Modular Malifaux Terrain Tiles

[Sholto]

Yup - just as I was working on these, WorldWorksGames and Wyrd had to go and announce Terraclips

Anyway, I decided to finish the terrain tiles, and this is what I ended up with:-

And here it is with some buildings and minis (40k) for scale:-

The tile set comprises 9 12" square cork tiles, allowing for a 3'x3' playing surface in a variety of possible configurations.

Still to come are some raised street sections, bridges and ramps, and I will make these out of foamcore.

I know Terraclips is coming and is comparatively cheap, but I am a terrain junkie and cannot help myself

How I Did It

I downloaded the Himmelveil Streets pack from WorldWorksGames.

What I was aiming for was not the TLX System at all. I was after a modular terrain tile set for games of Malifaux, played on a 3'x3' surface. Buildings and ruins I have, but I needed a detailed playing surface, and Himmelveil seemed ideal. However, the tile system is based on 6" squares, with a complicated and (to my mind) fiddly mounting and tab system. Lots of cutting out of both paper and foamcore required. Having been through that before with apparently simple paper models (from WWG and Daves Games), I was not keen on trying it with 6" square sections with lots of cuts per side (total sides for a 3"x3" table made of these? 144, all with multiple cuts to be made and then scored. No thanks).

I decided to see if I could take the best bits of Himmelveil and make them into what I needed. What if I made 12" tiles and glued the 6" square sections to them, 4 to a tile? I could get around the need for tabs and mounting systems this way.

At first I considered foam core for the tiles, but due to the sizes foam core is available in, cutting 12" tiles results in a huge amount of waste. The A-standard of paper sizes are just the wrong dimensions. The A1 and A2 sizes are 594mm on a side, which is only a few mm too short to let me cut another tile out. I would need double the amount of foamcore. Foamcore is also available in 30"x40" sizes, which is great, but I could not find them in singles, only in expensive packs of 5 or more.

I wound up going with cork tiles. Specifically, I bought 9 12"x12" cork flooring tiles from Wickes Building Supplies in the UK (Sealed Cork Flooring Tiles Product SKU: 620950) for just over £7. They are thin but strong and weighty and – this is vital – they lie flat all by themselves.

I don’t want to glue the WWG printed sections to the cork. Glue is messy, time consuming and might result in warping. So I bought 50 sheets of white A4 label paper, with a single label on each sheet. Printing the WWG tiles onto this, the bit I want (the 6" square bit with all the detail on it, not the faffy mounting bits around the side) fits well within the label itself.

Here it is at the assembly stage:-

Top left: the four 6" square tiles cut out from the label paper. Top right: uncut tiles on the label paper. Bottom left: a single 12" cork tile. I have already gone around the outside with the black marker. Bottom right: my layout plan and printing list.

I made up a layout plan (you can see it in the bottom right of the picture – click to enlarge), noted how many of each type of floor tile I would need (36 in all for a 3′x3′ table) and printed them off. Then I cut the first four out and blacklined the edges, to get rid of the white cut edge. I also ran a black marker around the outside edge of the cork tile and in a cross pattern in the middle, where the four 6″ tiles would meet – this would hide any gaps.

Then I just peeled the backing off the four WWG tiles and stuck them down.

A close up of a single tile:-

All comments and suggestions welcome

Edited December 2, 2010 by Sholto

[dgraz]

What a great idea. I have a bunch of thos e streets and I printed out a lot as normal. I started on it but got sidetracked for a while. Now I could get back to it, but the project is so big and time-consuming that I can't get back. Wish I'd had an idea like this. Now with the terraclips, I'll probably never do it.

One thing; a brown marker might be better for the streets.

[Warboss Walton]

That's a really nice job. I especially like the idea of printing on labels to get around any glue warping; I've had that problem all too often and welcome this creative solution.

I can't wait to see what you do for your raised terrain. Are you going to do that in 12" square sections too, or go with 4 eighteen-inch squares?

[Doctor Warlock]

Absolutely awesome!

I personally have my doubts about the new linky WW stuff thats coming out, the issue being that constantly clipping together and pulling apart will wear down the card itself (Card, no matter what the quality is never that durable - they would have been better off using plastic tbh, and even that would be problematic) - so having replacement clips isn't the problem, its the longevity of the card components themselves.

What you have done is show how good a flexible the WW PDF's are, and shown me the way to move forward with my own paper terrain - so many MANY thanks for that!

Superb Mate!

[Svenn]

Very impressive! Those buildings look a bit tall though.

[Doctor Warlock]

Very impressive! Those buildings look a bit tall though.

Better to push people off

[Sholto]

Thanks for all the comments

@dgraz - probably, but black is all I had, and I was trying to keep this cheap!

As for the edges of the cork tiles, I wound up painting those black with some acrylic paint and a sponge. In retrospect, spraypainting the cork tiles black before I had started would have been the best way to proceed.

@Warboss Walton - I am not sure. I need to spend some time looking at the WWG games PDFs and see what I can make with them. Some 12" square sections, some thinner ones, some bridges, and ramps should do. We'll see I picked up some 2" thick pink foam today, and I will see if I can use that for anything.

@Doctor Warlock - cheers! I take your point about the durability of card, although it if is anything like the Space Hulk set it should be good for a long while.

@Svenn & DW - my models are always being pulled off buildings by my mate Robert's Belles (that sounds wrong...) Generally speaking, so long as all your buildings are to the same scale they will look fine. It is once you start mixing scales that it all goes out the window.

I put in my preorder for Street of Malifaux today. If it is as good as I hope, I will be getting the other two sets the day after it arrives

[Twizz666]

this stuff is great man. My brother and I had a similar idea. We cut out 9 12in squares or .75in pink insulation. it kinda worked, but we had issues of bumping them and knocking minis all over the board. Glad to see yours is working out for you though. =]

cheers

[Doctor Warlock]

My real issue is with the plastic clips!

Plastic Clips and Card don't work well over an extended period of time, whereas Space Hulk (shudder, not a GW fan) is a board game which gets played now and again - Malifaux being a Wargame will get played a lot more (if folks are like me anyway).

[DangerousBeans]

This looks great man, although I still have reservations about card terrain. Maybe you could change my mind by lugging all this to the club one night ?

[Sholto]

I will bring it along on Tuesday, and you can see what you think. I might have some of the raised sections done by then, as well.

[Sholto]

My plans for the terrain set include making raised street sections, bridges, ramps and walkways. I want them to be modular (like the ground tiles), so they have to be on the same 12″/6″ proportions as those ground tiles.

This sketch (what do you mean, I have to explain it? Isn’t it obvious from the skillful draftsmanship?) shows what I have in mind. The two raised corner sections will be 12″x12″, with two 6″ ramps leading off. These can be replaced by stairs as needed. And if I build them.

Leading off into the city, will be two 12″ long straight sections, with railings, and a single 6″ long bridge section. Two more 6″ ramps complete the set.

After that, add buildings and other terrain pieces, and it should be a pretty good table to play on.

After making the sketch above, I looked at the 12″ straight sections and decided they blocked line of sight a little too much, even for me. So, I will add a bridge to one of them.

(A quick recap of The Method: print the PDF files on plain white A4 label paper; cut out the required images, leaving all the fiddly tabs and connector pieces; peel label paper off and stick down to 5mm foamcore; cut out and assemble.)

Building a 12″ Straight

My first effort did not impress or, for that matter, succeed.

I drew up my plans to print out wall, railing and ground sections on the label paper I am using, with the intention that the straight section be 12″ long x 6″ wide x 2″ high. Unfortunately, I had not taken into account the fact that in the Terrainlinx range from WorldWorksGames, the wall sections are only 6″ wide once you add the supporting pillars at either end. The actual “wall” part of the wall is only 5.25″ long. I built it anyway, just to get a feel for it, but with the dimensions not matching the 6″ x 6″ grid of the ground tiles, it was never going to work.

That said, it taught me a few things about the process:-

• Think about the directions of the patterns on the plain ground tiles, so that if you have to cut them, you cut them in such a way that the patterns still line up.
  
• On the railings, the inner and outer railings are different, both in appearance and size. They are not interchangeable.
  
• If you have a wall section that is made up of two wall pieces and two railing pieces, stick all four pieces down to the foamcore and cut them out as one piece. Incredibly, I forgot to do this, and cut each individual piece out!
  
• Make sure and black-edge your pieces (run a Sharpy round the cut edge of the paper) before sticking them down. White edges stick out and ruin the look much more than you might think. Trust me on this one.
  

So, I did some maths (I know!), and worked out I needed to scale the wall sections and the bridge sections by 114% when I printed them. So I did. That makes the walls 2.25″ tall, but all you need to do is cut off the excess when trimming the piece out of the label paper. You won’t notice the missing .25″.

Then I sat down and made a detailed sketch of the piece, to work out the exact dimensions of each part so that they would all fit together with an overall dimension of 12″ x 6″. This means thinking about how the walls and floor will join where there is no railing, and how the walls will join with one another at the corners.

This was the result after all the cutting:-

And the side with the printed labels on. There is no terrain job that should not be tackled with tea. This job was a two-cup problem.

If you want to know what a rabbet/ rebate is (although if you watch the New Yankee Workshop, you’ll know this already) go here (Wikipedia). Each one is exactly the width of the foamcore piece it attaches to (5mm) and you just carefully cut through the card and the foam, leaving the other card side untouched. It is actually easier than it sounds.

After that I tried a dry fit, and then assembled it with PVA glue:-

And this is what it looks like on the ground tiles I made earlier:-

[daemonkin]

Pretty awesome work there Sholto. Nice usage of applied maths in your gaming hobby!

D.

[Sholto]

I have been working on this - on and off - and here is what it looks like at present:-

The ramps, raised street sections and bridges are all modular, made of foamcore covered with the WorldWorksTerrain PDFs (Himmelveil range) and I am using pairs of 6mmx2mm magnets buried in the foamcore to snap them together. This hold the pieces tightly, and stops them moving around on the table.

The other terrain is stuff I already had lying around - some foamcore buildings with more PDF texture files on them, and some Hirst Arts pieces. And a spooky skeleton tied to a stake. Oooooh!

[theHman]

Sholto, this is awesome!

At GenCon I got to see the Terraclips set up and was pretty impressed by it. Before that, I was not a fan of cardboard terrain in any shape or form.

But you sir, have definitely peaked my interest. Can't wait to see more of your work on this.

[Magno]

That's looking pretty good.

How well do the models stay in place on those inclines?

A semi-glossy surface might allow them to slide easily if bumped or the table shakes.

[Sholto]

@Magno - I mentioned this on my blog, and the answer was, "not well"! I solved it with horizontal strips of clear, matt adhesive tape. The models hold on them fine, and you cannot see them unless you get very close. The strips of tape, that is, not the models

[Omenbringer]

This is one of the reasons I attach felt to the bottom of my models. It helps with the slip and slide that usually goes on when you use/ make solid bases.

[daemonkin]

That looks amazing Sholto. I am lazy and will just wait til Terraclips comes out but congrats on a great board.

D.

[gru6y]

Great looking terrain.

Very neat and well thought.

Congrats!

[Sholto]

Thanks, guys :)Felt is an interesting idea. Worth a look, ta.

Made a two storey tower last night, with a little mini-tower with a brazier on top (so, 3 1/2 storeys!). It looks pretty cool, and has a removable roof. I also made some stairs, and added some Victorian posters I printed onto card.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Sholto

[pancake ss]

cool idea, its great nice one.

[Mister_Q]

It looks awesome. I plan to plagiarise shamelessly.

I actually have a few other table coverings (painted MDF, battle mat, etc.) but these look great and will be much easier for carrying around when I play away from home.

Have you coated the base tiles with anything? I was thinking of using some photo protection varnish - although I guess it's easy enough to just print up a replacement.

[nerdelemental]

Dude. That tea looks like it's for sissies. Nut up.

ps: terrain's cool, too.

[Doctor Warlock]

For tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilites, or are become so from wine-drinking, and are not susceptible of influence from so refined a stimulant, will always be the favored beverage of the intellectual - Thomas De Quincy