Hey all. I'm thinking about marking a black cloth with 1 1/2 inch hexes
(the edges made up of dots) for a giant space hexmap. I was wondering if
anybody had any tips for me. The best idea I have so far is to print the hexes
on a sheet of paper (done) and use a hole punch to punch holes where I want
the dots, then use it as a template on the cloth with some kind of white or
grey fabric marker. It seems like it would be a long and tedious task, though,
and not to mention prone to errors (templates not fitting together right,
resulting in warped hexes. Hexes not in straight lines across the cloth, etc).
Any tips? Experiences? Words of caution / ridicule?
Thanks!
Fred Schmidt schrieb:
> Hey all. I'm thinking about marking a black cloth with 1 1/2 inch
> if anybody had any tips for me. The best idea I have so far is to
> and tedious task, though, and not to mention prone to errors
Some thoughts:
Use the punched paper as a template for spraypainting the hexes. Do not forget
to cover the part of the cloth that is not under the punched paper.
Align the paper by overlapping a line of punched hexes with a line of hexes
already painted. This should minimize errors.
Greetings Karl Heinz
> On Sunday 18 September 2005 07:08, Fred Schmidt wrote:
Buy one?
Someone was selling these at Colours the other week for about £30. Our local
game shop has quite a few in stock as well, though they're not black (blue and
fawn I think).
Here's one company (in the US) that sells them:
http://www.mondayknight.com/MKP-Mats-BasicHex.htm
I'm on an extremely tight budget. Even all of my ships are scratch built. So,
I'm stuck with having to make one myself. Thanks for the link, though!
Fred
[quoted original message omitted]
> On Sat, Sep 17, 2005 at 11:08:48PM -0700, Fred Schmidt wrote:
> together right, resulting in warped hexes. Hexes not in straight lines
> across the cloth, etc).
Beyond what's already been said:
Make sure the cloth has been washed a few times, as you'll often get
differential shrinkage.
I think I might be inclined just to use a ruler. Each row of marks is 1:2
(i.e. one length of (hexside) mark to two lengths blank); you'd start with one
such row, then build the second one at sixty degrees to that and use it as a
positioning guide for the parallel rows...
(I should point out that I haven't done this.)
R
> On Sunday 18 September 2005 09:48, Fred Schmidt wrote:
In that case I'd suggest playing games which don't require hexes! :-)
Last time I did a DIY hex map, I designed one in a vector graphics program,
and printed out onto lots of sheets of A3 paper, which I then
taped together. It was about A(-1) in size.
You could print a grid out onto A4, and use that as a template, maybe using
pins in the vertices to fix the paper grid to the cloth. Then either use the
pin holes (if they can be seen), or turn the thing over and use the pins
themselves, as markers.
Another option is to make it as a quilt. My mum did one once, wrapping
individual bits of cloth around stiff hexagonal card, then sewing the
individual hexagons together. The card is then removed. That's probably not
the easiest way to do it however!
Litko Aerosystems (www.litkoaero.com) has hex spray templates. Here's
the 1.5" one ($25): http://tinyurl.com/admg5
You could print out a hex pattern as you describe, but perhaps use it to
punch the pattern into a piece of plastic or cardboard for a more durable
spray template than paper.
Here's a free online hex graph paper generator (PDF output):
http://www.incompetech.com/beta/hexagonalGraphPaper/hex.html
> Hey all. I'm thinking about marking a black cloth with 1 1/2 inch
The fewer times you have to move the template, the better. Consider using a
large cardboard instead of paper.
Litko make a number of spray templates
<http://www.litkoaero.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=
LAI&Category_Code=GGT>
although these are more expensive than a single ready made cloth!
How about making a sort of fancy 'potato print'? Make a suitably sized
hex out of card / wood / mdf / whatever and put narrow strips of foam
(1/4") around the edge. Dip this in white paint, stamp on cloth and
repeat ad infinitum. If you made up a stamp with several hexes on then the
process could be speeded up a lot.
Finally, on the Brigade site we have a description
(<http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Frames/Galleries/VAN-3.html> - bottom
of page) of an Aeronef board made by sticking lots of bits of card down to
delineate the hexes. Fiddly, but looks good.
Tony
> Fred Schmidt wrote:
> Hey all. I'm thinking about marking a black cloth with 1 1/2 inch
> is to print the hexes on a sheet of paper (done) and use a hole punch
> cloth with some kind of white or grey fabric marker. It seems like it
> would be a long and tedious task, though, and not to mention prone to
Hexes look cool, but IMHO they're way too painful to make by hand. If
finances don't permit a commercially printed battle-mat, I suggest
using a grid of offset rectangles. These still give you six "exits" from each
"square" but are much easier to produce.
This page http://fitz.jsr.com/roleplay/props/mapping.html shows
roughly what I'm raving about, but he uses offset squares which are a little
too wide. To get the hex effect, the rectangles should have a width 0.866 of
the length. For example it the length is 30mm, the width should be 26mm. For
the purposes of this discussion "length" is in the direction of the lines that
run continuously along the playing surface, while "width" is in the direction
of the lines broken by the offset pattern.
Back in my starving student days I used this technique to make mats for naval
and space wargaming:
1. I bought roll-ends of vinyl flooring from a local warehouse
(cheap, often free), and painted them navy-ish blue.
2. I marked the offset grid in dressmaker's chalk, or soft pencil.
3. I made a tool like an oversized version of a dressmaker's tracing wheel by
mounting a large Meccano chainwheel on a wooden handle. I rolled the edge of
the wheel across a sponge soaked in a contrasting paint, and then rolled it
along the guide lines to produce rows of paint dots. Work carefully and let
each section dry before doing the next to avoid smudging.
4. Once the paint had dried thoroughly, I wiped off the chalk/pencil
lines.
The same technique can be used on felt mats too, but I could get vinyl
cheaper. The best paint to use varies with the surface. As I recall, I used
chlorinated rubber paint my Dad had left over from painting the house.
On 9/18/05, gzg-l-request@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
> <gzg-l-request@lists.csua.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> Litko Aerosystems (www.litkoaero.com) has hex spray templates. Here's
Has anyone used these? Do you run a risk of the template clogging? What type
of paint is best for adhering to cloth?
_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lWe have one - we
were going to make our own cloths for sale. Clogging wasn't a problem, the
holes were large enough, but the template itself was too small for mass
production. You have to be quite careful in keeping the template aligned and
it has to be masked around the edges as
well to guard against overspray. We planned to use a special fabric paint
because we wanted the cloths to be washable, although tests were done with
ordinary spray paint.
> Allan Goodall wrote:
> On 9/18/05, gzg-l-request@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
Tony,
Could you have used the smaller template from Litko to produce a larger one?
(ie using a big sheet of styrene or lexan or something)? If you got a sheet
that was 4x4 or 4x6 in 'active area', then you'd only need two passes to make
a full hexmat.
The part that boggles me, and you may have looked into this, is that I've been
looking at
airbrush fabric paints. All seem to imply heat-setting at about 140 C.
The problem is they want you to heat set evenly all at once. How do you heat
set an 8x4 or 8x6 mat with a household iron? (Answer: Good luck!)
So, are there any fabric paints that an airbrush can handle that don't require
heat setting? I'm curious how the guys at geohex or MKP or any of these spots
managed this
challenge? Industrial drying/heating room?
Tomb