Stadium Renovation Pt. III

Welcome to the final installment of my DIY whiteboard Bloodbowl pitch tutorial.

Do you think there are enough searchable keywords in there? Here are a few more: it's also custom, and scratchbuilt, and cheap.

But here's the best part, and the one thing that sets my board apart from any that I've seen: this sucker hangs.

So here's what I did to finish off the board. I went to the hardware store and got some rubber feet, the kind you might put on some furniture to keep it from scratching the floor. Find the ones with the shortest screws, since they'll be going straight through the whiteboard frame and you don't want them to come out the other side.

These feet have a couple of nice benefits:

• First, they prevent the board from scratching the table - almost as if they were designed to do so...
• Second, they fasten from one side of the frame, through the whiteboard layer, and into the other side of the frame, greatly increasing the soldity of the whole.
• Third, they give you a convenient place to attach some picture hanging wire, which, if you like to sculpt, you probably have around.

I attached the bottom two feet first, mostly to make sure it would work properly. If you're smart, you'll drill some pilot holes...I didn't, and fortunately nothing went wrong.

Then, before drilling the top two feet on, I twisted the ends of the picture wire into loops that I then set the screw through, resulting in a solid mount for hanging.

Does this look crooked to you?

All that was left was to bang a picture hook into the nearest wall stud, then step back and admire. Now your pitch can hang on the wall like the piece of art that it (almost, kind of) is.

I hope you've enjoyed this long-awaited tutorial. (Long-awaited by me...I suffer no delusions as to how many readers have actually been holding their breath for this.) Here are the links to part I and part II.

Let me know what you think. I'm happy to answer any and all questions about the resources, logistics, and procedures around this project.

Just mount your question or comment into the box below while being, of course, exceptionally careful not to scratch the floor beneath...

Stadium Renovation Pt. I: How to Make a Customized DIY Blood Bowl Pitch

My oh my, has this post been a long time in coming. Way back in 2012, when I first started this blog, one of my very first posts was about how I wanted to make a custom Blood Bowl pitch our of foam board.

A lot has changed in that time. For one thing, I picked up a real Blood Bowl pitch on the cheap. That meant that I didn't need a cheapo DIY solution anymore - if I was to make a custom pitch, I had better make it fancy.

For another thing, I happened to inherit a 2' by 3' whiteboard.

So over the next couple of posts I'm going to show you how I made the first thing out of the second thing. Note, however, that this technique can be used to great effect for skirmish boards as well, as Orlygg so aptly demonstrated here. I do, however, take it one step further, as you will see.

So, materials:

1. A whiteboard or bulletin board. Best if you inherit it, but they can be had for around $30 at an office supply store.
2. Foam Core. I chose this over Orlygg's plasticard because is is cheaper and can be easily carved to achieve squares (or cobbles, or whatever)
3. Some kind of filler. I used woodfiller.
4. A buncha PVA
5. Some sand
6. Craft paints
7. Screw-on rubber feet (optional)
8. Picture hanging wire (optional. If you dabble in sculpting like me then you probably have some around.)
9. Picture hooks. (optional)

So for the first step you'll want to prepare your foam core by stripping all of the paper off of it. Here's an astoundingly easy method for doing so. 

Once that's sorted out, you can smear some PVA onto your board. You don't actually need that much, but coverage is important. I used a scrap of cardboard as a kind of putty knife to get a smooth, even layer.

Lay the foam on there. Lay some books on there too. Some big, heavy ones.

Now let it dry for at least a day. 

Just like basing a mini. Imagine the cavalry figure that would go on that base.

When you come back it'll be time to fill, carve, and texturize the surface of the foam. The first part of that is easy. Just fill in the cracks with your wood filler/spackle/putty.

Next, you want to create the squares on the board. In my opinion, the best custom pitches have squares that are carved or cut into the surface rather than drawn or marked on. I find that more markings cause greater visual distraction, making it look more like your figures are playing on a board and less like they're playing on a hard-packed stretch of earth and crushed opponents.

So using a carpenter's square and a soft pencil, lightly sketch the grid onto the board. Follow over it with a ballpoint pen, pressing hard and scoring the line two or three times to get a nice deep impression. You'll want to keep using your square even though the lines are marked, because your pen is going to want to wander off course. (You could get really fancy and use an x-acto mitre to cut actual angled grooves like this, but I opted for the far simpler method - though my board is not nearly as impressive as Thib-0's. That guy can really craft.)

Once your grid is down, you can apply the sand. Pretty straight forward really, just watered down PVA and sand. Staple of the hobby. (Okay, I guess you could use coffee grounds or tea leaves if your worried about damaging paint jobs.

My workshop table, as sprawling as ever.

Now your board will look something like the above. You're going to have to walk away again, I'm afraid.

Once it's dry, it's time for paint. I didn't prime mine because I couldn't be bothered to mask the frame. You can do that if you like. Then hit it with a bunch brown craft paints and follow it over with washes of various yellows, greens and dark browns for a nice mottled effect. Finally, you'll probably want to drybrush it. It's a slog, though, so be warned.

Check out my proud coach's headgear top left.

Above you can see the beginning of the endzones and score tracks. Masking tape works okay, but be prepared to do a couple of thin coats (another staple of the hobby) since applying too much at once will result in the paint bleeding under the tape and requiring touch up (which is odious, and a pain).

I'll be back in the next installment with pictures of the painting and flocking process. In the meantime let me know what you think. Note, however, that getting fouled while in the comments box may result in penalty kicks.

My Custom Blood Bowl Pitch Pt. I: The Concept

So I had the great fortune last Thursday night to finish my very first in person game of Blood Bowl! I have played online using FUMBBL before, but never have I played an entire game sitting in the same room as the people I was playing with. And man we had a blast!

It was actually four of us-- my roommate, two friends, and me-- with my roommate Rob playing humans against my friend Dan as orcs, while Eric gave recommendations for both sides and I provided guidance with the rules. It was a long game since I was teaching while we played and we didn't really enforce the four minutes per turn rule, but those 3.5 hours just flew by.

It really surprised me just how into it my friends got. I'm used to getting strange looks when I explain the game to people, and the rules are more complicated than most people have the patience for. But once the game got rolling, my friends could not get enough of the sheer personality of Blood Bowl. It just goes to show what a well-crafted and entertaining game it is.

This got me even more excited for designing and building my own pitch. Having friends to impress really helps with motivation. I first got the idea for a foamcore pitch here.

So as promised, here are the plans for my own custom pitch:

Rough sketch, not even close to scale. Sorry for the drawing.

I am making the pitch from two pieces of 22 x 28 x 3/4" foamcore. I am making each half of the board 16" long, which will give me an extra couple of inches to add to the end zones. As you can see, I'm incorporating the dugouts and the score and turn boards into the board itself, as I feel the separate ones which come with the game take up too much room. I am not, however, going to model them for realism. Instead I'm going to use what I like to call (to myself) 'selective texturing,' so that I can 'draw' whatever I need on the board with flock or sand. That way it will add somewhat to the verisimilitude of the game, but not to the extent that it becomes hard to use. Similarly, I don't like the idea of carving lines into the board--especially with such thin material--so I'm going to use the ground texture to mark out the squares. It's hard to describe, but you'll see what I mean when I start posting WIPs.


The logo in the middle (the version in the sketch is crappy) will be a version of the University of Chicago Phoenix. Got to honor the ole Alma Mater:

The Maroon. I mean Phoenix. Used without permission.

I still haven't decided on the color scheme yet, though I'm leaning towards blue for the home team, and orange for the away. For flocking, I'll be using my own home-made grass flock (tutorial coming soon!) and either sand or coffee grounds (probably coffee--less paint required). For the logo and the endzones, I will make masks/ stencils and spray diluted paint onto the grass with a spray bottle, or if that doesn't work, an old toothbrush. Again, you'll see.

So until then, Peace!