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Post by Servo on Jan 3, 2012 18:50:41 GMT -5
I was at Menards and I saw a possible table option from our friends at Plano: www.planomolding.com/2010/07/heavy-duty-shelving/These shelves are 2' x 3', which means the 4 shelves can make a 4' x 6' rectangle. I picked up the box, and it is much lighter than the 3 pieces of MDF board I used. PLUS, they have connectors on the short sides. This means you can have 2 connected pieces 2' x 6'. It would probably be easy to find a way to connect the long sides. I would still say this should be used with the rubberized shelf liners I have and GW Battlemat, and they could probably fit in the box for very easy transport. It was on sale for $44. So here is the breakdown: Pros (compared to my MDF/Battlemat/shelf liner assembly)- Lighter
- Easier to carry
- Less to carry (box could also store Battlemat and liners)
Cons (compared to my MDF/Battlemat/shelf liner assembly)- More expensive (3 MDF boards were $24)
- Harder to store
- Possibly not as sturdy (depending on how long sides are connected)
Opinions?
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Post by JohnnyDangerous on Jan 4, 2012 5:27:36 GMT -5
I like that "Dark Gray" is on the list of highlighted features.... Its like the boss said," Good work Johnson, but I'd like 10 bullet points." Johnson replies,"but I only have eight." To which the boss(Angry Pants McDDirty Finger) replies ,"Well you didn't even mention the color. There, you only need to think of one more!" Johnson received his pinkslip at the end of the day for not figuring out another bullet point. Then it was posted on the web as is. It looks pretty darn reasonable... however with only one leg tall(unless they are connectable, which was not the case with the similar one I had) it will be a bit short. I think a simple bolt and hand twist-able nut(insert joke here) would hold them together, be cheap and quick to set-up and take down. If you dont want to drill a hole(insert second joke), maybe a couple of quick clamps, like the ones for wood working(insert third joke) www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202688772/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 would be perfect, though more expensive. Though this type of clamp might work... except its not gun like... www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100120790/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053That it can be so compact is a big plus for transporting and storage... Now if some cup holders could be added... It would really start being interesting... All in all, I think its worth the 20 bucks extra. for the ease of use and small storage footprint. Now it will never be as elegant or cool as a solidly and purposeful built wooden table... but it will sure get the job done... And it will be sooo easy if playing somewhere other than home... I think the 20 dollar difference also goes into the lack of need for modification... Put it together, throw on the green carpet of battle, and boom! its ready. Good find Servo!
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Post by Sil Odan on Jan 4, 2012 10:17:55 GMT -5
Nice find! It would definitely be easy to connect the long sides by drilling holes and using some bolts, washers and wing nuts. I might be over thinking it but I wonder if the ventilation in the shelves might cause issues with some of the older, heavier metal models. Then again, this should only affect a few of our models. Oh, and Mephiston's entire circa 1995 army. ;D
Would you still use the folding table or would you try to find another means of supporting the table top?
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Post by Sil Odan on Jan 4, 2012 10:36:47 GMT -5
BTW, for those who haven't seen it yet, here are a couple of pics for the winter board I whipped up. I plan on making lots o' terrain for it...someday. ![](http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-NQbGx84P66I/TwRw5yQKHjI/AAAAAAAAAnM/1X-mwvcbIm4/s576/New%252520Image.JPG) ![](http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FgkIvzJpqtc/TwRw6KRjPQI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/C2Hr4Y_fsvc/s576/New%252520Image4.JPG)
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Post by Servo on Jan 4, 2012 17:15:02 GMT -5
Tom - I agree, a solid permanent table (like Ellis's) is best, but most of us don't have the space to setup something like that. We are trying to figure out the best table in terms of portability, storabilty, ease in assembly, and cost.
The "legs" that come with these shelves are too short and probably flimsy without a 2nd set of shelves on the bottom for stability. To be usable one would have to connect a shelf at the bottom and go 3 shelves high. That would mean buying 3 sets.
No, my idea was to use the exact same assembly I already have but replacing the 3 MDF boards with these shelves: Battlemat on top of the shelves, shelf liners underneath to protect and stop skidding, then any tabletop (such as a 6 ft folding table).
Ellis - I had the same thought about the "ventilation". It seems to be the holes are a little larger than a standard base. Anything on a larger base will be fine, and I think the Battlemat would support even a metal model on a small base from sinking.
Clamps or bolts/nuts would keep the longsides together, but we still have to consider our parameters of cost and ease in assembly. Wingnuts and bolts might be most cost-effective. I was envisioning maybe a slot-and-tab contraption like what is already on the short sides, but I am not sure.
Also, a note on price: The assembly I am using includes 2 long velcro straps ($8 each) and an extra large carabiner ($5) for carrying the MDF boards. These would not be needed, so the shelves ($44) are almost the same price as the MDF assembly ($45). As long as anything done to secure the long sides is not too expensive, cost will no longer be a huge factor.
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Post by JohnnyDangerous on Jan 5, 2012 5:53:36 GMT -5
Servo: To be honest, I think I only was witness to your table in its stored form. So that probably explains my leg question. Also I get the point that this is an effort to figure out the best table for cost, portability, storage, etc... I know first hand as Dora made a table that opens basically like a lunch box... and even though its on wheels... it is a pain due to its enourmous size......
Wazzdakka: Winter wonderland of DOOM!!! How about for a terrain idea, the ruins of a gingerbread house with a bunch of dead elves partially buried in snow out front... Its great because they will also count as difficult terrain!!! Bet Michael's has all sorts of holiday crap marked down which can just get burned or smashed to fit in the theme of the 40k realm! Ill look into it.
As far as the holes... this might sound really ghetto... but what about a layer of duct tape? I mean its really cheap... yes it will flex a bit over the holes, but with the battle mat down, I imagine it wont be too much of an issue.
My second idea, as large planar surface materials are just expensive, is chicken wire, cut into squares. Online I can only find big rolls, but maybe in store they will cut to size. 75 square feet is .26cents per square foot(or 19.77 for a 3'x25' roll) As we only need 24, it would only cost 6.32USD. Now each piece could be cut to size and nailed/glued into position, and since it is metal, it will provide a more rigid surface than any thinner medium and at a fraction of the cost. Plus it will look really hardcore.
The main problem is an additional roll of foam(which would probably do the trick) is they seem to start at 40$... Sheets of thin cabinet board sections start at 19.97 for a 36"x19" section...
Granted I could not find the cheap type commonly used by GW for bases of terrain, and I think if I knew what this is called it would be cheaper... but not cheaper than chicken wire... And plexiglass is way to expensive, but would look cool too...Though the local plexiglass place has a bin of "scraps" drastically marked down... it would then require making a patchwork of these... which would again create an uneven playing surface....
Lastly there are the epoxies... My thought is some kind of spray foam which would harden... you could just lay the boads upside down, spray the holes, let it set and boom goes the dynamite... a perfectly flat playing field... A water effect or other liquid epoxy would do the job as well... but they stink... even if you did it in your garage you would smell it inside.... and you would need to seal each hole to make sure it didn't leak out... And seriously really expensive...
Anyway, hope any of this was helpful...
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Post by Sil Odan on Jan 5, 2012 9:12:50 GMT -5
Johhny: I thought about something like that; I also thought about making some snowmen and giving them ork arms and legs and using them as Kommandos, but I wasn't sure if everybody would go for something like that. But it would be fun.
Servo: Nuts and bolts shouldn't be too pricey. Maybe $5-$7 or so depending on what you get. And there is one important thing to keep in mind while you are considering the parameters of cost (this parody has been brought to you courtesy of Mastercard):
- Shelf to make table: $44
- Nuts and Bolts to hold it together: $5
- Not having to deal with annoying people talking to you and touching your models at the bunker: Priceless.
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Post by JohnnyDangerous on Jan 6, 2012 4:26:19 GMT -5
Wazzdakka: Snowmorks would be too funny!!! I would totally play them against you!!! You could use them as meganobz too since all that snow is really just painted metal for show...(and then big snowmen for Killa Kans and Deff Dreads of course) The Deff Killy Snowmorks of The Northern planets. They follow Mr. Kringle using their wickedly powerful psycher "Grotdulph" who in a flash of red light uses his modified "ere' we go" to navigate the webway, and take all the presents from good space marines and eldar the universe wide!
I concur on the nutz and boltz... (well wazzdakka mentioned it so I have to concur Orkily) Cheap, simple, effective for the win!
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Post by Sil Odan on May 4, 2012 16:04:07 GMT -5
After some thinking, pondering and light consideration, I have decided to make additional winter terrain for the snow board! I want to do something I have yet to see; I've seen Eldar snow terrain, Imperial snow terrain, Space Wolves (of course) snow terrain, Tau snow terrain...but everytime you see ork buildings or ruins, it's in a desert. It's time to make the Sn'Orks Winter Wonderland of Doom. I already have some ideas, but I thought I would ask my valued peers if there was anything they'd like to see.
Suggestions?
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Post by Servo on May 5, 2012 12:21:23 GMT -5
I Like it! First, to make a proper "sn'ork" village, you have to glue straws on the heads of all your Orks. Then, just copy all your plots from Smurfs episodes. After that, you will need some unique Ork stuff in addition to standard trees and snow drifts: - Orky versions of longhouses (with turf roofs) and huts, made to look very Viking-like
- Standard Ork buildings, but covered in snow (easier, but where did they get the materials?)
- Orky igloos
- A snow man in the image of Gork (or Mork)
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Post by JohnnyDangerous on May 6, 2012 4:05:07 GMT -5
I have yet to put serious effort into it, but as I love this idea I put aside some time...
1: Candy canes with ork glyph heads on top... sort of like a waaagh banner but in the ground.... I know... maybe this idea was harkening from the xmas village talk...
2: Snow men are good, but I say orks would make snow rockets,snow tanks, and maybe snow planes tied to bent over trees... like maybe they were trying to launch them, of course some crashed examples of progress...(It might be as easy as buying a tank toy at a garage sale and spraying it with fake snow)
3: Which brings me to another idea... There is no way there will not be snow forts... maybe some snowballs which(for some reason) have wicks in the top of them.... a snow catapult to launch them at each other... and snow Gretchin... maybe a line of them to hide behind while they have a snow ball fight.... sort of like the stone soldiers found in China...
4: A pen for Sleigh Squigs... maybe even a Squig sleigh...
5: A rusty, haphazard fuel depot.... I mean they need to stay warm...
6: A rack of animal pelts... also some IG/Space Wolve clothing/power armor hanging on it...
7: A jail with a hole in the back of the wooden structure with a pair of man-sized foot prints leading away from it...
8: Snow patches with tread trakks from a battlewagon...
9: Ork names peed into snow drifts...
10: Large burned parts of forest... I would think they would set alot of forest on fire to stay warm...
11: A snow pile made by a snow plow with Gretchin crawling out of it... whoops...
12: A weirdboys alter to the sun godz to make it warmer... As I am sure that global climatization is lost on them...
13: Big walls made out of snow and ice surrounding battlement emplacements... Even weapons and such scattered about in them... perpetually preparing for war as they are...
14: If you can get the fake water medium, how about frozen captives... Just place said captive model in the medium, let it dry as a cubeish block, paint base and some some snow on top... could be they fell through ice, could be they were put in it... Its like the poor mans carbonite...
15: A frozen lake(dangerous terrain anyone)
16: Some sort of IG science station.(the beacon from which probably called the horde to the planet in the first place)
17: Slain people, mostly covered in snow...
18: Bones... big ones... Do they still sell those dinosaur bone models... a little paint and some flocking... boom.
19: A large asteroid.... I mean after all, it is most likely the transit for the now land holders...
20: A gutted tan-tan with some snow on it...
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Post by Sil Odan on May 7, 2012 8:54:48 GMT -5
Wow, lots of great ideas! I like the idea of the longhouses; instead of making the typical scrap-built buildings, I wanted to go back to the old adobe-type buildings from back in the day. And the Gork/Mork snowman idea...awesome! Lot's of great ideas from Johnny as well, though it sounds like he thinks I'm making an entire diorama for the Christmas tree. Which might not be a bad idea...but I will definitley use the sleigh squig idea (though knowing orks, will be "slay squigs") and rack of animal pelts and armor (genius!). I also like the idea of grots stuck in a snow pile. Hmmmm...I have work ahead of me!
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Post by JohnnyDangerous on May 8, 2012 5:27:06 GMT -5
It was already a good idea... especially when the cost(compared to other table designs of equal detail) is so low... I am actually surprised there are not more... Which sort of makes it even more awesome for being unique... With the addition of some Kustom structures... It will be even cooler! Cant wait to play on it!
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Post by Sil Odan on May 8, 2012 12:06:41 GMT -5
It has begun! My first piece is a W.I.P. intended to be a hill with a watch tower on it. The first two pics show the initial start with pink foam and pine bark nuggets (these will be painted as rocks). The third and fourth show the hill covered in lightweight spackle. Once hardened, this will be sanded smooth, after which I'll add sand and gravel (uh, kitty litter, actually...non-scented) and paint. Many thanks to Tabletop Terraformers for the awesome DIY tutorial on their site www.3t-studios.com/![](http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ymh7wyvnaxY/T6lQJ3ybKeI/AAAAAAAAAuA/LN743dm-Y9Y/s576/Pic%25201.jpg) ![](http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aU43zMgeMLU/T6lQJwfm3EI/AAAAAAAAAuE/4Cq5_gXfGIk/s576/Pic%25202.jpg) ![](http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-FjswpEsT6Ds/T6lQLrg2RpI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/9i0yPxBI7Wg/s576/Pic%25203.jpg)
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Post by Servo on May 9, 2013 23:53:58 GMT -5
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