With Tentfinity being successful over the past month+, I decided to make the set up a bit easier by making a new 4′ x 4′ board. Previously, I’ve been relying on a double set of 4×4 sheetrock panels but they are annoyingly heavy to move. The panels are also fragile without good support, susceptible to moisture if it starts to rain with wind picking up, and I tend to get dirty carting them around.
I picked up two 4′ x 2′ pressboard pieces and enough 1″ x 2″ pine pieces to run rails around the board flats. This created a sturdy and light table easily handled for the back and forth outdoor setup we need each week.
I still have the board maps straddled over two regular tables but they are sturdy enough to allow for more room on the edges. A set of clamps secure the two boards together and I’ll likely switch this to a bolt+wingnut system a little later.
Another improvement was adhering the paper play mat to the boards. I was using blutac to secure the mats down to the sheetrock but it didn’t always work and it had to be redone each time we played. I picked up extras of the old Red Veil scenery pack to eventually make a full 4′ x 4′ board.
With the large boards, spray adhesive was used to mount the paper mats to the panels. Technically, each paper mat is 24″ x 32″. This meant I’d need to cannibalize one of the maps to shore up the final 16″ to bring each panel to 48″ long. After opening up the packs, I saw that the mats vary widely in sizes with one set being 25″ x 33″ and others being 23″ x 30″. The results meant that the cuts and layouts didn’t really match up. Couple that with the innate challenge of working with a large paper mat and a spray adhesive board, and the whole thing went a little sideways.
Eventually, I figured out a technique to lay the paper down without causing bubbles or tears and while it could have looked a lot better, the overall effect is still good.
We had our first game on the map over the weekend and it worked well. The wind started picking halfway through the game but the mounted map and blutac’d terrain pieces held firm without any issue. It was able to stand up to some 5-10 mph gusts so I’m very happy and look forward to using them as long as the weather holds.