Greetings, all. I just bought my first couple of TLX sets this past weekend (Titan and Titan Control), and had a few simple questions for the community. I've spent the last few evenings dilligently printing out sheets, making templates, cutting out foamcore tiles, etc., and the biggest question I have is, how long does this hobby typically take before you start getting something that you can use? I mean, I am a long-time miniature painter, terrain builder, and all the other "hobby" activities related to this hobby, but I don't remember ever working for so long on a project without it taking any type of real "form" yet?

How long did you guys work on your first projects before you stopped thinking "man, this is a LOT of work" and started thinking "Wow! This is really starting to take shape!"?

Just curious. Let me emphasize that I am in no way deterred by the apparent mountain of work required to get a 4X4 gaming board done. . .I just want to know what to expect!

Thanks and I look forward to exchanging ideas with all of you.

Hey VeronaKid, welcome to the forums!

Generally speaking, we encourage people starting out to build in "rooms", that is to say build a couple floor tiles, a few walls and some posts. That way you not only get an immediate feel of how things go together, you also avoid the monotony of the "assembly line" approach you described and begin to feel a sense of accomplishment right away.

Yeah I always like to do just a couple pages of any element then switch to another. Tiles are the real time killer. So I often only do one or 2. Walls just fly by in comparison. And Always make time to do some props every so often. It nice to have that stand alone item actually done and sitting there right away.


Also consider trying a swift scenics set. Those build a lot faster, no interiors on the building of those though.

Welcome to the forum and welcome to 3D heaven.

Yeah, I feel your pain. My first few sets sat on my hard drive for awhile before I got the time to get into it. Wanted to make a small dungeon for a game and I could not believe how long it took, and was not really impressed with my work. The half dozen rooms were not really done well in my opinion, but thanks to reading the forum I learned there are glues to use and glues not to use. But I think the biggest tip was to edge the stuff. Really makes a big difference.

Don't worry, after awhile you get more and more stuff and then you are off to the races. One hint if I may, get these boxes you will read about to gather and organize your sets. These make a big difference when you are putting them together. Inside walls, outside walls, 3" vs. 6" and everything else, separated so you can get to it quickly.

Thanks to all of you so far for your tips. I really appreciate it!

I am going to take a few of these suggestions to heart, and this weekend I plan on switching from tile making over to posts and walls, and I would also like to get maybe a prop or two along with some storage boxes all made. I think I can accomplish that in a few night's worth of basketball-listening and paper-cutting, right?

I was able to dig through my kids' art box and find a marker that is relatively close to the main color used on the Titan floors for edging, but I gotta say- that's not an easy color to match! Kind of a grey-green-ochre thing there. Definitely not one of the 8 colors you get in a standard Crayola set. . .

I am already planning out my first couple of rooms, primarily so that I can get some cool photographs of old miniatures in a sci-fi setting. Very glad to have found you guys, WorldWorks!

welcome aboard! I hope you got plenty of exacto blades.

Pen color for edging. Check out your local office supply store. Sharpies are like Skittles and come in a rainbow of colors. Barring that, check out your local art store for high end graphical design pens. You may even be able to find colors that aren't in the rainbow in that selection of pens.

as the other guys said, start with a room....and work out from there. Filling an entire 4'x4' board is daunting when you look at that as the project. If you break it up into smaller projects it will make it easy. Build a 6x6 building, single floor, with a roof. Build, 3 6x6 square 'streets' to go with it. that's one square of 16....build another building...maybe 6x12...maybe a second level....add two more street squares....

Remember, you can use your buildings on a bare table without the whole board. I always liked sparse terrain when I was playing wargames. Made it MORE tactical. That way you can still play and you don't feel like you have to get this gigundous project done before you can play