I made my own SUPER CHEAP Battle Mats!
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- The paper map I've been using for my battle reports is starting to show wear, so I made a few acrylic battle mats for my tabletop games - a grassland mat, a desert mat, and an ash waste mat. They're easy to make and look miles better!
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The following videos about gaming mats were mentioned in this video:
@RFDHobby
- Road - • Make Your Own Battlema...
- Desert - • Make Your Own Battlema...
@EricsHobbyWorkshop
- • Crafting the ULTIMATE ...
@TheTerrainTutor
- • Making a Battle mat (B...
Chapters:
Intro - 00:00:00
The canvas - 00:00:32
Mixing the surface material - 00:01:33
Smooshing the acrylic - 00:02:00
Drybrushing - 00:02:41
Flocking - 00:03:19
8 hours later... - 00:03:50
The following videos about gaming mats were mentioned in this video:
@RFDHobby
- Road - czcams.com/video/E5W4FKqRbSs/video.html
- Desert - czcams.com/video/cQ7jM3cS5aw/video.html
@Eric's Hobby Workshop
- czcams.com/video/zZ87MOGyMY0/video.html
@TheTerrainTutor
- czcams.com/video/UXF5mxa0YVg/video.html
If you enjoyed this content, you might want to check out my Discord server at discord.gg/4Zd8trmFcs
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Clear acrylic caulk thinned with denatured alcohol or water can be used to adhere flock and remains flexible after drying
Yes, caulk worked perfectly for the others where I used only caulk and baking powder. I haven't gotten around to redoing the grassland one, but the plan is to just use two layers of caulk - one tinted brown as a base, and a green one for grass.
"Allow me to show you a chart of how many shits I give about that" - I absolutely lost it! Proper belly laughing.
That was a definite moment of class 😁
How does it hold up over time ? Does the caulk shrink and mess up the mat ? I want to make one but I want it to last.
So far so good. I have one that I keep stored flat and one I keep rolled up. The rolled up one needs some smoothing when unrolled (put something on the ends or leave it face down for a couple of hours after 2 months), but otherwise it's dead flat. It's more of a mechanical issue than a shrinkage one.
Nice! I have a canvas dropcloth I bought to do this. Now that its warming up outside again maybe I can emulate what you have done. Those came out great. Cheers!
Go for it! If you're working on the ground, remember to put an mdf sheet or something flat under the drop cloth, so any texture in the ground doesn't transfer on to the acrylic.
These turned out amazing. Also your chart looks exactly like mine when I wake up on a Monday morning haha. Great video!
Haha thank you! And yeah... my morning chart looks like that on any day whose name ends in "y" XD
Nice work, dude. Looking pretty decent & being able to roll them up makes them easily portable too - double win
Thank you! They're easier to store too! :D
How viable do you think making these double sided would be? Or is the canvas cheap enough that you might as well just make more?
It's doable - the canvas wasn't that expensive, but if you want to do several variations it definitely helps. Just make sure you don't trim down the canvas before you do the flip side, that way you have enough material to clamp it down when doing the second face. You'll also need to make sure that the first face is completely, completely cured before starting the second one.
One of the reasons I didn't do it this way is that rolling up a one sided mat protects it fairly well from dust and stuff, if you have a two sided one, one face is always going to be exposed. If you plan to store them in a tube or something, then it should be a good way to go.
The two cases I would not recommend it is if you're adding flocking on top (it doesn't roll as easily) or if you're doing a water mat like I did in czcams.com/video/Gc1no2d1IUs/video.html - since there are bits of waves above the surface, it's not completely flat. Haven't seen any problems so far with a plain back but haven't tested it with a textured one.
@@Karlmakesstuff yeah that makes sense, thanks! I plan on making multiple armies, and i liked the idea of having a themed mat for each army. I will definitely give it a try
Nice! That will look awesome :D If you try to do a grass mat, I suggest just making a green mix - using PVA on top like I did in this video doesn't flex very well :)
Great job ! Love the texture on those mats. Also not a lost cause with that PVA problem, a good learning curve ;)
Thanks Mike! Yeah, it was unexpected but now I know about it, I know how to avoid it and can probably figure out some kind of sneaky way to use it ;)
The build was great! My man's comedy is on point! The chart had me crying 😂
It's a great chart :) I use it a lot.
That desert mat looks great. Definitely want to try that one.
Thanks for the tips!
Awesome 😁 Enjoy!
Super cool. I was dumb, and made my ground rigid. You may have just caused me to have to go get a bunch of caulk. Nice video, Karl
Thanks Cross! Dunno about dumb, rigid boards are awesome if you have the space - especially when you have deeper features like rivers or stuff.
So far, my only large board is a grassland, on 1/2" XPS. No real room to go subterranean. In future, I'll likely use roll-ups. That said, Sean's build, this week, on his channel, "sean counley", is amazing. He uses an EVA platform, then crafts rivers down into it. Brilliant stuff
@@CampaignTerrain sounds cool! Gonna have a look :)
I'm really glad your video popped up in my recommended feed. I've volunteered a few tables of terrain for a local convention tournament early next year and being able to have some nice table mats to match my layouts and themes would be fantastic but expensive. With this method though? Easy as piss, just a weekend of work and I'll have as many mats as I like!
Glad you found this useful! If you're planning to make grass mats, unless you make green goop in the first place try sprinkling the flock directly onto the caulk while it is drying rather than gluing it on later. Saves time and no risk of having it go wonky like mine did here. If you want to share some photos of your mats and terrain when you get to them, drop me an email or hop into discord, it's always great to see where people can take an idea :)
@@Karlmakesstuff Thanks for the tip! I'll make sure to keep that in mind.
Using a non poly backed canvas ,do you think it woukd be possible to caulk the other side as well to amke double sided mats?
Yep! The only thing I can see being a bit tricky is lining them up, ideally you'd leave the excess on until you've done both sides so you can stretch them properly.
The caulk creates a barrier so the color on the other side won't leak through, but I would avoid using heavier textures like sand on either side, as that would make it more difficult to roll up. Baking powder doesn't harden it up enough for that to be a problem.
@@Karlmakesstuff thanks! I've done one the base layer using your video but haven't cut the excess off for exactly the reasons you said and baking powder is exactly what I was thinking for the other side for a sandy texture
@@fenrar9777 awesome! What surfaces are you making?
@@Karlmakesstuff This is my first attempt and something like this so doing a standard "planet ruins" and "desert" but I also have clearly went to big with a 6' x 4' as it used way more Caulk than I anticipated :D
@@fenrar9777 oh wow! No starting small huh? :) Good luck, hopefully both sides serve you well.
Thank you, what did you use for clear coat?
Thank you in advance!
G
Thank you for watching! I didn't use a clear coat on these as I don't know of any coats that flex this much, and besides the caulk mixed with the color holds everything together just fine. They're still going strong ;)
If you have concerns about waterproofing them though, you could probably give them a thin coat of silicone like I did on my water mat in this video czcams.com/video/Gc1no2d1IUs/video.html - but be aware it might make it look a bit flatter.
Would cotton canvas still be good, or is linen canvas worth the cost?
I'll be honest, I haven't tried it so I can't tell you for sure. I think you'd need to go a bit thicker with the caulk, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work. The edges might fray a bit more easily possibly, but the acrylic *should* keep it together.
That chart had me giggling like a schoolboy.
Cool :) Can't let the kids hog all the humor, am I right? :D
Awesome project! I’ll definitely have to give this a try at some point!
Great! They're dead easy to make, and they're really useful :)
“Forbidden ice cream” 😂 I dig your style, dude!
Cheers mate! 😁👍
Where did you get that acrylic calk from man?
The Ash one came out great.
Thanks Elton! Any ironmonger will have some kind of it. Just make sure it's acrylic, not silicone.
This was awesome man, I watch Black Magic Craft and he does a lot of dollar store builds but I really didn't want to carry around stiff mats. This was an awesome way of making these and I will be making my Matt's This way as well.
Awesome! Plastic backed Drop cloths might work better - I can't find them locally, so I can't confirm but generally the heavier your base fabric is the more you can do. Enjoy!
@@Karlmakesstuff heck yeah, thanks for the recommendation!
Nice! Thanks for sharing this Karl! I haven't seen this technique before. So just to make sure... Even if there's a s**t ton of baking soda and paint, this stays flexible and doesn't crack?
Thanks Slavko! As far as I can tell, that is the case. For this to crack, it would need to be very thick. Using baking powder, the acrylic layer is still more or less under 1mm thick. Sand would make it thicker but it's still thin enough to flex without cracking unless you really pile it on.
@@Karlmakesstuff Cool stuff! Let me know how it holds up over time. I Might try and make one or two for on the go purposes. Tha ks again for sharing this mate!
@@TheMiniMason Will do, thank you chief :)
Nice! Looks good.
I just made my first one of these last week.
Thanks! And that's great, what kind of mat did you make?
@@Karlmakesstuff it's a generic black and grey one. Gonna use it for a sci-fi junkyard I'm working on. About to start a eva foam one to as an industrial plant floor.
Neat! :D
Amazing tutorial. Thanks for sharing ❤
Thank you Stefano!
Looking great ! might try it out some day !!! :)
Thanks Tine! I'll be honest, with the size of builds you make I don't think you're ever going to *need* a mat but you can probably find uses for the caulk :)
Love these projects. Love this video. Well done, sir.
Thank you so much! Glad you liked them :)
That is a very interesting video Karl . Great result with the 3 . Thumb up Karl !
Thank you Robert!
Love it!!!
Thank you! 😊
love the chart haha
It's a great chart B)
I use wallpaper for battlemat !
That works too! I just like a little more control over the texture :)
Stealing that chart for my next presentation at the office
🤣🤣🤣 all yours 🙂
Very nice
Thank you!
You sound like that mafia guy from the Simpsons
Haha cheers 😎
You had me at 1970's fetish movie music....
🤘
Bonus points for having one punch man pop up 😂
Loved the show, still need to catch up with the second season though.