First, it was a nice weekend. Should of went out into the woods kind of weekend but stayed in town instead. Had a date night with the Wife and saw Thor: Dark World and loved it. Then we went and got some late night doughnuts!! When the kid is away the parents will play.
Saturday I finished up some other projects - took stock of my painting materials, cleaned up a bit, all that kind of stuff... just an admin day at my mini painting station.
Sunday was making my war game mat day. I've debated what I want, need, and am willing to pay for. I'm in love with the idea of a Zuzzy mat:
link to Zuzzy Miniatures
... but the actual process of getting one is both tedious and infuriating looking. I'm not going to pay $45 shipping for a $40 item, then wait 7-10 weeks with no updates, then finish the paint job myself. Ultimately I went with buying some felt and spray painting it.
Edit to Add: I really wish Zuzzy could figure out a distribution process. If I could just got to my FLGS and pick up a 4'x3' mat for $50 I'd have done that easy.
First I had to decide if I just went with some green acrylic felt. Nope, I wanted something that had more detail than solid green. I have a bunch of spray paint so I went on the nets to see if spray painting felt was an option. Not a ton of info other than "yeah, sure" and my own personal experience with spray paint. I did find a lot of tutorials on some really advanced work - like canvas and textures and flocking felt and rolling on latex paint and such. I just wanted to hang a chunk of felt and spray it with some spray paint to add some details. That's all.
My friendly local fabric store has craft felt in a golden brown that I could buy 2 yards of. This would net me a 6'x6' chunk of felt. My end goal was to have two 4'x3' sections. 4'x3' is "regulation" for Saga and I could put them together for a 4'x6' piece for other war games. I printed a 50% off coupon, drove out to the store with my wife for help as she knows where the stuff is, bought 2 yards at $4.99 a yard and paid $5 for the whole thing with that coupon. When I got home I cut two little squares off (2" or so) and sprayed them with my Krylon fusion and it held well.
Sunday was sunny, dry, and 52f. Not the best conditions for outdoor spray painting but better than rain and fog and wind and 41f. When I went through my stock the base color of green I wanted was a bit low so I went out and bought another can of Krylon Fusion dark green. Friendly local hardware store had it for $5. I have a full can of light green already.
I wanted some brown "roads", green areas to depict grass and such, and some light green highlights. Nothing special. I decided to do the whole felt piece and cut it in half afterwards so any roads matched up when I put it together to make a large field. As an aside, road or grass field has not different designation in Saga unless otherwise noted in a specific scenario.
Finished project:
I can go over details of the process more but it is pretty cut and dry. As a matter of fact, after it dried (about 2 hours) I cut it in half at the visible fold mark down the middle. They now both sit rolled up in a corner of my den awaiting play time and photo ops. Suffice to say, the spray paint made the felt pretty stiff and I would not fold these mats at all.
Edit to Add: Whole thing cost me $10, I already had some paint. Took about 2 hours of time.
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