Texturing gaming boards with filler (spackle)
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- Опубліковано 13 січ 2015
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Following on from texturing terrain bases with filler, in this tutorial, we look at how to texture terrain boards with filler (spackle). Perfect for texturing up boards no matter what wargame you play!
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I already did my table years ago, with much more money spent and a LOT of time more for completing. Your way is wordefully easier and cheaper. Now I have 3 table for my kill team games. Thanks.
I just built my first 6x4 table and used this video as a guide on how to make the texture, it looks great, thanks!
Awesome sauce matey
Saw this when it first came out and now returning as I’ll be starting my own boards. Great tutorial, helpful and inspiring. Many thanks.
Hope it helps mate
This is really great mate. I am on the cusp of starting a modular terrain board system and this has been very helpful. I am off to view more of your work. Thanks.
Just made myself one of these for Malifaux - entirely thanks to your fantastic tutorial.
Thank you very much dude! I am chuffed with it; grand total of £9 spent!!
Can't argue with that.
+Elliot House Awesome sauce mate
What I like about that, is that you could paint the other side grey and then you got two battlemaps which are modular as well
That finish looks absolutely brilliant and baring in mind that GW want about £170 for their 6 piece plastic gaming board, your creation looks better, because you can design it exactly how YOU want, so is this another of your brilliant videos Mel... 100 percent YES :-)
Terry Bass Cheers buddy, fair difference from £17 to £170 lol
Awesome tutorial - exactly what i wanted for my new table! Also must say your tutorials are sort of mesmerizing - i see you do stuff and i want to do it myself instantly :) since subscribing last week i built 4 ruins while watching your back to basics tutorials and half my gaming table is now textured with some leftover filler i found after watching this tutorial (gotta buy more to finish the job :)
Денис Чемакин That's brilliant mate, love it when people actually use the tutorials and build stuff :-)
Im making a board based on this. 2x2 desert board. Ordered a 500 point italian army from warlord games, as well as more british common wealth forces. I built a little mud house, a hill, ordered a meditterean house, market stalls/benchers, a pump well, and an ox cart from Sarissa Productions. With all that Im gonna have a pretty nice little board. I need some trees or foilage though.
Thanks for doing this. I worked on a gaming board this past summer. I wanted to do the same technique, but I couldn't find any good tutorials on it. I ended up using the stucco popcorn-effect stuff. It turned out a bit bumpier than I had hoped, but it still works great as a warhammer game board, and painting and dry brushing was a breeze. I will definitely be using this thinner spackle next time around. Thanks!
FoeJred No worries mate, hope the retexture goes well for you :-)
You channel pure Neil Buchanan in your tutorial videos.
Been looking for a tutorial like this for a while. Thanks a lot for sharing it!
I'm just about to start stippling some modular terrain boards and so came back here for some pointers. Thanks.
+Euan Smith Let me know how you get on mate
Greetings from Australia Mel!
Another Great vid!
It worked a treat for me. 1 issue I had was some of the ridges were too high (4/5 mm) after I spackled them. So rather than sanding it with sandpaper I used the base of a standard soup/spaghetti/ baked beans can (that I was using under the board).
Made it down to about 1mm. A tip maybe others "CAN" use.
I have dropped in $20 to you and encourage others to do the same!
Keep up the good work.
Cheers mate!!
Awesome tip mate and thank you, it's appreciated!
Frank Von Hi Frank Im in Straya too, Brissie. I was just wondering what filler you bought over here, the only ones I've ever worked with are stuff like Selleys Spakfiller but that's very dry.
Mel another great vid mate, I learn so much from watching them.
hey mate, what filler did you use?
Excellent as always. You cant beat the clear descriptions. Thankyou.
When I textured my table I sealed it with watered down PVA, made up a mix of paint, PVA, various sand grades and premixed filler, it created a nice through-colour textured paste that dried like rock, as the paint is mixed into the filler, even if it chips it's still the same colour
Wow this is really good stuff. Once I get a more solid base table I'll 100% be referring back to this when I make my new boards.
Purdius Prime Awesome mate, let me know how you get on :-)
Excellent work, Mel
Your videos are awesome. I will definitely try to apply this ideas to my models.
My friends and I LOVE all of your videos!!
Inspiration for Soo many amazing projects!
Thank you Sir, Regards from Canada :)
Awesome sauce mate
great video, love how many times you said stiple
Superb gaming board Mel
Very useful tutorial matey. Love the channel.
This again really makes me think about drywall texturing. If you used a thick nap paint roller, used a knock down or skip trowel or slap brush method you could cover a 4x8 in a far shorter amount of time. Keep up the vids...definitely making me think. :-)
Chris Hinson It's got to be worth a try, especially for mass production mate
Chris, how about a sponge, would that give a similar lightish stipple effect as well as speed up the process? I mean one of those 6" x 4" decorator sponges :-)
Terry Bass Absolutely, sponges are used by drywall artists regularly. You pick up some of the filler with the sponge, dab it onto the surface...wait a few minutes as TTT suggests, then for different effects you can do a "knock down" by dragging a flat trial over it lightly, or you could just leave it as is for a more course terrain. The more I research this, the more I realize there are a LOT of cross-over skills in terrain building and general construction. It's pretty much the same things that home builders use for speed....you can apply those techniques to terrain building for speed as well. Paying close attention to the materials used and be consistent with your experiments and it's repeatable.
Chris Hinson Chris, many thanks for your time in replying and helpful suggestions... Happy gaming :-)
Nice tutorial. The texture looks like the texture on the GW Real of Battle boards. And I like the new video quality. Looks like you've been working on the lighting and the pip looks great. :)
***** Cheers buddy, it's a cracking technique. Loving the new filming and editing, just got to learn a new style of filming but I'm getting there slowly mate.
Thank you very much for this. It's inspired me to make some boards for naval gaming.
So you just painted the exact boards with different colors of blue? How did it turn out?
thanks! i'm building my own GW realm of battle board, using foam to carve the hills in the corners and this technique will be perfect for the texturing.
Excellent matey
This video was super helpful for creating a my first little board, Thanks a lot!
Thanks for this great texturing technique! I will definitely be using this in the future.
The Great Hobbit no worries mate, hope it works out for you
Nice tutorial, been working with filler and this has given me a lot of nice tips.
SnailMasterWargaming Glad it's helped matey ;-)
buddy you are always there....helping me out thank you very much...
It's what I'm here for matey
Another invaluable video. Thank you!
Awesome as always! I'm learning so much from all these videos!
LeSadW666 Glad you're finding them helpful matey
Looking forward to seeing you flock it up. I'm building a board using this technique in the very near future
Will Rosenow hopefully it won't be too long but check my foliage playlist in the meantime, i cover flocking in there mate ;-)
As always Mel, it's great, both educational and entertaining. I have used Relief (textured) "paint" (it's more of a primer I think) mixed with a bit of fine sand on my boards. But I do like the alternative
George Panopoulos Thanks mate, I'll have to give that a go, thanks for the heads up.
Great idea - think I'll use this for sea and/or river bed and shore lines/waves too. THanks
Carsten Dittrich Glad it helped mate
Absolutely love your work- thanks!
A really nice and simple way of texturing a terrain board there, and with great looking results give your self a Gold Star for that one :)
Terrain Direct A shiny one? ;-)
Yes mate has to be a nice shiny one :-)
Awesome. I've been looking for a way to do custom game boards that will tie in with GW Realm of Battle boards nicely, and I think this technique will fit the bill, so long as I match the width of the MDF board to the width of the Realm of Battle board. The finish you have achieved looks like a very good match for the texture molded onto the RoB boards.
+Curran Egan Sounds like an awesome project mate :-)
Great tutorial! I'm not at all handy with any sort of DIY thing, but your videos are easy to understand and I think even someone like me could do it without much trouble! xD
Absolutely perfect mate.
Thanx Mel im just about to do a 4x4 Necromunda board and now i know how the bottom layer will be :) cheers bro :)
TribalwarsLedgend Awesome, love Necromunda
Really nice technique. I have always used PVA and sand but this looks great. I will give it a go.
+Tony Hind Hope you like the effect mate
One word: EPIC! Two more words: THANK YOU!
xxxxNIGHTBRINGERxxxx No worries matey
bloody fantastic! wish i had watched this video a month a go when i was making my display board.
GREATJOJOMAN Thanks matey, isn't it always the way ;-)
Great video, easy to understand! Have to try it sometime soon. Many Thanks!
Sang1957 Cheers buddy, glad you found it useful
Still a fantastic video. All the best to you in 2024.
great looking result/effect, nice tutorial, thx :)
unkhter I quite pleased with it myself, cheers buddy
Hey guys! Really not sure if anyone will read this in an older video. But lets just give it a try! One of the first things I want to craft is a solid forest board. Im VERY new to this hobby and i realy love this board! I just dont want it to look all brown, but add in some greenish colours to give it an earthy forest character without adding any flock. Maybe with your browm base colour and then a mix of greens as a dry brush. Do you think thats possible and makes sense? Or do you absolutely need to use flock?
Did you end up doing this? Because I'm aiming to do similar. How did it go?
I'd really like to see the rock blending tutorial thanks for all your informative videos learning alot from them
+Jonathan Senkow in the hills playlist mate
Very nice., been thinking of doing boards. But might try this way.
Jonathan Cox Give it a go on a test piece mate, see if you like it ;-)
It was a very helpful video for me.
I am planning to make an "alien planet" terrain table like "tyranid planet" so I guess If I make more meshy stripling and paint it in purple/pink color it will look like as slime.
Awesome video Mel I'm in the middle of doing 4 boards like this for an easyily storable gaming board for 40k great idea with the filler I recently failed with sand and glue and saw this after lol
Remember to do a test piece first bud!
yeah i didnt do a test peice and went strait to the gaming board. it looked different and didnt have quite the same effect as your peice in this video but it still looked decent. my mistake
I'd love to see how you create a board with pink/blue foam. I was starting on one but when I went to glue the 1/4" board to the 1.5" foam, the pieces (or one, not sure which) warped pretty heavily despite having close to 50 pounds of weight scattered over it. I did use wood glue (not watered down) for the adhesive if that makes a difference. Otherwise, I may do similar to what you have here and simply use a much thicker piece of board. Thanks and keep up the AMAZING work.
Dan Bellinger Yeah, 1/2" is the best starting point for boards mate, hopefully a proper terrain board will be on the boards soon .... sorry about the pun lol
Thank you! This vid realy helps me :)
Well Mel, i tried this and it absolutely failed for me. The filler was too thick, and when I watered it down the water thinned it down so much that I was basically painting with water with a slight white tint.
So, I panicked.
I grabbed a flat piece of plastic nearby and scooped up golf ball sized chunks of filler and plopped them on the board. I watered my brush down repeatedly and spread the globs out.
My initial coat was much,much thicker than yours. It still looked like brush-spread filler with brush marks in it though. So, i grabbed a nearby sponge, soaked it in water and dapped the whole board.
In the end it ended up being much faster than your way and the end result is passable. Stipling adds a much nicer effect but the sponge did it's job.
I did have minor warping issues, but I just flipped the board over, poured water on the board and spread it around. Then I placed some heavy things across it and bam, back to flat.
I always screw things up, but in the process i learn things.
Thanks for your tutorials, sir. They are a massive help!
Nice one mate!
Great idea! Got to try this one some time.
Krieg Kraft It's a cracking technique mate
I'm really interested in basing techniques to simulate soil, bare ground, tracks and paths through terrain. Suggestion to add to your huge database of topics.
+Vikki Wilson Coming soon, gotta build a test board first ;-)
The longer brush was a “happy accident” whereas you could paint this to look like ocean tiles!
I always learn something from Mel that is not obvious to the inexperienced (or even those like me who have years of the same limlted expertise!!). Look him up before you start a project.
Thanks buddy!
I'm planning on putting together some boards next weekend! This video is PERFECT for what I need!!!! Thanks mel! I'm gonna go for a concrete look. (What do you think, light gray basecoat and white drybrush?)
frenzykitty Awesome mate, that should work well :-)
"man.... im glad i found this channel, awesome".
Welcome aboard mate
nice idea and just a excellent tutorial :D
clawhammr666 Thanks mate
Nice work.
Stronghold Crafter Kev Cheers buddy :-)
Great effect, thanks.
WarmasterPainting No worries buddy
Good work!
Thanks
I just wanted to share my experience with this method as I learned two things from practice that might help other people with a project like this (I stippeld spackle (love how that sounds to say) on 12mm MDF boards sized 2'x2'):
1. The filler you buy might be of a different consistency than what Mel is using. When thinning it down with water look at how it behaves when you spread it. Compare that to how it looks in this video and keep in mind what you are trying to archive. Maybe you even want to do a test run on some MDF offcut to try things out, but if you are as impatient as I am you can also figure it out on the go.
2. Even though I took all precautions I could think of, my MDF boards did warp. They sagged a bit in the middle or the rims rose respectively creating a concave shape about half a centimetre deep. And when I picked the boards up, I realised that a small seam had formed on the bottom of the board edges (I had them propped up on paint pots aswell). This seam actually helped hiding the warping quite well when looking at the boards from the side. So since all the boards had warped in about the same shape, they still had nicely fitting sides with one another and actually lay perfectly stable on my kitchen table. My tip is to have a look at your boards after the filler is dry and test them out before you start worrying about what is looking like a problem, they might be just right the way they are.
Nice tips mate, remember that paint pot in the middle to prevent the sagging and if your boards to warp, flip them over and paint a 3 inch wide cross going corner to corner on the underside, as it dries, it'll warp it back straight again ;-)
Thanks for the tip, Mel. Sadly painint on the underside of my MDF board did nothing, it didn't warp back at all.
So I decided to experiment: I propped a board up over my cooker, filled a pot with water and let it evaporate completly. Then I filled the pot again and repeated the process (turning my kitchen into a temporary sauna in the process). Afterwards I turned the board over, propped it up on some cans (again with one supporting the middle) and rested about 10 kg on top of it for two days. After that the warping was much less pronounced. I wouldn't recommend this though, because it doesn't solve the problem completely, uses a lot of energy and time; I would have been much smarter to buy a new board, but that's not why I'm into terrain building.
what would you do differently if you wanted to have a road within the board? scrape away the stipling?
ProForm is only $15 a bucket in the U.S. its already ready or can add water and mix for an even thinner terrain builder and/or filler.
I am going to use this for a photography backdrop wall.
Love your videos and DIY approach. I'm now thinking of building a cheap modular 4x4 foam board 40k battle field. Made up of 4x square pieces of thick insolation foam board held together with wooden downs or BBQ sticks. But as my dining table is only 4x2. Do you think I'll need to reinforce it as there is going to be a bit hanging off both ends? I would like it to still be light and easy to store.
you can get away with a 1/3 of a board hanging over, anymore than that and you'll have issues, especially with all metal armies in the deployment zones. Buckaroo!
Love your videos Mel, and I'll be using this technique to texture my display boards for Adepticon. I'll be adding hills and rocks etc as you mentioned in the video - but did you say that you should put down the first layer of filler first to seal it, *before* you glue on rocks and hills? Wouldn't the texture of the sealing layer make it hard to glue down say, an extruded polystyrene hill? Thanks and keep up the great vids!
Glue you're main terrain first, then stipple with filler mate
Love it!
awesome job! cool technique just did it myself but it would be nice if you showed how to put grass and stuff on it
+GOD OF GODS Check the foliage playlist, plenty of tutorials on grass in there
Do you think it would help with warpage to do a spray primer on the MDF first, then start the spackle texturing and prime again? I wonder if I could get away with the 6mm board instead of 12mm that way.
Great vid thanks
Awesome technique and finish. I have just made my first lot of boards, and they have come out great. I did make a mistake by not laying a couple of them flat and they have warped. So to unwarp them would you suggest I dampen the back of the board and lay flat again? Cheers
Paint the underside with neat pva mate
Thanks for the great video. Would you be able to do something as large as a 4x3 foot mdf board without having to worry about warping?
+Stuart Page Should be fine mate :-)
Brilliant! Shared, subscribed and liked. The lowest lip on the GW Realm of battle boards is about 6mm 1/4". I'm looking to add variety to that set. Any ideas on countering the warping? I've heard painting the backside will help warp it back.
Joe Boster Painting the back does help but it's easier just to avoid pva, texture with filler, flock with spray adhesive, seal with matt varnish ..... no pva, zero warping! ;-)
TheTerrainTutor Good to know! I'll give it a go and post in the FB group.Oddly enough over here the board come in 2'x4', I was also thinking you could use 12" wide MDF shelving cut in 1x1 squared for even more modular terrain.
Real good technique there Mel,sure I'll find a good use for this. Thanks for sharing.
Also has somebody been playing Heroquest???
Dan Cain No worries matey, and yes, always playing heroquest mate
Brilliant as usual would artex work as well or is it too soft
If I were to place the board on a large project table (bigger than the board) would this keep the MDF from warping or would you suggest resting the board on paint pots even if this is an option? Thank you very much.
I want to make a double sided board, if this was face down could it scratch up a table?
Good one Mel
***** Cheers Nick, no spam thingy this time, looks like you've got it sorted.
TheTerrainTutor
Ahh good to know, thanks
When I textured my table I mixed PVA and sand 50: 50 and used a paint scraper as a spatula to spread it down to a thin layer, which gives a very firm consistent surface but takes a lot of paint and is extra messy. I'd almost say it's too consistent though, and is prone to lines from the edge of the scraper. This method seems great and gives a nice consistently inconsistent (so to speak) organic surface, and I think I'll definitely give it a go for the next table I do. What brand/type of filler do you use? Might not have it over here in Aus but should be able to track down something similar.
***** I generally use whatever budget brand filler I can find, just grab a small tester tub and give it a go, you should be ok with normal filler mate
Thanks you so much!!!
really need to make this exact board right down to the colours and everything but want to know how to do it with out the streaks (brush strokes) in the dry brushing
drybrush lighter mate, if you have streaks, it's too much paint on the brush
thanks sir
Thank you - This is a great video - i have always wanted to know how to do a textured gaming broad. Question: what would be the right colours and order to put them on for a desert landscape ? (and yes i know some kind of desert yellow)
Ocre and a cream drybrush highlight mate
Fab, Thank you :)
Looks great! I will be doing the same on my table but I made mine fold up into three sections for portability. How durable is the stuff or should it be sealed? Was thinking of adding static grass as well, what would be the best way to seal that?
Thanks!
Pretty tough to be honest mate
Mel could you use plaster bandage instead of or alongside this technique? I guess you'd use it more as an under layer, to create elevations beneath the stipple?
You could but you'll still next to texture it
Hi.I bought 12mm MDF and supported it as in this vid, but mine still warped :( What did I do wrong? Could I have made it too wet?
Love your work.
Great tips! I plan to use this. What ratio do you use to water down the paint when you cover the board with the base coat?
2:1 paint to water mate
Hello Melvin! Thanks much for the video. It inspired me to try and build my first ever board! QUESTION: if i want to add aome small stones (cat litter), shall i do it when the filler is soft without any glue, just relying on filler itself to hold stones once it is dry or shall i add them after the filler is dry, using PVA as usual? Thanks again!
do it before or after, just not while the filler is wet mate
So, I've been trying to find a video or post on how to finish the surface on modular foam board tiles, before the flocking. Can't seem to find anything that gives me an exact answer. I'm new to terrain making, so I don't have any failures to learn from yet. Do you have any videos that cover this that I'm missing, or does this technique work just fine for the pink foam boards?
Works for pink foam but checkout the back to basics playlist mate
I really liked this video! Thank you! I’m looking at making a board like this for my 40k group.
Can you tell me what kind of board you used? Will this work with pressboard/plywood?
It's MDF but it'll work with any wood or fibre board mate
I just bought a 4 by 8 foot board to make my DbMM terrain table. Thanks for the tutorial.
How durable is the spackle to scuffs, etc over time? Is it prone to chipping?
+Ronald Brow (HestonFan) I've given it some serious play hammer without any problems. If you've got worries, seal it with varnish mate
Outstanding!
Scott Dallimore Cheers matey
How do you guys stop spackle from cracking or being too brittle? Mine just kept on cracking.
im brand new to the hobby, and i was wondering for making a game board, what material do you use as the board itself?
Great tutorial Mel, would decorators caulk be any good for the texture, i have tried and failed with this on foam board, just wondered what your thoughts are on using it on MDF. Cheers.
Adrian Simpson Assuming it's not too sloppy and you can get a decent stippling effect, I can see why not matey