Well Christmas brought me several clix games. But all my existing stuff is built in 1" and a lot of the fantasy sets I own don't come with any 1.5" stuff anyway. So I came up with a temperary solution using what I've got. I just building the walls right onto the the maps that came with the clix games.

Right now I'm working on mage knight. I decided to use gothic works. Now I did need to kitbash some new wall lengths to work with the 1.5" squares.

These are 1.5", 4.5", and 7.5".

Now to help the maps lay flat I put them into a poster picture frame. Unfortunately the frame uses thin plastic rather than glass and its only clipped on 2 sides. So it doesn't hold the map completely flat. But a it works well enough that the figures don't slide.




http://wormholegamer.com/photos/thumbna ... ?album=121

As you can see the plastic sheet poses some problems for photos.

I got this far before running out of my new walls. I've got to print of another couple dozen to finish it. I am still using that poster tack gum to hold the walls in place. It works pretty well.

Looking good. Keep the pics coming.

That would be great. I'm looking for a better frame, preferably one with glass so it would press the map totally flat. But those sound like they might work as well. The only problem is that I don't want to spend much money on it. I was fortunate that this frame was one of the thing the last tenet left in the basement of my house when I moved in. I kind of expect I'll have to make do with it until garage sales this summer.

Ah, here we go! has them for a reasonable price.

This is a hard frame, not something that can be folded or rolled? So it will be shipped in a huge box 29"x43"? I don't think shipping will be very cheap. I'd bet it runs near as much as the item.

I think I'll check some of the sports collectible stores near me before I order it online.

Yeah, being rigid, shipping would be hell, I'm sure. Hopefully, someon locally could get it for you. Would also check with frame shops as poster frames are actually fairly inexpensive. $30 or so for a 2'x3'. Not sure how big those maps are, though. I know the HeroClix ones tend to be REALLY big.

My current frame is 2'x3' and all the maps I've tried from horrorclix, halo clix, D&D, and mageknight have fit. I haven't checked the mechwarrior map yet though.

$30 is more than I want to spend. For that much I'll just buy some plexiglass and mount it on plywood. Like I said, I expect I'll just make do until the garage sales start again. I bet I find a framed poster at one.

Gee wilikers Batman! That is one massive card sleeve!

I personally would probably hold out for garage sales and pick up a single sheet of glass (often found as the top to a coffee table) and lay that over the top.

Be forewarned that the thicker you go, the more perspective issues you have. This matters little for photos, but can be a pain in game.

More solutions here:
1) Wal-Mart
a) poster frames cheap back around luggage and furniture. They had something like those over-sized card holders at one time.
b) poster frame holders - big plastic clips you slide on and then hang posters from the wall with? Those are in dispensers by the display racks of Hanna Montana, bikini babes and tha latest movie posters. FASA Corp used to have short ones in every BattleTech, CityTech and BattleForce box set back in the old Weismann, Babcock and Lewis days.
Back when too many of the folks here were in napkins or before.

2) Best Solution - dry mounting.
This is where a frame shoppe takes your maps and permanently mounts them on foam core.
Granted, that limits you to only once side for all time, but I love it.
Horror above all horror, I do that to my cinema movie posters too.
You know, the real ones from the studio that a cinema hangs; not the cheap public knock-offs one buys at Wal-Mart or whereever.
I had one movie poster collector nearly faint in dismay when he found out I do that to my movie posters.
Makes them much easier to hang on the wall, the ceiling, whatever space you are jazzing up with the posters of cool classic movies!
Frames just get in the way and detract from the art!!
Anyway, dry mounting works great with odd sized gaming maps without the glare of plastic.
Do not have them add "Poster Guard" to the front; you will have the glare back if you do.
Later, buy a presentation case to store and to carry your maps to away from home gaming venues.
In the meantime, ask the frame shoppe to save you any large art frame boxes they get in; cheap way to carry mounted maps.
DO NOT store them in there though - cardboard is NOT acid-free and will leach chemicals onto your maps and discolor them.

Well I'm still using that original frame. But after making several dozen more walls I have finished the build. With luck I will even get to game on it tonight. Maye I'll even remember to take pics while playing.



http://wormholegamer.com/photos/albums/ ... G_0676.jpg

Anyone got any advice on how to take pics without the glare off the plastic?

That looks very nice! How well do the walls stay down? I've been thinking of doing something similar by putting the master tiles on magnets and the walls on flex-steel.

To avoid the glare, the best thing is to indirectly light it and not use a flash. Of course, thats usually easier said than done.

That looks great, LD. I don't think the glare is too bad, but I'll be interested to see methods of reducing it.

Luckyjoe

I finally got around to playing on this board. Ironically I finally got to test it the day before my case of new figures arrived.



Some others here:
http://wormholegamer.com/photos/thumbna ... ?album=121

Ran into some problems with the pics. Obviously I'm not playing in my photo booth, so the lighting wasn't great. Although ironically no glare issue with the photo frame. And I had to discard a lot of the pics as during the game because the strap slid in front of the lens, you can see it starting to in this one as well. And the camera was set to a lower resolution from taking ebay pics so its hard to make out any of the figures.

Overall, the board held up well though. a few of the walls are out of position but thats because they are too close to fit the figures in some spots. Having 1 square wide halls is counter indicated. And this particular one has many 1 wide twisting corridors. So walls where pushed out of the way to fit the chests and figures. But after being played on for a couple games and being left up for weeks there are just a few to reposition.

After another game I think I'll pull it apart and do another map. I don't think any of the others maps are so crowded.