How to Build a Topographic Tabletop

[@iratespartan13]

He makes it look so easy.

[@lwtvsteve4975]

It actually is easy! I had never built a tabletop using this method before, and yet it turned out great on the first try.

[@HethwillWargames]

Excellent use of maps and translate them into playground :) Definitely this process of working the height maps is more to my liking than the more usual hot iron method of sculpting the big chunks. Thanks sir.

[@Aaronfromprojectwargaming]

I like the use of the batting. Had not thought of that or seen it used before. Looks great.

[@lwtvsteve4975]

It worked REALLY well. Between adhering it with the wood glue, painting it, and then using lots of the white glue/water mix, it ended up with a really nice look and texture.

[@Aaronfromprojectwargaming]

@@lwtvsteve4975 I'm just surprised it did not warp. Have you noticed any since you filmed?

[@lwtvsteve4975]

@@Aaronfromprojectwargaming No warping (so far).

[@codsticker4498]

Yeah, the batting is an excellent tip.

[@niceguysi394]

Absolutely brilliant job. Excellent work Steve.

[@jamesrobinson46]

All the work paid off, the Isandlwana episode was great (as I'm sure will all the replays of the game at your club!).

[@stuartsimpson3696]

Nice work, you make it look easy

[@seanmorgan2257]

I loved your terrain in the battle and the hard work you put in really paid off, thank you for such a fantastic insight.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Thank you, Sean! Much appreciated. We have a lot of fun doing this!

[@sandtable8091]

Your explanation was very clear and produced an exceptional set of scenic boards. As you obviously know scenery is most important to the feel of a war-game, the aesthetics have to be right. I use 2 tons of untreated builders sand on my table. It dispenses with the joints made by multiple scenic boards. Fascinating channel, well done to all involved. Best wishes Service Ration Distribution (Hobby)

[@TaltosVT]

It's funny that this should show up in my notifications today. I was just thinking yesterday that it'd be interesting to do something similar for the AWI Battle of Hubbardton, where terrain played a role in the battle. With 6mm figures, it could almost be played at 1:1 scale.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Perfect timing then! Hope you're able to give this method a shot!

[@madwez]

top quality terrain. thanks for sharing

[@aleixdorcabis]

EXCELLENT TUTORIAL!

[@philRminiatures]

Creative, inspirationnal and atmospheric...Brilliant!😍😍😍😍

[@militarywargaming7840]

Well done really important for wargaming is topography

[@HerooftheTable]

Nice board. Thanks for sharing.

[@batesmt25]

Very nice. I learned some good ideas from the tutorial! Thanks, Mitch

[@Lonkka665]

My club did things very similarly with our numerous 1808 Russo-Swedish War terrain pieces as well as Albuera terrain that was used as a trial before 200th anniversary 1808 project. One VERY useful thing for construction I would like to point out is a U-shaped jig so you can get the board edges nicely match other terrain boards and not tilt inwards or outwards causing problems. Also we noticed that PVA is rather bad choice for glue as it tends to war things when it dries out. We replaced it with a large hot glue gun and acrylic filler (the type you use when renovating bathroom etc). the-ancientscom.virtualserver26.hosting.fi/gemigabok/suomen-sota-1808-1809/making-terrain-boards/ the-ancientscom.virtualserver26.hosting.fi/gemigabok/suomen-sota-1808-1809/historical-maps/

[@Lonkka665]

Here you can find the after action reports ("Refight battle report" after each battle's name) www.the-ancients.com/gemigabok/suomen-sota-1808-1809/battles-we-fought/

[@decam5329]

Does look great.

[@stirrednotshaken3111]

Excellent. can I please ask, when you went to the battlefield did you go with a tour company and if so who ? This is one of my bucket list plans :) Kind regards and thank you from London !

[@bourne817]

You started with 6 2x2 boards and they transformed into 3 2x4 boards. How did you fuse them together? Did they naturally bind because of the compound and glues? Is that enough support? I want to try this.

[@wandererdg]

That looks amazing!! At that scale I was surprised that you used static grass. Was that more of an aesthetic call?

[@rickhudson7929]

Great informative video. Thanks :-)

[@ElpredatorGYRO]

One thing you may consider is that vertical scale is different from horizontal scale in wargaming. By that I mean that the minis are obviously giants in comparison to the ground scale : that's why most use trees and buildings to scale with the minis and not the ground scale (or at least close to). You may want to apply this to your board so that the hills are in scale with the minis vertically.

[@lwtvsteve4975]

That's absolutely something I considered, and an excellent point. I actually did a couple of mock-ups with a greater vertical scale before-hand but did not like the look of the exaggerated height. Having just been to the battlefield, what I ended up with was terrain that didn't look or feel like the battlefield. Ultimately the choice came down to staying true to creating an accurate representation of the battlefield or making something that may have been more visually pleasing in relation to the minis. I went with the former as that had been my goal from the beginning, but others could certainly make the opposite choice!

[@ElpredatorGYRO]

I am a firm partisan of buildings in scale with the minis (I mainly play in 10mm), but some prefer 6mm buildings...The foot print is obviously different too, so a "village" would be 3-4 houses instead of 8-10 maybe. Another thing I like with dramatic height differences on the terrain is that the vision is physically obstructed between the minis on the other side of a ridge, and not an abstraction. But I do agree, it is a matter of choices in the end, and a gentle slop in real life can end up being too steep on the board if the vertical scale of the minis is respected. I guess depending on the rules, some may prefer to keep the different terrain levels visible (so less smoothing of the terrain) to have an easier visual representation. And in the end, video doesn't render justice to minis and terrain in general, everything appears a lot flatter on screen than in real life (!!). I really enjoy your content.

[@irishmarine3]

What do you guys do with the custom tabletops after you play a game with them? Do you store them for future use or scrap them? At this point you guys must have a handful

[@SlyBlu7]

Quite a few of their tabletops are just fabric mats draped over shaped foam. That foam isn't *too* expensive, and can probably be reused often enough. Something permanent like this though; I agree, I do hope that they keep them or maybe sell them off for charity or something.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Correct, most of our games are played on modular tables we can take apart and store, but games like this are done with unique, custom boards. They take a lot of space to store--some are kept in the club basement, others in the personal home of the guy who made the board. A few we've thrown out or given away.

[@MegaGamer-lg7sp]

Hey, do yall think that you could have a VS. of the Battle of Grunwald/1st Tannenburg? Arguably one of the largest battles in Medieval Europe if not its largest cavalry battle.

[@johnwayneeverett6263]

THANKS GUYS MADE MY DAY.. O By the way thanks guys for the project i will be doing.....wow wee....

[@redsven7624]

flocking from height in sandals, bold move

[@richardcrawford2752]

where did you get the quilters batting? I've looked and they're all much thicker than what you used.

[@LittleWarsTV]

The local craft/fabric store (Hobby Lobby).

[@ArcticTemper]

Any chance you link the topographical map you used? I am restricted to digital maps unfortunately.

[@HeavyH2006]

Steve, firstly great video very insightful. How long did the project take with purchasing, drying etc? Many thanks.

[@lwtvsteve4975]

That's tough to answer as I worked on the tabletop in fits and starts over a couple of months when I had the time and did not keep a time-log (shame on me.) The two biggest time-sinks are the drying (of glue and drywall compound) and the cutting of all the topographical layers. For the drying, at least you can do other stuff while that's taking place. For the topo layers, I tended to be very exacting, so it may have taken me longer than it would someone who is willing to fudge a little bit. All tolled, though, I think that the board could have been made in 2-3 weekends of solid effort.

[@HeavyH2006]

Many thanks that’s really helpful to give me an idea.

[@benjialvarez5560]

You should do a battle of Stalingrad

[@brentonrettig6028]

Where do you guys store all you tables/games?

[@LittleWarsTV]

Some guys take them home and some we leave at the club in our basement storage. But we'll be answering this question in more detail in our Q&A session in mid-April!

[@paultetzi5443]

How high where the material costs?

[@johnwayneeverett6263]

WOO WEE HOT DOG ...I have a new project great vid BUDDYS ..

[@jacksoyyer9146]

how much did it take to u to make this map?

[@billmasters385]

What is your next battle going to be?

[@LittleWarsTV]

You can visit our official homepage at www.LittleWarsTV.com to stay up to date with behind the scenes info on what's coming next! We have some teasers available right now for Episode 205.

[@B.Huntley_Sharpe]

I'd like to know how you store your maps for later use? Having spent so much time and effort I hope you just don't toss them.

[@LittleWarsTV]

We toss a few of them, but most are kept either in the club basement or individually by the person who built it. Storage of custom boards is definitely a challenge and a reason not to make many of them unless you have ample room.

[@weon_absoluto]

Check your Instagram because I send some questions

[@chriscraft2444]

Excellent tutorial, I liked how you showed part of each step but kept it brief enough so that I am not wading through an hour long video. I will say that I am not a big fan of this method as I feel the line between the boards are too pronounced and distracts from the finished project.

[@LittleWarsTV]

A totally fair point. If the seams bother you, the tutorial for how we made our Trebia table would be one to watch. That custom table was a single board with a different technique--and it turned out brilliantly!

[@adele8955]

hello little wars tv im starting a wargamming channel and i need help.

[@decam5329]

Does look great.