White Knight's Foam Board Tutorial

[White Knight]

White Knight’s Foam Board Tutorial

I saw a tutorial about two years ago (I think by bad_calvin) that used pink insulation board and Heroscape tiles to make custom hex terrain. The tutorial no longer exists as far as I can tell, so I wanted to write a short tutorial so others can quickly make their own foam base boards.

I know that Auggies sells plastic hex mats that look great, but I like the foam boards because they make a sturdy base on my rug and because the whole battlefield can quickly be moved somewhere else (if kids want to wrestle on the floor).

Materials Needed
- Foam Insulation Board from Home Depot or Lowes
(I used .75” think pink foam board. It is sold in 4’ x 8’ boards.)

- Exacto Knife (or a hot knife or hot wire cutter)


(Of course, be careful with the Exacto knife)

- Paints and finish



Step 1: Remove the plastic protection film from both sides of the foam board

Plastic protection film


Step 2: Lay out your Heroscape tiles onto the board (whatever size you desire)

Initial setup (before cutting board to size)


Step 3: Mark and cut the board to size, leaving about 1/2 inch around the edges of the Heroscape tiles

Step 4: Gently but firmly press the Heroscape tiles into the foam to leave an indentation
Be careful with this step—press only on the edges of the tiles. You don’t want to press too hard and break your tiles. (I’ve done this 4 times and only broken 1 tile—a 2-hex piece.)

Initial imprinting




Step 5: After making your initial imprints with the 27-hex pieces, switch to grouped single hex pieces and imprint all the single hexes

Imprinting using single tiles





Step 6: Repeat steps 2-5 on the back side of the board

This is how the foam board should look after imprinting.

Finished imprinting


Step 7: Paint one side of the board with acrylic paint

White = snow (no wash)
Red = lava (probably black wash with some orange and yellow dry brush)
White/Black mix = dungeon, shadow, or road (with black wash)
Dark Blue (Craft smart Dark Blue) = water (with black wash)
Sand (Americana Sand) = sand (with brown wash)

For this tutorial, I did one side White for Snow and the other side Grey (White/Black mix) for Dungeon

First coat white paint




Step 8: Blackwash if desired

I blackwashed the Dungeon side to highlight the hex imprints. It didn’t come out as clear as I want.

Later I’ll post a picture of my Sand board—the brown wash looks really good. (I have a battlefield set up on the Water side right now.)

Here is a tutorial that talks about how to blackwash:

BLACKWASH TUTORIAL

Blackwash







Step 9: Add a second coat of paint if needed
The white paint wasn’t thick enough—in some places I could still see some pink. A second coat took care of that.

2nd coat of white paint


Step 10: Apply Clear Finish (spray one side, let it dry, and then spray the other side)
Krylon’s Low Oder Clear Finish works really well on foam board.

DON’T use Krylon Matte Finish—it melts the foam board. It’s best to try it out on a spare piece of foam first.

Clear Finish on snow board


FINISHED!
Here are some pictures of the completed boards. We use them all the time, if only as a sturdy place to build our battlefields.

Finished snow board


Finished Dungeon/Shadow/Road board


Figures on the finished board





Water board I made earlier (sand on the other side)


New boards I made (asphalt and sand):

[Rocktroll]

Great tutorial! How easy/hard are they to damage? Do they still get marked with inprints if not carefull??

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by Rocktroll

Great tutorial! How easy/hard are they to damage? Do they still get marked with inprints if not carefull??

The clear finish helps protect them pretty well (and more coats would be better), but they can get dented/scratched. We use them often and haven't had much problem with them.

Don't let your rabbit near them however. If you look at the edges of the water board in the last picture, you'll see lots of chew marks.

It shouldn't be too hard for me to slap on some more blue paint and spray on the finish again--I just haven't gotten to it.

[Bloody Bogle]

+rep

Great stuff here. Just wondering what the price range is on this

[White Knight]

Pink Foam 4' x 8' from Home Depot: $13.95
(you can cut to make several Heroscape boards)

.75" Foamular

Paints: $2 - $4 each (you can probably use for more than 1 project, the Craft smart paints work just as well at the Apple Barrel or Americana). I buy the 8oz just in case, but the 2oz bottles ($.99 each) should be enough for at least 1 side of 1 board.

Krylon Low Odor Clear Finish: about $5, but I usually use a 40% off one item coupon at Michaels (they email them to me all the time)

All together the price is still cheaper than the lexan mats--and it looks more like 3-D terrain.

[Bloody Bogle]

Originally Posted by White Knight

Pink Foam 4' x 8' from Home Depot: $13.95
(you can cut to make several Heroscape boards)

.75" Foamular

Paints: $2 - $4 each (you can probably use for more than 1 project, the Craft smart paints work just as well at the Apple Barrel or Americana). I buy the 8oz just in case, but the 2oz bottles ($.99 each) should be enough for at last 1 side of 1 board.

Krylon Low Odor Clear Finish: about $5, but I usually use a 40% off one item coupon at Michaels (they email them to me all the time)

All together the price is still cheaper than the lexan mats--and it looks more like 3-D terrain.

Thanks! I usually don't do customs (I'm not very good nor do I have the time) but this one seems like it would be more than worth it.

[sir william the bold]

Woah! Great stuff here! +rep!!

[Arch-vile]

Great Tutorial! I might have to try this sometime to make a water mat.

[Killz]

Nice! Those look fantastic. I was looking for something just like this! In my house, we don't have much room, and my brothers are always needing to move the maps. I am gonna try and make some, thanks!

[White Knight]

Originally Posted by Killz

Nice! Those look fantastic. I was looking for something just like this! In my house, we don't have much room, and my brothers are always needing to move the maps. I am gonna try and make some, thanks!

If you make one, take some pictures. I'd love to see how it comes out.

[Raudulfr Shieldcrusher]

Nice work!

For the sand, you could glue on sandbox sand before painting. For the lava, you could glue on kitty litter before painting. Just make sure you keep it away from the edges so tiles will stack.

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by vBulletin Message

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to White Knight again.

Great tutorial! I'll have to see if I can try this sometime!