Modular Vanguard/Ambush board

Hobby talk / workshop
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Already a few years ago, around the end of 2019, I started to work on a modular board for Vanguard. The idea was that the board would be composed from nine 12" squares which would be easy to transport (take in a bag to our local gaming store) and connect to form a 36" x 36" board. At that time I just started and then for many different reasons the project was sidelined. That’s my problem in general, I often get enthusiastic at the beginning of any project but find it difficult to finish it. :slightly_frowning_face:

Anyway, as the time passed I was working on it time by time and finally it is getting into a shape when one can already play on it. The project got more impetus with the appearance of the Ambush KoW format which we started to play in our group recently and you know, the board size is exactly the same as for Vanguard. :slightly_smiling_face: I hope to find some time and willpower to finish it over the summer. For a starter, I put here the pictures I took already in 2019 when it all started and more will follow to show how it looks now.

The 12" squares are cut from 5mm thick white PVC sheets used mostly for advertisement boards which are quite light and sufficiently sturdy. At the top of the boards I clue a grass mat produced by NOCH:

VGboard_02
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On the bottom of each basic board I glue 3d printed pieces from the free openlock template files:

VGboard_01
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This makes the boards more sturdy and allows them to connect easily among themselves thanks to the openlock connectors
VGboard_03
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The final picture shows two already connected boards, one with the grass mat cover, the other with a part of a country road created from dental plaster stone pieces made using Hirstarts forms. I used the Large Cobblestone mold #211, sanded the road blocks to make them thinner and broke them to smaller parts:

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So, this was all I had at the end of 2019, will show you the current state of the project next … :smiley:

7 Likes
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that’s very cool

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NOCH Grassmat. An absolute Classic.

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Here come two fresh pictures.

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The first one shows two road sections, I guess you recognize the one on the right from the last picture in my opening post. It goes to a crop field, an in-build piece of difficult terrain. Both road sections still need some work in terms of highlighting and washing, improving the colors of the stones to look more realistic. When this is done I intend to add some foliage around the road to smooth the transition to the greens.

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The second picture shows the complete board. On the three right sections I should still add a narrow strip of the grass mat. The size of the NOCH mat is 60x120cm, so it is about 5mm short of making two 12" wide strips. In the end I also intend to color slightly the green mat at some places, maybe place a few pieces of a different foliage at some spots, just to break the uniformity of the greens. It definitely needs some more work but I am already happy as it is turning out. In a future, I may add 3 more 12x12" sections/squares (2 of them with a road) to get more variety and a possibility to play on a 3x4’ board.

2 Likes