Spring Clean Challenge: If I build it - will they come

Well, perhaps “problem” is overdoing it. But where I am living (North Macedonia) there are no such things as wargame or hobby shops, or for that matter decent DIY outlets, so everything is either home-made or a comprmise.  In this case, obtaining MDF is almost impossible, so the problem I had was thinking what to make the baseboard from.

In the end I decided to cut down a large sheet of “chip board” type panneling that I had intended to use for shelving.  I think this will make the board heavier than ideal, but it serves a purpose.

The second issue was what to use as the building material for hills etc. In the UK I think I’d go straighht to the cladding material – usually blue or pink – which is a condensed kind of polystyrene. Here there is plenty of the white stuff commonly used in packaging, but I did manage to find something that approximates the denser cladding.

Wood strips are more easy to find but getting one of the right thikness to match the cladding took longer than planned!  But in the end I managed to get something to do the job. Wood glue, srews etc. are common place, fortunately. So, here’s where we are with raw materials.

Construction will be the usual method which can be found all over wargame websites online/video etc.  Batons put on each side of the wood base to make a secure framework– I will glue and screw these down; then cut and glue the cladding into the recess formed by the batons.  I’ll use wood glue and weigh down the cladding and allow to set overnight – maybe longer.

As for the final look of the table, the geophysical layout etc. that’s still a bit up in the air, but I’ll certainly not have water as a permanent feature on the table.  I’ll have to think through what I do about that a bit more.

Next update should see some progress on the construction.