Lava Gaming board (Image intense)

[AWM68]

I have been working on a gaming board for a few weeks now, a little at a time. This is my second board. My first I did with little to no skills. Just stuff I have seen here. That one was in 2 2' x 4' halves. It warped a bit and has some issue. But it works great and me and my friends play on it all the time.

This is the first board. There is actually a water effect in the middle part now for the river. It turned out all right.


But, I wanted to get a little fancier with my next board. With what I learned from doing the first one, I used better materials and I wanted to try the board in 4 2" x 2" sections. I did this to avoid the warpage and for easier carrying around.

I have been so very impressed by forum member Zreef's lava trolls and a my friend wanted a volcano battle board. So, I thought I would give it a try.

A volcano seemed a bit to ambitious for me. Too big too. So, what I came up with was a smaller volcano-like rocky area with lava flowing down every side and pooling into a river or lava around the board.


By having the board in quarters, I could make them reversible, creating a different terrain to play on.

[AWM68]

I planned out the lava flows. They are fairly simple.


Again, reversible for a different look for the board.


The center "volcano" I had some trouble with. When I cut the pieces, they did not line up exactly. So, I tried to trim them and ended up hacking them up far worse. With a good suggestion from the forums to use a large piece of sandpaper on the table to even them out, I was able to salvage my work. With a little spray on foam insulation, I added flowing lava coming down the rocks.


I coated the whole thing with black latex paint. My plan then, was to use my airbrush to now paint on the lava. I started with yellow around the edges to denote the hottest layers. I was a bit dismayed to find that the yellow did not coat over the black paint very well at all. It was only a slight yellow-tinted film. I had bought airbrush paint specifically to do this project. Apparently that type of paint works much better for tee-shirts and paper than pitch black gaming boards. By hand, I was able to add in the yellow and then the red.

[AWM68]

It looked a little comical. but, it was progress. The lava worms were scraps of the spray foam!

I had just been working on 1 quarter of the board, still figuring out the best way to do everything. Tonight I went at the lava flow, getting the highlights in and the dry-brushing more black to get it all looking more...well....lava-ey. I was pleasantly surprised by the results.


So, the other 3 quarters have been started with yellow and I look forward to getting my lava board completed soon. I will post more when it is done. I hope you like.

[Oreet]

I love the board. The painted lava river is shaping up great.

Do you plan on making any special house rules for models wanting to travel across rivers of molten rock?

[R Gordon 1028]

Love the work. The lava flows are very realistic.
As a Cygnar player I would enjoy playing on this terrain, especially with Kara Sloan and Defenders and Chargers.

Getting to objectives might be a challenge, but excellent work.

[AWM68]

Nothing specific planned for house lava rules. but it has been brought up. I am open to suggestions.

[AWM68]

I am trying to think of lava-themed obstacles and terrain. A couple thoughts were a lava field with cracks filled with lava which could be rough terrain and then an area of lava vents that pour out plumes of steam, smoke or sulfur which could be used like a forest giving cover and concealment. Then, of course, just rocks. I would welcome any other ideas for the lava theme.

[Space Donkey]

I am trying to think of lava-themed obstacles and terrain. A couple thoughts were a lava field with cracks filled with lava which could be rough terrain and then an area of lava vents that pour out plumes of steam, smoke or sulfur which could be used like a forest giving cover and concealment. Then, of course, just rocks. I would welcome any other ideas for the lava theme.

All good ideas. I think to make it playable with all that otherwise impassable terrain you should institute some rule similar to the old one they had in NQ 12 or so about ice that allowed models to cross but risked them falling in. Small based models on a 6+, medium on a 4+, large on a 2+ and treat as deep water for the models that fall through, in addition to a POW 14ish fire check with continuous fire tacked on.

[Tianaris]

You could also build some smaller flat rock pieces and use them as floating bridge plateaus on the lava river! Move them around (1d3 inches per round...) like in jump'n'run games and crossing that river with a whole unit will be quite a challenge!

[Carrington]

I love the board. The painted lava river is shaping up great.

Do you plan on making any special house rules for models wanting to travel across rivers of molten rock?

There was something on Slate about whether people (or was it Gollum) would actually sink in Lava.

[WarpedWolf]

I don't know about actually sinking, but they should take some real damage. Units which are might treat it as water. YMMV, of course.

[AWM68]

You could also build some smaller flat rock pieces and use them as floating bridge plateaus on the lava river! Move them around (1d3 inches per round...) like in jump'n'run games and crossing that river with a whole unit will be quite a challenge!

Ooh that sounds really neat! I like that.

[redmanphill]

I like the board a lot. The colours are really great and it would make for a really interesting battlefield. I imagine it won't be too easy to make some forms of terrain for it, forests and such. I guess you could just use clouds to represent them.

[AWM68]

The board is almost finished. Not quite there but I wanted to give a preview and try playing on it. So, I brought it over to a friends. He has the Gargatuan red dragon figure and it seemed right at home...


We did a little 35pt battle, Trolls vs Khador. Coincidentally, we both brought infantry-heavy armies. The only ranged attack on the board was Borka's little bomb. We ended up quickly playing a game of king of the mountain.

It was really fun. Strategies had to be changed once we begain climbing all over the mountain.

Edit* We decided, for this fight, that the only rule for lava was if you ended your move fully within the lava you would take damage. Not very difficult for trolls to get around with their medum-large bases.

[AWM68]

I finished the Lava Board. Thought I would share some pics of the finished product. I really liked Tianaris's idea about the rotating rocks in the lava. So, I made those. Thanks! Hope you like.

[AWM68]

Thanks for lookin!

[PG_Pake]

That looks nice! You really should try melting the lava flows deeper into the foam. That would make it much more realistic.
But making it look even more realistic would have its cons, because even now it looks like uncomfortably hot to play on.
If it looked even more realistic, I wouldn't even place my minis on it!

Good job!

[Tianaris]

That board really looks great! The paint job is just awesome! And I'm glad you liked my idea! Hope you have fun with it...