Halo Flashpoint : Evoking Combat Evolved For the Nostalgia Gods

The Board

We will put together a 2’x2′ Flashpoint/Deadzone board in a manner I have used before. If you are in the USA, grab one of these boards from a local Home Despot, and you are already 1/3 of the way done.

Formular XPS Foam Sheet : About ~$10

Measure Twice, Score Once

Next using ruler or t-square, mark out your board into 3 inch cubes. Lightly score the board to bring out the grid.

Here is where I’m going to make a first design choice. While modern miniature wargaming would use a lot of texture and grit to bring out realism, Halo Combat Evolved used pasted on 2D image maps grafted onto 3D low poly elements. To evoke that, we are going to keep it flat flat flat, and then only paint on the texture we want.

I think the mantra for this project might be: “Flat is Beautiful”

Instead of adding in grit and making my own texture paint, here I will just use a 50/50 mix of mod podge and tan craft paint as my base.

It will take at least two coats to get this down, because foam can be kind of thirsty.

Give ample time between coats to let fully dry. In the current heat wave here that’s about 2 hours. Your milage will vary.

I See A Tan Board and I Want to Paint It Flat

Next we are going to grab a sponge, a few brushes, some green craft paints, and we are going to attempt to get the board to evoke this …

Tiny Strokes

I think some small brush strokes into the wet sponged paint, in a quantity that doesn’t make myself insane, will get the flat grass texture we are going for.

We will probably need at least 3 different paint colors.

An alternative to this may be just glueing static grass down flat to the board. We may do a little of that too.

Done For Now

Ok. I’m pretty happy with that. Let’s go research the specific terrain elements we are after, make some more design decisions, and try a few mock ups on this board to get our sizes right.