Island Board

I get easily inspired (noticed that yet?) and reading Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago made me want to build an island board. Something with dense jungles and open beaches on which to stage my inevitable F:GA battles.

Like all my tables I wanted it to be portable (we’ll get to the eventual fate of Stadtheim the modular town later), so I turned to my usual source, paste tables. The X-Wing board I built was going to be star field on the outside, then death star surface on the inside. But interest waned, and the internals never get finished. And it was just sitting there. So I figured why not? Star field on the outside, tropical island on the inside.

X-Wing board
Our willing victim

The first step was to plan out how I wanted the island to sit. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me to restrict the table space by having a complete circle of sea around it (the table is 30.5″ by 34.5″ so we’re already pretty snug for F:GA). But I wanted water, and beaches, and rocks. I ended up settling for a cross shape of land, with four patches of water one in each corner.

Island board plan
The plan and rough cuts

Here you can see the basic shapes roughed out, the white polystyrene is inked ready to be cut, then the blue foam is going to form a layer on top to thicken it out to the depth of the frame, and give a shapeable surface layer.

The island board in naked form
Textureless but not shapeless

Lots of stabbing with knives and a hot wire cutter later, the beaches (top left and bottom right above) where shaped. Then I added two inlets (bottom left, top right) along with the rocky outcrops in the sea. The black marker lines show my plan for dealing with the very obvious hinge joint.

Island board getting herbed!
Sand and herbs

Jump forward a little and you can see the texturing has begun. There’s regular sand, then herbs to mark out jungle paths (and make it all smell lovely). You can also see the raised piece of blue foam still visible top right, this covers the hinge and makes the board a little more seamless.

Island board texture complete
The island board, textured

Somewhat obvious though is the lack of sea. I used the same process as I did for the Stadtheim water, but taking more care to shape the waves lapping towards the shore. So pva and tissue paper and patience makes water!

White water?

And now it’s all ready for paintwork, which will come in the next episode! Stay tuned for the rest of the island board project.

[Part 2 is now online]