Hi all,
I recently attended Smogcon and met up with the bendyboards.co.uk crew of Lee and Mike. Thoroughly good people and, whether by their charm and salesmanship, my hobby spending weaknesses or the extreme excellence of their products I ended up going home with a wonderful Standard Bendyboard 3′ x 3′ table and a Model tray.
Bendyboard “in action” shot. My little boy Sam (2 y/o) felt the car would add an sense of scale!
Bendyboards Model Tray
Both these products are exceptionally made. The Board has extended end zones for keeping cards, reference materials and ‘the dead pile”! It is sturdily hand crafted from good quality wood and feels robust and gamer proof while still being light and easily transportable. All the edges have been sanded and well finished. The fittings; hinges and handles are both functional and elegant. The Model tray has enough spaces for any 50ss crew with room for scheme markers and decks. All in all a very elegant way to transport my crew and accessories from the starting point to the bottom tables at tournaments.
While traveling to work the day after Smogcon I started hatching a plan to make my excellent board and model tray even more excellent. Sacrilege I hear you scream, but bear with me. My rail crew, fresh form their Golden Thrall Painting award at Smogcon, needed an environment to suit their basing and elevated position in the world!
The Rail Crew
I decided to model the surface of the model tray to fit the crew’s bases.
“to the basing materials drawer!”
Forty five minutes later I had cut and distressed some Seatle-based-coffee-company-coffee-stirrers (how’s that for a compound noun!) I first stuck some areas of cork down predominantly at the back of the board on which to mount the decking and marked out an area to be water. I added various bits of girders, fencing, sacks and assorted detritus to the board and gave it a rough spray of base colours to map out the different areas
Decking and bits stuck on with basic colours applied
The water area was painted up with various greens and browns. ripples were added around submerged objects to sell the sense of depth, The metal scraps wer painted up in bronze or gunmetal then covered in brown and orange stippled on with various oil washes of Burnt Umber, Raw umber and Greens to add weathering, dirt and rust. I added a couple of rats and three snakes then sprayed and drybrushed the flock and ivy
Almost finished
With added Rail crew and felt card compartmant
As a finishing touch I lined the card area with felt and made a little plaque and painted on the name of the crew.
As for the Board I decide to stick in a space mat for playing X-wing and I have bought a couple of pieces of 3′ x 1’6″ MDF on which I will make Bayou scenery. This can then be slotted on top of the X-wing mat. Once again I lined the end areas with felt. I may go back and spray on card template outlines like on a poker table.
with X-Wing mat and felt lined end zones
So, that’s it for this blog. I hope it was of interest or help or hopefully served as an inspiration to do something much better. As always if you have any suggestions or questions feel free to leave a comment at the bottom and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Till next time
Richard
