe a liquid hydrogen tank. with a pump house next to it.

perhaps part of a SLMH production site? storing the raw material before being fed into the device that makes SLMH (probably some gravity thing, that'll end up being represented by a big bunker like building)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... ccde02.jpg

Seems legit!, well done

quick look at he start of the industrial sector..

some more storage tank assemblies (all big enough to block LOS for mecha.. should be fun to fight around) using pill bottles, bottlecaps, and straws for pipes.

and it looks like Gina Jr. has come stomping around for fun..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... 9ecc04.jpg


individual pics of the assemblies will come later.

mock up work: board set up with the peices that will become terrain for the board, to determine if i have enough stuff for this half. some work on creating elevated area using foam 'hills/platforms' is planned, to help make things a bit less flat.

the smaller figures scattered around are battletech Unseen's, to get an idea of how the UEDF figures will work size and line of sight wise.. the bigger figures are mechwarrior: dark age figures as stand ins for the zentreadi sized mecha.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... b795b3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... c10eea.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... a25392.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... dc8bed.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... 3855b7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/ ... c73d4b.jpg

note that most of these are only the core parts of the buildings.. i still need to add details, griblies, and bitz to make them more building like, and paint them. although i have not planned it that way, my board has become an industrial sector.. factories, storage tanks, warehouses, and so on.

so rather than fight it, i'm going to embrace it, and use as inspiration this map from mechwarrior Online:
http://img0.joyreactor.cc/pics/post/ful ... 77937.jpeg