Making A Band Of Brothers Wargaming Trench Table - Brecourt Mannor

how do guys it's luke at geek game in scenics and this is the video that you've all been waiting for i'm going to take you through step by step how we build this world war 2 gaming table i'll see you after this so this gaming table needs to be lightweight needs to be strong and it also needs to be as nice looking as possible this is one part of a 16 by 4 foot world war 2 inspired gaming table now i normally use 6 mil ply and then 20 mil 25 mil button around the outsides and inside however wooden stocking issues at the moment is pretty awkward um so we've had to settle on 9mm mdf this is a little bit thicker than usual however it did add a hell of a lot more strength but six mil ply or 6mm mdf is normally ample [Music] now using bead like this on around the edge of the table is multi-purpose one it makes the wood very very strong it stops it from warping and it also adds protection to your foam base layer what i do to attach this is we use d-clamps to fasten that down and then we pilot the holes and drop in some screws now the screws that i'm using will countersink themselves if you don't have any screws that do this do countersink the screws because you don't want these screws scuffing and scratching up your mum's best dining table dear once you've got that assembled put two extra supports across to add strength now the first problem with using 20 ml bead is most foam the cheap foams anyway that i use come in 25 mil depth so the way that we cut this is with a a massive foam cutter now the reason i'm doing this rather than using 20 ml foam or 25 mil wood is we have a lot of 20 mil wood bead and we have a lot of 25 mil foam so this is the most efficient way for us to do it plus it is a very useful tool for cutting large pieces of foam down and as you can see you get a nice flush level gaming table without any protrusions now this is going to be a trench table that's loosely based on bricot manor from world war ii if you've seen bander brothers you'll know which bit that i'm talking about so it is a representation and also we've got to think people have got to play on this now the trench pieces that we're using we cast up in another video if you want to watch how we made these i will put that video in the link below but the reason why we resin cast them rather than just making the small amount that we required is to add strength this needs to be a very durable board so if they're resin cast they're going to be far stronger than using balsa wood or coffee stirrers are sculpting it into the foam itself now to apply this in it's it's a very simple processes trenches it's just a matter of marking out the distance that you want and cutting it with a snap blade is far more efficient and quicker this way now a question i get asked all the time about gluing foam don't mess around with pva glues use polyurethane glue this stuff's called gate glue gorilla glue is brown it's activated with moisture so all you've got to do is spray the opposite side with a bit of water and when you press that down and put some weights on it in about 20 to 30 minutes you're ready to carry on working with it polyurethane foam reacts with water and turns to foam so it's perfect it's not going to budge it's not going to move and it dries very quickly keep your pva for doing your mdf buildings and your wallpapering now while we're talking about glues for sticking resin to polystyrene i tend to use ms polymer which is clear fixed it's got loads of different names but it's a marine sealant it's very flexible the trenches are going to get a lot of play on them they're going to get knocked we're going to get bangs having something that's rather flexible does make it a lot stronger okay so that's why we use marine sealant for that we just stick them all in place and then cut some foam just to hold them till it cures after a couple of hours now trenches are dug in and all the excess dirt are thrown over the sides now we could just build this up with modelling compound but we need to keep the weight down this small 510 mil height difference of compound could add another couple of kilos to the board so that what we do is we cut some foam board to a rough shape no real measuring just cut them out and copy the plan form around the trenches and then when we come to put the compound on top of this we're using a quarter of the product that we would normally be using so just glue all that in place again ms polymer you could use polyurethane glue for this but loads of little weights and take forever so we'll just use an ms polymer for this now the fun part getting messy this is modeling compound it's the perfect tool for making realistic and very hard-wearing gaming tables and creating that realistic lan landform you mix it up with water and it'll set in about half an hour so mix little and work in small spaces at a time but it's perfect for adding strength to the trench walls it also gives you trench floors some realistic undulation which you can sculpt this if you want and put like footprints and everything in if you want to go that far but how we're using it is just to cover the trench system up and create the landform in and around the trench system if you want to get this nice and flat give it about 15 minutes where it starts to firm up moisten the area and then you can temper that flat with a piece of polystyrene or a lollipop stick or whatever you want to do that with one thing to add as well is if you are mixing multiple batches clean out the pots that you're using because the plaster that's going off acts as a catalyst to the next batch which is fine if you need it to dry quickly but if you're working with something like this just clean out your pots in between we also use the modeling compound to fit all the 3d printed sandbags if you want to know where i've got them from they'll be all in the links below as well to give the landform a soil like texture i mix soil and tile grout together and then spread that all over where we've done his modelling compound and then with the matte scenic sealant we spray that all over and that activates the grout and seals it all in place and then we'll leave it overnight to set now once that's all dry and set in place and solid it's now time to start working on the inside of the trenches now to mimic the plank works in in the bottom of the trenches we just use bits of bolsa wood now balsa wood is soft but once sealed in place with thin super glue it turns to almost plastic however do do this in a well ventilated area it does smoke and steam everywhere it's not very nice but it does seal it solid to the base and it also makes the wood very very hard it's almost plastic coated just use the cheapest thinnest super glue you can find now for painting it's not something i spend a lot of time on all i tend to do is just base coat everything brown so it's got a base layer of paint on there we airbrushed the sandbags a cream colour and then we just do some dry brushes or some paler grays and creams on dry brushes in the woodwork and that's it done because the rest of the process is going to be covered in scenics and anything that does need any extra details painting and things like that we do it when the board's finished because most of this you're not even going to see it anymore now at this point this is when the board starts coming to life when we start putting in the scenics now duncan was in my neck of the woods pardon the pun and he decided to help me start laying the trees which is nice because with it being his body can have some input and it means that the trees are going to be placed where the need to be and what he's happy with because at the end of the day he's the one that's going to be playing with it and he's the one that's going to be looking at it every day so nice for that little bit of input plus the trees start to make the board make complete sense it looks a hell of a lot more natural just with the trees on and we've not fitted them yet we've not put any bushes in and we've not done any of the ground covers or anything else yet this is when the board starts to come to life and this is the bit that i start really enjoying how we gonna fix the trees in place so that they're stuck in there fast is the screws on the bottom get a good coating of polyurethane glue once you stick that into the board that then expands and works like a plug it expands in the board it holds it in solid they're not coming out them screws are in there fast but to add extra support and to get rid of that horrible plastic lip around the base what we do is we get some modelling compound mix it up and then we put that over the top of the plastic lips this one adds more strength so they can't be knocked out and two it just makes it so the ground under the trees flows and looks a lot more natural now for people wondering how we made the bushes they're more or less exactly the same as the trees i will be covering in the next video how we made them but it's so so similar to the tree video that's all linked below now i dry fit all the bushes and rip and tear them to fit and follow the tree line as natural as possible and the best way about actually dry fitting this and seeing this is we can see whether it's going to be a bit intrusive of play i know bushes don't live under trees but if we can get them close enough to the trees so there's still enough room to play and there's still enough of people to get round them and actually enjoy the game that's where i want and if it means i have to stick some under trees a little bit i'm not too worried and at the end of the day a bit more foliage a bit more greenery just had adds to the entire gameplay once i've figured out where we're going to put them and how we're going to place them i stick them in place with contact adhesive this stuff's amazing for stuff like this it stinks and so using a well ventilated area but prune it down underneath the bushes and stick it on the board it grabs almost instantly and once that goes off they're not coming off there now we're on to the final stretch of the board which is all the flocking and all the ground detailing what i do first is i just paint on a good layer of pva glue before i go on with my foam flocks the reason i use foam flock is it absorbs the glue better and it sticks down solid it doesn't come off sawdust flux don't tend to stick very well foam flocks however absorb glue and stick very well i'll put a small scatter in a dark green foam and then i cover that entirely with mid green foam just leaving little gaps where the dark green foam is so it shows through slightly and then on the raised areas just going with a bit of light green foam just to highlight them areas and bring them up all the products being used in this video guys you can purchase below my store so check the links if you want to buy these flocks modeling compound seafoam whatever you need is below now under the bushes and trees and everything you don't want to put in foams and and grass covering what you want to be doing is putting something like this pine forest front cover that i use um because not much grass grows under bushes and trees and it blends very well into the foam flocks and it's just a nice separation between the bush and tree edges to the to the foam and it blends very very well and it hides all the just painted areas where we've hid the compound with paints it's just a very nice covering you can apply this dry so if you don't like any areas that you've covered you can either put some flock over the top of it and we'll seal it later so why i like working like this you can put everything down if there's anything that you want to tweak and change just add it on top like i did with the roads and the paths and the walkways i was thinking well if there's trenches there there's like breaks in the trees it's to simulate where people would walk heavily or there's been vehicle movement or you can just throw it on top and at the end of the day if you don't like it once it's done there's nothing stopping you putting some more flock over the top of it to hide it if you don't like it however i chose to stay with it and left it and at this point i would just still sprinkling some of the pine fresh ground cover over the larger greener areas to simulate walkways and brown paths and things like that and while i was looking at i was thinking that looks quite nice it's pretty solid but it doesn't resemble field grass so what i decided to do was to seal it all in place let that go off and then we'll go in with some static now i'm not static in this how i usually would static grass a table for the reason it's field grass and field glasses loads of little clumps and i want to simulate that so what i'm doing is i'm going to make some 12 millimeter tufts with some very pale straw grass and then from that i'm gonna blend in some six and four autumn grass from my range and then just do some autumn toughs and then some four millimeter tufts in arm as well if you're interested in the applicator use it's a 75 kv app and it'll be in the links below now i will lay these toughs out i start with the long 12 millimeter tufts and i start where the ground's the highest and then what i do is like in nature is i go from the bigger larger longer tufts to smaller and shorter tufts as you work your way out and that way it looks really natural and you just sort of frame them out away from the bigger patches and that way you get a really nice formation of tufts and to me this resembles field grass far better than what foam flock or applying static with an and applicator can do the appearance of it when it's done is just so much better it's well worth the extra effort however that extra effort did cost about six hours of just placing static grass down um so it's not a quick process but the look is well worth the extra effort now if you are thinking of getting a static applicator for this purpose then i'd suggest getting one because buying tufts for tables this size isn't very economic i've got no idea how many i've actually used but i've used thousands of tufts big little small all different sizes but it's well worth the effort and the look now it's just the final finishing touches all the trees get sprayed with a varnish and then what we do is we sprinkle them all over with just some leaf flock from my range uh it's just so when your eye catches the foam flock it sees little discs and little shapes in the tree and it just makes it look like it's covered in leaves rather than foam flock and that that's just one of them little things that you don't notice until you actually see in person but it makes a massive difference and just adding final little bits of detail like fallen leaf cover these just ground up birch seeds and just spread them all over the place just so they you get in some more details and textures and it just breaks that ground surface up a bit and it just makes it look far more natural and realistic now it's these final touches that do bring it all to life and they're not that hard to do and it's just these little final details that people notice once you've got that done just spray it all down with some more matte scenic sealant and then it's finished well a quarter's finished but if you're wanting to play on this table if you want to see it in person just go have a look at it and feel of it in person it will be a salute on the 13th of november and it's also duncan's birthday guys duncan is taking this board around the country he's even going to be taking it to europe i think he's going to be raising money for charities is the whole reason why he wants to do it is so people can play on it he wants to get kids involved he's doing a lot for the community and introduce more people to war gaming and what better way to do that than with an immersive gaming table that's robust and fit for the jobs for kids to play on it and i'm i'm so glad that it's come to me for it because it fits my old ethos i've been trying to raise the bar on wargaming terrain for a long time and the support from you guys and duncan means that i can invest my time in making better quality terrain making things that use the scale modeling techniques and railway modeling techniques but make it durable so it can be thrown in the back of a van and played with which gore gaming tables are either a little bit under detailed and very strong or they're over detailed and very delicate me i think this is a nice compromise i'm not totally happy with a few things on it which i would do better but i think for its purpose i think it fits that what do you think put in the comments below now if you've liked this video guys don't forget to like share and subscribe and if you want to support me don't forget to buy my scenics you can buy them from shops local to you there's a link below where you can find your local stockist and distributors and doing that supports your community and supports them shops as well local to you and if not you can always buy it directly from me but please use your local shops as well if you're in london on saturday and you're going to salute please show your support and go say hello to duncan and just have a chat with him and if you can get a chance to play on the board do so but anyway guys thanks for watching thanks for tuning in and i'll catch you again for another video love love

Channel: Geek Gaming Scenics

Views: 334,466

Keywords: gaming table, wargaming table, gaming table build, dungeons and dragons, bolt action, trench table, trench wargaming table, wargaming terrain, city fight, how to make a wargaming table, 40k, wargaming, terrain, geek gaming, tabletop gaming, warhammer 40k, 40k trench board, space marines, how to make, warhammer 40000, wargaming hills, wargaming terrain building, geek gaming scenics, Experts Builds Band of Brothers inspired Wargaming Table - Brecort mannor

Id: Hh7MomQzUTg

Length: 18min 0sec (1080 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 09 2021