Scenery Help building a board?

[JackwolfskinK]

Hi folks, I'm seeking some advice for building a battle board. The rea of battle boards are, while lovely, very expensive.
Another option is a battle mat, but while I have scenery a plenty, it would leave a flat field. And now we're no longer in 8th ed with lots of wobbly moment trays, I want something with steeper terrain.
So I want to make my own.

The deign I'm thinking is a stepped plateau, with wooded henge at one end and a fortress at the other.
So I'd be wanting to make a 6x4 board that can be split into tiles, with a good bit of texture/terrain.

Final catch, I don't want to use foam.
I've got some but ta brittle, smells bad, and damages easily.

So I'm wandering if people know of other ways to build hills and cliffs etc without using foam board/polystyrene. Contemplating paper mâché?

Cheers folks!

 

[tom ndege]

Hmm... Could cork be an alternative? If you have a big board of cork you can cut it into pieces or break it and but some layers over one another... For smaller hills that might work quite well...

 

[Nakai]

I just finished building a table out of 6" x 6" tiles using wood and the hirst arts molds. If your looking for tiles to keep it modular and at a decent price go and have a look at Secret Weapon miniatures tiles, there 1' x 1' and way cheaper than a GW battle board.http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=125 There's the link hope this helps. Also I have a realm of battle board I'm looking to get rid of, it's all painted up has flock and stuff on it, if your interested send me a pm.

 

[Tziruzitza]

Wow, those Secret Weapon Miniatures boards look fantastic...

In terms of building your own, have you thought about using wire mesh (maybe a couple of layers) for a base, and then plaster bandage to cover it with? It's easy to shape while it's dry, and then wet it down and leave it overnight, and you have a fairly solid and relatively lightweight textured board!

The downside is that you'll need to finish the edges off, maybe some thin (2-3mm?) plywood or something, and it can take a bit of work with templates and such if you want to build it in sections and have the edges actually match up...

 

[JackwolfskinK]

Thanks for everyone's help! Giving me plenty of options to look into