Interactive tabletop playing surface (Space Hulk Hobby Challenge)

Well, we’re hitting crunch time and having to cut some corners focus on the essentials for delivery. Originally I had grand ideas of using a 3d printed floorplan, or – at the very least – some diamond-tread plasticard for the floor tiles (http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/textured-sheets/129-abs-plasticard-diamond-textured-sheet-double-thread-a4.html)

But with deadline day looming and a whole load of items still “stuck in the post” it’s time to focus on just getting things done. One of these such jobs was putting the floor tiles down on my Hirst Arts cast rooms/corridors.

Having a laser cutter is such a bonus – not just for the day job, but to be able to turn an idea into a reality in less than an hour. So some quick sketching in Inkscape and 20 minutes later, I had a bunch of 38mm square tiles, all cut from black artboard (at least one step saved, in that I don’t need to prime them all black to begin with!)

Having used a really simple colour scheme on the walls (cream drybrushed over black) I didn’t want to go too detailed on the floor, but having some kind of texture would be nice.

An acceptable compromise was to drybrush the black card with a really old, nasty, super-stiff-bristled brush and some shining silver acrylic.

As well as adding a dash of colour (which, combined with the dull cream of the walls, I’m still not 100% certain of) the nasty cheap brush also created plenty of texture – brushmarks looked like scrapes and scratches on an otherwise bare metal surface.

Some of the tiles needed a little trimming to get them to fit around the pipes and other details on the Hirst Arts detailing. But all in all, not a bad job for an hour-or-so of work. Now just the other eleven terrain pieces to go….