Personally i've replaced foamcore which is difficult to me to find (cause i live in a lonely mountain village) with thick (3 mm) hard paper.
This is very hard and do its work very well but have a big problem:

when you glue the printed texture over it, it tends to fold in the direction of the glued surface creating a curve surface that don't match when you place it upon other structure (I refer for an example to a two floor building like my inn... do you know some trick to resolve this?
I put it in form with books for a night or two but with little improvement...
but... definitely I belevie the foamcore does the same...

thanks for answers

Bye guys!

I found that foam core is very "warp resistant" . I've only recently started using it, but it's worked great so far.

The drawback to foam core is price (or -in your case- availability). You could try cardboard (just cut up old boxes). It works fairly well. Not as well as foam core perhaps, but it's generally easy to get a hold of cheap or even free!

The oldest trick I know of is to just glue a piece of paper to the other side at the same time, that way theirs equal water amounts on both sides, leading to counter warping, keeping the piece flat.

Gluing a sheet on the opposite side has worked for me. I also suggest pressing it under some heavy books while it dries completely too.

-The Floyd

Almost no consumer inkjet printer will handle mattboard. The usual limit, is 110# card stock, for what they will print on: they all bend the paper, as it passes through the printer.

What they refer to, is mounting the printed card stock to the mattboard. Just use a cheap pack of "school paint brushes", from Wal-Mart, for US$0.89 for 10, to spread the glue evenly, over the surface of the card stock.

For reinforcing bulidings/walls, you'd have to cut pieces of mattboard, to size, then glue them to the wall sections. Personally, I would only use it for the base of the structure; I find that the 110# card stock is strong enough for quite a few lead/metal/plastic mini's, without reinforcement -- your mileage may vary... Using mattboard throughout the structure would increase construction time, immensely. Still, it is up to you to decide what your gaming needs are. Best of luck with your endeavors! Cheers!

WHAT IS MATBOARD???? I'M IN ITALY SO I CANNOT UNDERSTAND ))))

Well, if Santa is nice to me this year, I'll be getting one of these:


And then I'll be able to get going on my builds. I've been going back and forth on what I actually want to use. I have DW:GR and CD. I like the relaxed feel of CD, especially if we start playing in an Iron Kingdoms campaign and using thos Privateer Press minis. On the other hand, the 1.5" format is a dying breed, it seems and 99% of what is out for WW is 1" (which I have most of, or will have) I'm sure I'll have some more questions in the not too distant future...

Yeah, those are very handy widgets - I had one of the earlier models around *cough* thirty years ago, and the current model is much nicer.

The Auld Grump

Thanks for the reply SD,

I beginning to think the bowing is going to be a common theme. I have 2 bevel cutters and after making several test runs to get a feel of how they work, of both of them did it. I guess I'll try a few more times and see if I can get things a little straighter. Hopefully, I'll have some pics up soon.

I checked out the pics in your other thread, Very nice work inded. Is your new straightedge the black one in the right of the picuture? If so, I may have to pick up one like that as well. I've been using one of the safety rulers with the recessed area. It may be awhile before I get anything posted, I'm recovering from surgery on both of my elbows. Is there any particular hint or tricks you use, specifically how do you go about lining the cuts up so that everything matches. Keep the awesome work coming and maybe one of these days I'll have some work for you to check out.