The Assault Phase

   Following up on my previous article on the display board I have been building, I have had a few lessons learned since getting ready to start cutting holes.  Firstly, using foam board as the insert sounded like a good idea until I began to flock it.  The glue and paint causes the foam board to warp and no longer sat flat inside the frame.  So instead I went out and bought a sheet of hardboard.  I will update the materials list in the first post.

Hardboard worked out well.  I got circular saw bits large enough for the bases I was going to be putting in there.  Drew outlines of where the models would sit and cut out the holes.  The picture here is of the foam board, but as mentioned I did switch to using hardboard.

You can also see that here I started to add little things to make the display stand out.  Old ruin building corners were put on top of a hill and ledge where ultimately the Soul Grinders would be overlooking the force.  I was trying to get an ancient and corrupt ruined city feel.  Old rusted out lampposts, rubble and what remains of various walls.

Since I also wanted to make sure, should things shuffle around, that the models stay in place, I cut a piece of thin aluminum sheet metal to she same size as would be needed to fit within the frame.  This gave it a little extra weight, but was not too bad for me really.  Now the models magnetized bases would snap onto the sheet when inserted in their slot.

With the holes cut and the ledge placed I began by first painting the terrain.  Once all of that was completed I moved onto adding the sand and the burnt grass flock to the board.  Once dried, I like to seal my basing with a thin wash.  This not only helps build shadow but it becomes an extra layer to keep the sand from falling off.

The final product is a good looking board. I left the wood natural rather than paint or stain it.  The white and burnt carving look is a sharp contrast to the dark scene within.  I think a cherry stain would look nice, but I haven’t quite decided on it.

One of the things every army needs for a large tournament such as Adepticon is a display board.  This is a tray that will hold your figures and serves two purposes.  First it goes into judging of the paint scheme.  Second it will be used to quickly move your figures from one table to the next, as opposed to sticking them in and out of their foam cases.

My first step in going about this process was to think about framing.  There was an old GW article that provided some pretty detailed steps on making a display board.  Thy suggested using a basic picture frame.  I wanted a more detailed frame with scroll work or something ornate.  Unfortunately those can get expensive.  I decided instead to make my own frame our of molding which you can get even detailed molding for $10 at the home improvement store.

For backing, the GW article suggested using foam board on top of the normal picture frame backing with slats of some kind to hole the base in against the frame since it has that lip and all and would stick out.  This seemed cumbersome to me.  Plus it wouldn’t work with my self built frame.  The foam board would be marked where the figures were to go and then holes cut out.  Good idea, but I did not want to be constrained to only one set force organization.  I wanted to be able to reuse my display board as often as I need.

Materials: Cost me in total around $30

• Black Foam Board
• Thin aluminum sheet metal
• Hardboard
• 8 ft detailed wall molding
• Liquid Nails

First thing to do is decide the size of your frame.  Cut your molding at 45 degree angles such that the shorter length is on the inside of what your frame should look like.  When you have 4 equal lengths, or 2 sets of equal length boards, arrange them on the table or on one of the large foam boards to make sure your measurements are what you expected

Depending on the thickness of the molding, you will need to know the measurements for the inside square and the outside perimeter.  My outside perimeter was 26.5 by 21.5.  The inside was 17 by 22.  Cut the foam board to those specifications.  What you are doing is making the backing and the insert.  Then using your liquid nails, glue the boards to the larger backing.  It should fit perfectly.  Make sure you glue the joints of the frame as well.

Let that dry for a few hours.  Then you should be able to place the insert foam board into the frame and it should be snug but not tight.  If it’s tight, shave the edges a bit.  The insert is going the be the piece that is cut specific to your formation.  You want that to be able to slide in and out so you can switch formations if needed.

When you have all these pieces you are are done with step one.  The next step, which will be posted later, will be to cut the holes and do the terrain for your insert.