Urban Terrain Tiles

[Omenbringer]

Figured I would share a few of the 18" x 18" urban tiles I just finished for my home table. These are intended to form the base (ground level) for my Terraclips collection (which you see some of in the second photo.

They were easy to build though the I need to find a glue that doesn't shrink quite as much or go back to utilizing the heavier ceramic tiles instead of the lighter vinyl ones.

And just in case anyone is interested here is what I used along with the approximate cost:

• (4) 18" X 18" Self Adhesive Vinyl Floor Tiles ($2.47 a piece) Base material
• (2) 24" X 36" X 1/4" Black Foam Core Sheets ($6.50 a piece) Raised Side walks and building foundations have some left over for future projectss
• (2) 1 pound bags of lintel beans ($1.00 a piece) The Cobble Material in the streets
• (1) gallon jug of Standard PVA Glue ($27.00) Used to hold every thing down, have plenty left over for other projects.
• (12) 12" X 18" Self Adhesive Felt Sheets ($1.00 a piece) These are an optional personal preference and are placed under the tiles to keep them from slipping around during play.
• (1) 18" X 144" roll of Textured Wall Paper ($20.00) This is used for the brick work, have plenty left over for other projects. Also likely the most difficult thing to locate in a store.
• (1) Can of Krylon Black Primer ($5.00)
• (1) Can of Krylon Triple Coat Clear Sealer ($5.00) I go heavy so used one can for sealing.
• (1) Can of Krylon Matte Sealer ($5.00)
• (5) Assorted 2 oz Acrylic Craft Paints (I used American brand in the following colors: Heritage Brick for the Brick Work, Celery Green and Spicy Mustard for the Cobblestones, Graphite and Slate Grey for the concrete) each was about $1.90 and I have plenty left over.

Approximately $108.00 but I do have a lot left over of the expensive items for future projects.

And now for the photos:

And Dressed with Terraclips and some other loose terrain (The Fountain is from Gadzooks Gaming)

As always comments and questions are welcome.

 

[-Loki-]

Nice. I've got a cobblestone mat on the way and I've been wondering how to make the buildings make sense on it. I might steal that island idea and base them on islands with gutters so the cobblestone mat can make up the streets.

[lusciousmccabe]

Looks awesome. What was the problem you had with the glue shrinking?

[Omenbringer]

9 hours ago, -Loki- said:

Nice. I've got a cobblestone mat on the way and I've been wondering how to make the buildings make sense on it. I might steal that island idea and base them on islands with gutters so the cobblestone mat can make up the streets.

That is the main reason I used the foam core. Without those portions having a little depth to them it just doesn't look right.

These were sort of a first run, when I get around to making some better ones they will include gutters, manhole covers, and some sewer grates. Also thinking about cutting some lines for the curbing and adding some irregular cracks in the pavement portions to make them a bit more recognizable.

6 hours ago, lusciousmccabe said:

Looks awesome. What was the problem you had with the glue shrinking?

When you use this much PVA glue on a large flexible flat surface the corners tend to curl up. Because the cobbles were the main concern for ware and tear, I used two heavy layers of PVA glue (watered down a bit to increase the flow into the cracks and crevices) to seal them to the vinyl surface. Across a small area (like say 6" x 6") the shrinking likely wouldn't have been very noticeable, but across 18" x 18" it became a significant issue. Unfortunately I remembered to late a solution I had read about on another site in the past, that could have offset the shrink curling had I applied it earlier in the process. I applied it very late in the process to offset the curling I was seeing, but by then it wasn't as effective as it could have been if used earlier.

Essentially it boils down to using the glues shrink to counter the glues shrinking. When I get around to making the next set I will be painting a layer of glue on the reverse side (bottom that will eventually be felted anyway) first to introduce a slight curl in that direction which will offset the later curve in the opposite direction introduced by gluing the cobbles to the other side. I might also try a caulking product for attaching the cobbles instead of PVA glue since a lot of them are marketed as no shrink or very low shrink products.

Over all I am pleased with the final result but there are a lot of things I want to improve upon later. I am toying with adding some inset rails for a trolley car piece later. I have a few other ambitious ideas floating around for the next design but it may be a while.