[GZG] Hex starmap

Hi,

Suggestions:

1. If you have a sheet of bristol board or large sheet of cardboard, create
your hex template out of a smaller sheet, use a marker to draw it onto the
larger one. Then, very carefully punch holes along the marked lines. In this
instance, I'd suggest using something like a leather punch. In fact, nothing
precludes using some old vinyl or something (as long as it is smooth and can
be drawn on) for your larger template.

The point for the larger template is to 1) give you a lot of coverage vs.
overspray and 2) let you do a larger area at once, thus leading to fewer
misalignment
problems - if you try
to manually align forty or fifty hexes by hand versus a couple of template
alignments, which do you think would be more problematic?

Of course, if you have a sheet of thin MDF or the like, and a drill, you could
draw your hexes on the MDF, drill instead of punch (this also works with a
dremel and a sheet of styrene or the like) and thus you have your template.
Then use it and spray away.

2. Given the choice, use black felt. It takes paint reasonably well. It also
tends to sit flatter and stay better than thinner fabric. Given the choice,
look for a dedicated fabric paint. I used to use some (brush application as I
used to paint images on jackets for people, like the Aussie Flag or old cars
or whatever) from a company called Dylon or Dylan. They dried and were
washable, which is handy if you are actually using a fabric rather other than
felt. Even if you aren't using felt, try to avoid diaphanous(sp?) fabrics.

3. You can buy iron-on hex templates from someone. Someone here must
know who.... (or has
good google-fu). These might be the easier answer and are designed to be
applied to fabric.

4. If you are spraying, don't get anxious. Let the paint dry and consider
applying multiple coats and letting each dry before moving your template. You
want a visible grid or what's the point?

For starmats, I was just at a nearby fabric store. I saw 72" wide fabric, like
black felt, with glitter on it. The glitter reminded me of the bases of many
SF ships (the hex plastic
ones with built in glitter - silent death maybe?). It was $15.00 Cdn per
meter. So, to do an 8' table, you're looking at 45.00 Cdn. But a geohex (or
MKP or whoever is doing it now) is about 45.00 US for 4x6. So you'd need about
90.00 US to get the same effect. Definitely cheaper. I'd like to know how they
got dispersed glitter to adhere to the backing fabric without using an
adhesive that stuck too much of it on.... I'd like to make a similar mat using
black felt as a base and using an even less dense glitter... but something
tells me my spray adhesive from the hobby store would end up leaving the
entire mat sticky. I wish I knew how they managed that fabric preparation....

Tom B