Mortal Gods – Building a gaming table

Since it had been clear for a while that we wanted to do a Mortal Gods batrep, but I simply didn't have the skills to build a board myself in such a short time, I did the only logical thing in this situation: I asked a specialist!

Robert, alias Wolpertinger Miniatures, offered to build me a tabletop board on the first weekend of August. I must admit, I had my doubts as to whether this was even possible in such a short time, but Robert persisted, and so I made ample use of his expertise.

To call him skilled is an understatement, and he had already completed the structural framework for half of the board before I even arrived at his place on Friday. We ended up building the other half together.

By evening, the raw shape was finished and covered with several layers of Styrofoam. Once again, it was Robert's vast experience that prevented the gluing of the Styrofoam parts from making a big mess. The frame construction was also a good idea, which ultimately kept the board largely in shape, with only a slight bulge in the middle because we didn't have time to install a center rail.

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to some pizza and a Haberstumpf. I think I drank more beer this weekend than I did in the entire last year, because beer isn't really my thing. But the Haberstumpf went down nicely and we continued our beer-fuelled revelry in the making of the board.

In the morning, we continued and covered the board evenly with sand. I had suggested covering the whole thing with a mixture of water and glue. I usually do this with miniatures on the base, and the sand sinks in a little. However, what I hadn't considered was that this is a very, very small area and might behave differently than a large area covered with glue.

While the sanded area was drying, I had the opportunity to try some local beverages. Robert informed me that we were drinking a version of cherry beer intended for normal distribution. Normally, there is a small amount of cherry brandy in it, which settles at the bottom – a bit like the sand in the glue. The Gaas-Seidla tasted really good not that much like beer – no wonder I liked it.

In order not to waste time, we set about building some houses, or rather, Robert did, while I tried to save the Afghan mud huts from Renedra, which I had already attempted to paint a couple of times.

After Robert had finished one of the houses, it became apparent that the scale of the Renedra houses was simply wrong. My first airbrush experiment was also a failure in terms of painting, but it later turned out that there was something wrong with the nozzle, which led to dripping.

Since the self-built houses looked better anyway, I put them away in the corner and my annoyance at the wasted time grew. They only really look good when you place them in a straight row.

The size comparison also shows that the balcony in plastic houses is more of a tripping hazard than a railing:

In the end, I think I'll follow Bunker Boss Dennis' advice and paint them provisionally so that they can at least serve as background extras. When the board was dry, two problems had arisen: the sand had sunk nicely into the glue, but the glue had shrunk as it dried, creating small holes in some places. I wanted to fill these later with a mixture of sand, paint, and glue. And as mentioned, the airbrush gun malfunctioned during priming, so I resorted to good old-fashioned manual labor and painted the board by hand. I also took this opportunity to try out the pink makeup brushes my daughter had given me. I noticed that they applied paint quite thickly where they were placed. If you move the brush in a circle motion around the edges, it creates a nice, soft color gradient towards the outside.

Robert had been working flat out in the meantime and had built more houses from scratch, so that we could do a fitting when the paint had finally dried. I have the feeling he would have built an entire city from scratch if he had had another day or two...

Well, I bow my head in respect! As he correctly pointed out, it was indeed possible to build an entire board in a single weekend! With more time, we probably wouldn't have made all those little mistakes, but given that we had to write a batrep the following week, the time pressure was quite intense.

After returning home, I continued with the finishing touches, such as flocking the field with artificial grass. But first, I had to deal with the edges of the board, which were outlined in black. I covered them with masking tape, but unfortunately that didn't help much—the edges still ended up looking quite uneven because I had to paint over the sand texture in some places. However, I think this effect will be within limits.

With the grass applicator, the artificial grass should have stood up due to static charging, but this did not work out. The effect of standing grass is rather small, but to be honest, it doesn't bother me that much. It looks a little more like an English lawn, but the placement of terrain works better this way.

To break up the uniformity a little, I repeated the process with different types of grass, which created a beautiful, natural look.

The overall picture was quite impressive, and I added some tufts here and there. This made the board less modular, but much more attractive. Then I did a test setup with the existing terrain. What is still shining here is a clay pit. I still have to build a few bricks and a kiln separately so that they can be placed around it:

Once the buildings have been painted and a few small cornfields have been added nearby, it will look quite neat. There are still a few things I will add over time, such as fences, flower beds, and tall bushes. But the most important part was done, and the board was ready to play on.

My special thanks go to Robert, whose tireless efforts made this whole thing possible!

Greetings from the Wolpertinger Miniatures castle

Dino