Tabletop OGRE | |
This is Alan Brain's fantastic Tabletop OGRE Board and "How to" for its construction, as posted to the OGRE Miniatures group at Yahoo:
I've recently (nearly) completed a project I've been working on for some time. Basically, OGRE DeLuxe (the boardgame with miniatures) on a tabletennis table.
Pictures of Alan's Table in Action:
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First Move
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Mk V in Trouble!
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Dusk Attack
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Night Fight
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Ingredients: (All prices in Aussie Dollars - halve or less for US)
1 Cheap TT Table ($120)
1 Tin Acrylic Desert-like paint ($38)
1 Tube cheap artists acryllic blue (for river)($2.80)
1 Tube cheap artists acryllic red oxide ($2.80)
1 Tube cheap artists acryllic burnt umber ($2.80)
1 Cheap Spraycan Ivory paint ($2)
2kg Moulding Plaster ($12.95)
1 Black Permanent Marker ($4)
2 sq feet lino or cork floor covering (~$6)
1 bottle expensive modellers white paint ($4)
1 bottle expensive modellers black paint ($4)
1 bottle expensive modellers yellow paint ($4)
Thick cardboard for making hex template (nil)
About 3 meters (10 ft) of aluminium foil. ($1)
Plastecine (Silly Putty) to make master of crater. ($2)
Tools:
Plastic butter container or similar for mixing plaster
1 old breadknife, ditto
Various large paintbrushes
Paint Roller
Stanley or large exacto knife for cutting template
Ruler in cm or 1/16" for measuring template]
Pair of compasses for making template.
Tins snips or pruning shears for cutting lino/cork.
Directions: Use Roller and desert-like paint on tabletennis table. Give 3 coats, allow 1 day to dry between coats. Feel free to add splodges of burnt umber and red oxide to break up the colour a bit. When the paint's dry, spray patches of Ivory on the clear area. Paint the odd hex or two with Burnt Sienna or Red Oxide, mixed with the basic desert colour. Then paint the river.
Prepare a cardboard hex template: each hex side should be 6.5 cm, or 2 5/8 inches. This can be done best by using a pair of compasses to make a circle, then using the compasses to make the 6 vertices.
Spend seemingly forever putting hexes on the table with the black permanent marker, drawing around the template. Then for the masochistic, number the hexes. Finally, very carefully draw in the locations of the craters and debris fields. This is tedious, takes a long time and is terminally boring. But worth while.
Now make a crater out of plastecine. After it's finished, use it to stamp a mould out of aluminium foil. Use some more of it to support the centre, so the plaster won't crush it. Now make a crater. Repeat 14 times, making new moulds each time from the master, being careful to conserve the bits of plaster still adhering to the foil. Also conserve the bits in the bottom of the flexible plastic butter container - just flex it a bit to get it out.
Now use the tin snips to make strips of lino/cork about 6-7cm long and 2cm wide, rounded at the ends. You'll need about 60.
Mix up batches of plaster , with the irregular chunks of plaster debris added to give it some chunky texture. Apply to the strips to make ridges of debris, using the dried-up chunks-in-the-botom from one batch to make the next.
Paint the debris and craters with the tin of paint you used for the basic board. Make "Boiling lava" effect in each crater bottom by first painting outlines of circles in red oxide, then white centres, then yellow feathered between the white centre and the red edge. Wash the debris with very heavily thinned black paint. Drybrush the debris and crater sides with burnt umber.
Picture available at http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/ogre-miniatures in the "Terrain and tables" album. (Photo shows table before drybrushing of debris, and some plaster dust can be seen amongst the PanEuropean 2-Howitzer defence)
Total cost: $100 parts :-), probably 30 hours labour :-(
Alan's OGREs on his table:
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Huscarl
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Fencer-A
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Mk V
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Mk IV (Pre Production)
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Mk III and Legionaire
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