I use a 24" x 24" EVA Foam floor mat, spray painted with cheap white spray paint, sponge painted with whites greys and light blues, nothing too over the top. This is consistent with my terrain though, I tend to make all the base boards out of interlocking EVA foam mats. I made some generic scatter with dollar tree foam core and cheap railroad trees, twigs and gravel from my yard. when its all set up it looks great.
I'm a big fan of painter's cloth with caulking on it for my battle mats. I made a desert one this year. I can roll it up and it's portable and easily stored. It's very durable as well. So I'm gonna make my snow mat with the same technique and use a blue wash on it like you did.
It's a little involved, so it just depends on your level of commitment for snow terrain. But my method is to take white PVA, white paint (50/50), and then add snow flocking to it. Mix well, paint it on. It dries hard to the touch, and has the texture of snow. You can even add a smidge of silver/white glitter so that you have the sparkle of snow.
You know, if you want to make an iced over pond/lake, the best option is to go cannibalize some of the old CD Jewel Case covers. If you put superglue on the underside in a damper environment in order to create that frosted look. I've used it with snow flock in sections on the top to enhance the look along with some on the edges. My favorite method for a fully snow board is to texture foam similar to how you did (Though, I would probably just use some of the cheap foam core for the foam), first I paint it with a very light blue then a heavier drybrush of white, then I'd do something similar to your wash option before adding a layer of polyeurethane gloss. While the gloss is still wet, add a medium to light dusting of snow flock over the board and let it dry before another layer or two of polyeurethane gloss over the top. You can also improve it slightly with a lesser version of Scotty's ice/snow thing with some of the dollar store silver glitter glue applied as a very light drybrush. Learned that from my mother who used it for christmas scenics that she was painting several years ago. The end result is really good and has an interesting look to it that ends up rock hard and won't come off unless some actually takes a sharp object and stabs at it.
Really think you nailed it with the lighting for the intro and outro this video. Looks amazing and has an actual "black magic" vibe that is perfect for the channel!
you can get rid of fibers and what not off the roller if you wrap around it in duct tape before you use it and then pull the duct tape off; I usually do 2 runs with tape and have no issue with fibers in my paint.
I really like how you are improving on the quality, editing and frames of your videos dude. Sound as well. I was comparing this one to your first video and it makes me happy to see how far you've come.
Further to what Branman said......instead of duct tape, use painters' tape wrapped around the roller nap repeated 2-3 times. It is cheaper than duct tape, is less likely to remove the nap completely on a cheap roller and we generally have it in our craft boxes. Love the vids btw.
My table has a 5x7' drop down (removable leaves) and in there is the felt UNDERNEATH a 5x7' piece of plexi that has a 1"x1" grid sharpied on the underneath of THAT. Switched out the green felt for white, and white for blue, depending on if I need forest, grass, water, or snow.
Gearing up to run our group's first ever frigid region adventure so these are extremely timely and helpful for me. I was considering just going with the flat white mat and adding your snow hills... but man that textured foam makes a massive difference. Well... the kids don't reeeeaaally need that custom Lego table & shelving unit i was going to build them for Christmas... the workshop needs to be used for crafting.
So the felt problem gave me an idea. Has anyone ever tried to make ground for gaming by creating a texture and then coating it with resin to get a smooth surface? That way you can have the look of texture without the problems that come with it. It could be done with snow powder, sand, pebbles and probably much more.
You can still double-sided your 15x15 tiles, it will just be much thicker. Could get 1/4 foam and sandwich the mdf too, but hindsight is 20/20. Btw, this has a great mood and feels like you had a lot of fun making this video. =) I hope this was the case, and will get a break in the weather soon ;) Cheers
If it makes you feel any better I'm all out of shelf space and I just have a pile of snow hills sitting on the floor with nowhere to go....this is a real problem.....it's going to get worse each week.
So happy I stumbled across you! Picking up a lot of tips for my own work (though I don't make D&D boards) that I can apply to my own work with foam/painting. Thanks for sharing your tips. BTW, love the aluminum foil ball texturing trick...brilliant.
Think I'll build a variety of these in 16" squares for my upcoming Frostgrave set. I figure I'll have some full snow and some with mixed cobbles and snow, geomorph style.
I’m curious if you’d do this any differently now? Also your smaller dungeon tile video you just put out is amazing and I was wondering if you had something like those in a frozen dungeon theme like hero quests frozen horror?
For snow I find the following colors helpful. Folk art #429 winter white, Deco Art Americana # DA240 cool white, Folk Art #701 Icy white, Ceramacote #02468 Ice strom violet. The last has a violet hue good for night light, the others are veering shades of blue
For rollers if you wrap them in tape once then remove the tape the tape it takes off the fuzz you may get from cheaper covers (repeat twice for best results)
I’ve never seen vinyl floor tile that big. They usually max out at 12” in at least one direction. By boards are 14”. But if you want 12” or less that would probably work.
I actually haven't managed to make snow I didn't like that wasn't a mix of some cheap bleached white sand (Like fishtanks substrate) and PVA glue. gives one heck of a great effect, but feels like carrying a bag of sand!
Easier yes, but it yields far poorer results. Having the hard mdf above the table surface results in a greater chance off accidentally bevelling the foam as side pressure is placed higher on the wire. As I said I screwed up a test piece first. I didn’t come to the final method by chance.
I'd actually like to know where you got the pine trees? I was looking at some on amazon at Christmas tree decorations things, but it's hard to gauge what will look to scale. Or at the very least, how tall your trees are.
No. Likely would make it worse or just bad in a different direction. It’s a simple “fix” on small pieces but only sort of works. Not good enough for me.
I have terrain pieces and a battle mat for outdoor encounters, what I don't have is the road tile running down the middle of the mat. How can I make this?
Maybe very thin cardstock or formica with reddiboard on top thats been rollered with greenstuff cobblestone or herringbone brick then sealed and painted? It would prob be low profile enough to go on top of existing game surface and you could cut it any shape you wanted.
nice, but you forgot the trees😱. great work. easy, i like that. what about a video about easy castlewalls? i trued so much, but nothing really flashed me.
Those look great!! Although, I'm surprised to see you went with MDF instead of, say, cardboard. Cardboard would be cheaper - though I suppose there could be a concern for the weight, look, and potential fold/breakage if mishandled. Still with proper care and some aesthetic touch-ups... :: shrug :: MDF would, indeed, be a much nicer finished product, I will grant. :)
Nice... :) I had a feeling it was more about the durability rather than the expense. But it's nice to know that MDF is that inexpensive. (I just have a lot of cardboard about so it, being free, would tend to come to the table first. I blame DM Scotty... lol)
If I'm being entirely honest, I didn't even know people used terrain and minis and all this stuff for d&d and such. My group had always just used our imaginations, lmao
I mean a lot of people don't use any of it....but a lot do, and have been since the dawn of D&D. It kind of blows my mind someone into D&D doesn't know miniatures are a thing and a big part of the game for a ton of people. The game was refined and tested decades ago on a sand table in Gygax's basement.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial yeah I thought so, I invested in decent tsquares but that's what I meant by "Linear Constant" -- science suggests you can *never* truly have a straight line! Now your 90degree is wonked too! :D
Im creating an instagram account to showcase creative DM ideas and creations and I was wondering if I can use your projects on the page. If anybody wants the @ for it just comment but im not trying to advertise. I just want permission to use your projects on the page because you have the best DND projects on the internet.
What is your go to terrain/battle area method for running snow encounters?
I use a 24" x 24" EVA Foam floor mat, spray painted with cheap white spray paint, sponge painted with whites greys and light blues, nothing too over the top. This is consistent with my terrain though, I tend to make all the base boards out of interlocking EVA foam mats. I made some generic scatter with dollar tree foam core and cheap railroad trees, twigs and gravel from my yard. when its all set up it looks great.
I'm a big fan of painter's cloth with caulking on it for my battle mats. I made a desert one this year. I can roll it up and it's portable and easily stored. It's very durable as well.
So I'm gonna make my snow mat with the same technique and use a blue wash on it like you did.
It's a little involved, so it just depends on your level of commitment for snow terrain.
But my method is to take white PVA, white paint (50/50), and then add snow flocking to it. Mix well, paint it on. It dries hard to the touch, and has the texture of snow. You can even add a smidge of silver/white glitter so that you have the sparkle of snow.
Mats by Mars has fantastic battle mats reasonably priced. I've got quite a few of them, including my snow one
Matsbymars.com
as usual shipping up to the North is pricey. We really need to develop teleportation.
You know, if you want to make an iced over pond/lake, the best option is to go cannibalize some of the old CD Jewel Case covers. If you put superglue on the underside in a damper environment in order to create that frosted look. I've used it with snow flock in sections on the top to enhance the look along with some on the edges.
My favorite method for a fully snow board is to texture foam similar to how you did (Though, I would probably just use some of the cheap foam core for the foam), first I paint it with a very light blue then a heavier drybrush of white, then I'd do something similar to your wash option before adding a layer of polyeurethane gloss. While the gloss is still wet, add a medium to light dusting of snow flock over the board and let it dry before another layer or two of polyeurethane gloss over the top.
You can also improve it slightly with a lesser version of Scotty's ice/snow thing with some of the dollar store silver glitter glue applied as a very light drybrush.
Learned that from my mother who used it for christmas scenics that she was painting several years ago. The end result is really good and has an interesting look to it that ends up rock hard and won't come off unless some actually takes a sharp object and stabs at it.
Really think you nailed it with the lighting for the intro and outro this video. Looks amazing and has an actual "black magic" vibe that is perfect for the channel!
Nicely done, adjustments on the fly = par for the course in this biz.
Hey wyloch
you can get rid of fibers and what not off the roller if you wrap around it in duct tape before you use it and then pull the duct tape off; I usually do 2 runs with tape and have no issue with fibers in my paint.
I think the way you did this was the best way.
I really like how you are improving on the quality, editing and frames of your videos dude. Sound as well. I was comparing this one to your first video and it makes me happy to see how far you've come.
I love it! More thematic boards!
Nice build. Reminding people that 1/2" XPS is not stable enough alone might be the best hint/reminder of the video.
Thanks man!!!! I’m making some snow playing boards for my Middle Earth Battle Strategy Game, and I’m so hyped to use it! 😁
This is going to be great for a Frostgrave board.
Further to what Branman said......instead of duct tape, use painters' tape wrapped around the roller nap repeated 2-3 times. It is cheaper than duct tape, is less likely to remove the nap completely on a cheap roller and we generally have it in our craft boxes. Love the vids btw.
Nice snow effect on the outside😁!
Can you do a desert plains, similar to this video?
Same build but tan / yellow wash? Real sand flock?
Lol, why do you need that? Just paint it sand coloured instead of white :)
I am very tempted to use the MDF+XPS standard size tile format for a bunch of outdoor environments now. Looks fantastic.
If you are willing to put in the effort it’s totally worth it. It give you perfect boards.
This in combination with dm scoty's frozen pools works perfectly for my Age of Sigmar tiles :). This is awsome!
My table has a 5x7' drop down (removable leaves) and in there is the felt UNDERNEATH a 5x7' piece of plexi that has a 1"x1" grid sharpied on the underneath of THAT. Switched out the green felt for white, and white for blue, depending on if I need forest, grass, water, or snow.
Appreciate the process and illustrating how to learn from your mistakes.
Gearing up to run our group's first ever frigid region adventure so these are extremely timely and helpful for me. I was considering just going with the flat white mat and adding your snow hills... but man that textured foam makes a massive difference.
Well... the kids don't reeeeaaally need that custom Lego table & shelving unit i was going to build them for Christmas... the workshop needs to be used for crafting.
Your videos have gotten so much more professional. I love your channel thanks for sharing your amazing work with us!
These are great. I can see them easily adapted for all kinds of terrain. Now we just need some kind of ice walls for dungeons.
So good. I love it!!
So the felt problem gave me an idea. Has anyone ever tried to make ground for gaming by creating a texture and then coating it with resin to get a smooth surface? That way you can have the look of texture without the problems that come with it. It could be done with snow powder, sand, pebbles and probably much more.
thank you so much
Once again, great video J! Thanks for the inspiration!
You can still double-sided your 15x15 tiles, it will just be much thicker. Could get 1/4 foam and sandwich the mdf too, but hindsight is 20/20.
Btw, this has a great mood and feels like you had a lot of fun making this video. =) I hope this was the case, and will get a break in the weather soon ;)
Cheers
Stop giving me cool ideas to build 😃 I'm already out of room. Sweet vid!
If it makes you feel any better I'm all out of shelf space and I just have a pile of snow hills sitting on the floor with nowhere to go....this is a real problem.....it's going to get worse each week.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial Time to craft some shelving. I'd watch that too. Where'd ur snow go?
Lol I hear that and I'm new to this
One of these days I'll build something from this channel... One of these days
So happy I stumbled across you! Picking up a lot of tips for my own work (though I don't make D&D boards) that I can apply to my own work with foam/painting. Thanks for sharing your tips. BTW, love the aluminum foil ball texturing trick...brilliant.
Looks great, awesome solution for a board. Great stuff as always!
Why am I up at freakin' 3:35am watching this?! Well, besides it being all awesomeness and stuff... ;0)
Think I'll build a variety of these in 16" squares for my upcoming Frostgrave set. I figure I'll have some full snow and some with mixed cobbles and snow, geomorph style.
just stumbled on your channel and have been binge watching for a week. Great videosI
I’m curious if you’d do this any differently now? Also your smaller dungeon tile video you just put out is amazing and I was wondering if you had something like those in a frozen dungeon theme like hero quests frozen horror?
For snow I find the following colors helpful. Folk art #429 winter white, Deco Art Americana # DA240 cool white, Folk Art #701 Icy white, Ceramacote #02468 Ice strom violet. The last has a violet hue good for night light, the others are veering shades of blue
Looks decent, well done
For rollers if you wrap them in tape once then remove the tape the tape it takes off the fuzz you may get from cheaper covers (repeat twice for best results)
pure chemical death!!! love it!
I know this one is an old video, but one thing that might work better is the foam roller from the dollar store instead of a nap roller.
A good alternative to the mdf could be a thick peel n stick floor tile to stiffen up the foam.
I’ve never seen vinyl floor tile that big. They usually max out at 12” in at least one direction. By boards are 14”. But if you want 12” or less that would probably work.
Also, could you do a video on making a cart and crates? I need scatter terrain for a dock and can't find a satisfactory way to make them.
Can you tell me where you got that cool horse and cart? I love this terrain tutorial too. :-)
Matt's with scatter then Dwarven Forge &/or cardboard terrain.
I actually haven't managed to make snow I didn't like that wasn't a mix of some cheap bleached white sand (Like fishtanks substrate) and PVA glue. gives one heck of a great effect, but feels like carrying a bag of sand!
Is there an Ice/crystal cavern, buildings, castle/temple coming?
Nice job!)
Wouldn’t it have been easier to have MDF on the top side when trimming on the prox? As is you’re cutting blind more or less
Easier yes, but it yields far poorer results. Having the hard mdf above the table surface results in a greater chance off accidentally bevelling the foam as side pressure is placed higher on the wire.
As I said I screwed up a test piece first. I didn’t come to the final method by chance.
Ah, I see. Thanks for making the trial and error so we all don’t have to :)
Did we finally see a trade carpenter use a table saw? That took a long time 😁
Good video, always inspiring me to make things for my games
I'd actually like to know where you got the pine trees? I was looking at some on amazon at Christmas tree decorations things, but it's hard to gauge what will look to scale. Or at the very least, how tall your trees are.
I’ve got a couple videos about it 😉
Where did you get the MDF that large?
How'd you make that wagon and where'd you get the horse?
Looks to me like the horse and wagon from the Terrain Crate sets
Yup. Terrain crate.
Yeah... I'd hate to do some woodworking outside with bulky clothes..
how do you do your snow frostgrave table? Still playing frostgrave? How about a jungle board?
I have a full four part video series about building my Frostgrave tiles.
I have one question, using pva glue on the foam wouldn't solve curving problem?
No. Likely would make it worse or just bad in a different direction. It’s a simple “fix” on small pieces but only sort of works. Not good enough for me.
How did you make the blue wash?
Have you used packing styrofoam for any builds
I have terrain pieces and a battle mat for outdoor encounters, what I don't have is the road tile running down the middle of the mat. How can I make this?
Neither do I.....modular road tiles is something I’ve been meaning to for years.
Maybe very thin cardstock or formica with reddiboard on top thats been rollered with greenstuff cobblestone or herringbone brick then sealed and painted? It would prob be low profile enough to go on top of existing game surface and you could cut it any shape you wanted.
Lava! I'm hoping to see you try your hand at lava.
Wonder if u planned to have one side with grit and another side without why just dont add another layer on the other side of the mdf without a grit ?
Thought about it. Didn’t want boards that thick and was running out of time due to the setback.
nice, but you forgot the trees😱.
great work. easy, i like that.
what about a video about easy castlewalls? i trued so much, but nothing really flashed me.
How did I forget trees?
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial can't see snow on the trees🤔. or is my display just crap? I like christmas trees
I actually use a white battle mat.
What is that song dude I want it
Those look great!! Although, I'm surprised to see you went with MDF instead of, say, cardboard. Cardboard would be cheaper - though I suppose there could be a concern for the weight, look, and potential fold/breakage if mishandled.
Still with proper care and some aesthetic touch-ups... :: shrug ::
MDF would, indeed, be a much nicer finished product, I will grant. :)
I would never ever ever use cardboard for something like that. Cardboard is even more unstable. I make things to last.
PS I used under $7 of mdf for this set. Hardly expensive.
Nice... :) I had a feeling it was more about the durability rather than the expense. But it's nice to know that MDF is that inexpensive. (I just have a lot of cardboard about so it, being free, would tend to come to the table first. I blame DM Scotty... lol)
You’ll notice if you watch lots of my vids that I pretty much *never* use cardboard in my builds. I very much despise it as a material.
LOL . I did notice that. But with the assurance that MDF is so accessible, I am sold on the concept. :D
Or double up the foam?
That would have made it all sorts of worse
I used 1" foam since it's all I can find local.
Use a cheap sponge roller...it will work with no leftovers....peace out
I think this video needs a re-visit!
White Felt. Guaranteed stained in the first 10 minutes of use. lol If it even takes that long.
If I'm being entirely honest, I didn't even know people used terrain and minis and all this stuff for d&d and such. My group had always just used our imaginations, lmao
I mean a lot of people don't use any of it....but a lot do, and have been since the dawn of D&D. It kind of blows my mind someone into D&D doesn't know miniatures are a thing and a big part of the game for a ton of people. The game was refined and tested decades ago on a sand table in Gygax's basement.
"and then I remembered I wasn't allowed back into the fabric store."
Like a friggen magnet, eh?
whoahwhoahwhoah *t-squares are often innacurate?!* But... the Linear Constant, non-Euclidean horrors!
T squares are two pieces attached by screws. They can be off. A carpenter square is one solid L shaped piece of metal, so they are always accurate.
My T square you see that I use just as a straight edge is over 1/8” out over 24” for example.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial yeah I thought so, I invested in decent tsquares but that's what I meant by "Linear Constant" -- science suggests you can *never* truly have a straight line! Now your 90degree is wonked too! :D
1st comment
Im creating an instagram account to showcase creative DM ideas and creations and I was wondering if I can use your projects on the page. If anybody wants the @ for it just comment but im not trying to advertise. I just want permission to use your projects on the page because you have the best DND projects on the internet.
My work may not be used by others. Sorry.
Yay winter. :/ (the real one outside, not your snow terrain)
lol just us a white battle mat there video over