Pimping up my board games

 Pimp my board game

I have many games that use figures and have special boards.  I like dungeon exploration games and have several of the Dungeons & Dragons board games.  As my background is from Wargaming and Role-Playing I don't like playing with basic card boards and unpainted minis. As a basic pimpimg I try to paint the figures before we play with them.  Then I try and build the board.

Some games have boards that are multilevel on one piece of card, like Warhammer Quest and Descent 2.  These can't be made to look good in 3D as having two levels on one piece will not sit right with the pieces around them.

I started by creating a 3D board for my Space Crusade game and painting all the figures.

I used the moulds from Hirst Arts to cast up the walls and floors in Herculite casting plaster until I had enough.  Then I used XPS Extruded Polystyrene Foam sheets to build the boards from.

Hirst arts has many moulds that will make different styles of Fantasy and Sci-Fi floors and walls.  Floors come in 1 or 1.5 inch squares or Hexagons so you can recreate gridded boards.

Don't underestimate the casting time for the plaster floors and walls.  For example Castle Ravenloft has 40 tiles with 16 of the plaster tiles on, plus a double sized starting tile. That's 672 individual plaster tiles.  Looking at the mould (top left in the first photo below) you can see 10 complete plaster tiles and another 2 that can be made up from smaller casts.  So you will have to cast from this mould 56 times to cover all the plaster tiles needed.  You also need to cast the walls and doors and any other special items.

Castle Ravenloft has some tiles with Skulls on which are used in some of the scenarios.  These were cast from the top right mould in the first photo below.  There is only 1 skull per casting so you need at least 20 castings from this mould, more if these are the only walls you are using.  I used a mix of wall types.


Hirst Arts Fantasy Moulds

Pour the plaster into the moulds and let it start to set

Scrape off the excess plaster before it sets to create a smooth base for the bricks

Cast as many floor and wall pieces as you are going to need
(You will need much more that this little lot!)


XPS foam

Cut into sizes required 
(These are for the D&D Game Castle Ravenloft)


Glue down the floor tiles

Construct any walls required

Paint the floors

Paint the walls

Glue the walls to the floors
(Castle Ravenloft)

Play the games
(The Legend of Drizzt)


Games I have pimped


Space Crusade

Descent 1 & 2

The Legend of Drizzt

Doom






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