Scratch built Bolt Action gameboard Part 2: the finished village!

I finished up the build of a gameboard representing the footprint of a village for my Bolt Action games. The finished board, which measures 40 x 24 and has two equal parts, isn't big enough to cover a side of a a 6x4 foot table, but it was really designed to add some realism to the village part of our table. I always felt that putting building on a green mat didn't look cinematic enough.

Here's the second half being built. Here's the link to the build of the first half, it explains how to stamp cobbles as well: HERE

Here's the finished table

You can see I haven't painted the edge of the new half. Because of that you can also see that despite using tough composite board, there is still warping going on. The right half warped quite badly, the new part a bit less, because I changed the order of the build of the board, starting with the composite board and working my way up. 

You can see I added some ornamentation in the stone work, with crosswalks and a circle in the square area.

I haven't finalized what should be on the right top, where the tree is now. I feel it needs a fountain or garden to emphasize the importance of the tower. I also painted the side walk around the tower different, to make that area stand out. 

Once you start going to eyelevel with the camera, the board and models really come to life. Enjoy some of these action shots!

Below you can see the warping showing, right behind the Sherman. I am not bummed about it, but if I make another board, I will make sure this doesn't happen again. 

The valuable truckload 

The hedges around the middle part of the board were made of Scotchbrite steel scrubbers. I cut it into strips, glued it to styrene and painted it. They look fun! 

Top view 

The objective is being surrounded... 

Scratch built Bolt Action Game Board, Part 1

In one week I built one side of a village board for Bolt Action, using composite board, foamboard, beach sand, glue and some dedication. Here is the first part, 20x24 inches, from start to finish

After mapping out the road and side I started making the cobble stone road. Using a brush without the hair and shaped like a brick, I started punching in the design. I had to take the top paper off the foam board to expose the soft foam that really takes the indentation well. Here are images of that technique from a previous project:


Here is the road and sidewalks. For those sidewalks I used a larger stone (different brush) and made them look more distressed looking by picking at the foam a bit. I didn't count how many times I had to punch, but it took me three sessions; after a while your eyes and hands go nuts!

Here's the design, sanded as well. Realize that you can't spray the foam, so I had to paint the whole thing by hand.

And now the fun part; the finished board images! And again, Bolt Action is so cinematic, it's great to work on armies and terrain.

The tree on the right is part of a set of forest terrain that I made last month, post coming soon.

The captain is analyzing his options...

Part two will be the other side of the board, it will feature this building and a village square type scene.

Hope this inspires!

SC Mike