Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Tablescapes Project (pt. 1) Product & Plan


A year or so ago I backed Mister Justin's Tablescapes kickstarter campaign. Mr. McCoy definitely delivered an excellent product. If you're looking for a product review, there are plenty already out there to choose from. The tiles are clean, details are crisp, and the interlocking nature makes them a perfect solution for a portable, modular tabletop.

But I can't do anything stock, every project is an opportunity for conversion! Cue the music...

I backed the kickstarter for two 16 tile sets, in 'Rolling Fields' and 'Forgotten Temple' flavors. Each box is enough to fully cover a 4' x 4' table, with tiles interlocking with the included plastic clips. However, I figured they could stretch further. Rolling fields hit the shelf for another day, my focus is on the Forgotten Temple tile set.

The plan:

- Make six  2' x 2' base boards
- Chop up the Tablescapes tiles (stay with me)
- ...
- Mash the pieces back together with glue and sculpting putty
- Add rocks and talus for seasoning
- Seal, paint, and add water effects




The inspiration:

Quite literally, this entire project was spawned from this single image

Temples of Angkor Wat   (more pictures)
The stone work, weathering, swampy waters, lichen, all of it. Nature adapting and slowly retaking it's space.

I sketched out a few rough ideas:








I cut the six 2' x 2' base boards from 1/2" mdf:

1" wood squares and cubes were sourced online, for filler

Then came the fun part the planning and logistics!

Purple = Cut lines, All other color flags = tile groupings.

The goal was to maintain a solid tile border to each tile, to aid in lining the boards up with one another while hiding the seams. The interior of each tile would feature more flagstones, patches of dirt, overgrowth, and swampy, sunken areas. My goal was to stick close to the photos and concept art I'd fallen in love with, while maintaining a playable surface (read: as flat as possible, with large open spaces to place standalone terrain pieces).

I'll leave you with this, the beginning of the carnage:


This is just the tip of the iceberg. Lots more to come!

Until next time~

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