40mm AWI on the new table

 

First game to christen my new table layout was a 40mm AWI using Rebels and Patriots on a 4' x 4' layout.  I took the Americans, my opponent Anthony the British.

The British are trying to force a path across the bridge.

The game didn't start well with my Militia unit deciding to open fire on their own captain's unit killing two men - but fortunately not their captain.

The British slowly advanced while the Americans took up positions and then refused to fire, turn after turn (my order dice for firing were terrible!).

Finally the British got the upper hand and the Americans admitted defeat.

It was a fun game and I think the system of keeping clutter off the table worked really well.

Forming a Square

 

After a couple of weeks of doing quite a lot of printing, I managed to assemble the basic table top rail today.

This is the basic version that surrounds two of the collapsible table and is just under 4' square inside.  It needs an insert on each side of 96mm to expand the area to contain a 4' board, the grey below of the black attachment covers is 9mm and where the boards will fit.

It needs the top MDF rail spraying black and then glossing and attaching and a load more black attachment covers printing.  I also want to design a few odd side covers that will either be glued in place or slip on to cover the odd size areas.

After that I might put a matching MDF strip around the bottom of the outside below the covers to hide the joins between the 3d printed parts.

After expanding to 4' square, I'll print two 2' long pieces which just need 8 pieces printing each and then that will expand it to 6'x 4' and it will be done.

I also need to print some token trays, dice trays, drinks holders, card holders and possibly a dice tower that attaches over the corner...

But I really need to return to painting some figures and printing and basing up gabions for Dendermonde!

Creating a Ledge around a games table

 

Ever since I created my Hex scenery I have wanted to make a rail that goes round the edge of the table to finish off the look and hold the hexes in place - I have also always fancied a table with attachments like dice trays, etc as well.  It all seemed too expensive to do and difficult.

Then I saw the kickstarter for the War-ganizer Battle Board which is essentially a fold up table with a 3d printed attachment rail system based on 2" thick foam.

This isn't what what I wanted but I did wonder if the files would be modified to work as a rail system without an entire 6' x 4' piece of foam.

The rail is going to be in sections (maximum 2’ long) so I can have a 4' x 4', 6’ x 4’, 6’ x 5’  and 8’ x 5’  setup using the folding tables I use as my games table.

 I used polystyrene initially as I had it but  ordered some 50mm deep dense foam sheets to use for the final thing.

I have changed the panels to have a top and bottom ledge so that they form a box around a pieces of 50mm x 40mm foam.  I have also extended the outer panel so that it overlaps the table by 2 inches to stop the whole thing sliding.

To connect the length of the rail together I have made a 4 inch panel to connect to the attachment points and 2 more 4 inch panels for the left and right side of the connectors.

I have thought about making the inside panel blank, so that it was easier to print, but I need to be able to use the connector panel inside, and might want to attach somethings like dice trays to the inside of the rail.

I will probably cut some attachments down to 4” so I can use those at these spots as well.

Photos of initial pieces below:

I just posted this on the FB group for the designer and one person wondered why I didn't just design a box rather than filling it with foam.  To be honest I hadn't thought of it :-) 

Doing a quick sanity check, a solid box of the same size (with 25% infill for strength) would cost nearly twice as much in filament, take 1.5 times longer to print and I'd have to attach the 6 inch sections together with dowel or something.  It would probably be easier to make and put together but the foam I have ordered is less than half the price difference - not to mention I'd only get 2 feet of rail per roll of filament!

Nice to know I am not missing an obvious way of doing this - I could also have done it with 3" square lengths of wood with a 5" piece on to overlap the table.  Then I'd still have to print panels and glue them on for the attachments to connect to....

After a fair amount of experimentation and trying various things out - double and triple checking measurements I have managed to put together two pieces of the rail system.

A corner piece and a middle rail.

4 corners and 4 rails will combine to edge my normal 4' x 4' table and be useful for boardgaming or small wargames.

The next step once that is complete is to add another rail section which will clip in and extend it to a rail that surrounds a set of 4' x 4' boards (2 x 4' x 2' 9mm MDF) - the last picture above shows what the rail will look around a board.

After that, I'll add 2 x 2' sections to extend it to a 6' x 4' table then maybe two more to extend to 8'x 4'

probably 80 hours of more printing to finish the the 6'x 4' lot!  I complete the printing for another straight section today.

The attachment shown is a turn counter for 1-15 turns for One Hour Wargames, looking at card holders, dice trays and token trays.  Not so sure about drinks holders - nice idea but there is plenty of space to put drinks elsewhere,

Been enjoying the experimenting and problem solving.

The black covers cover the attachment points when they are not being used.