Custom Map Choices

I have been playing around with different configurations for a custom table and wanted to note some things I’ve landed on that I really like. A main one thing is having the map mounted so that it can slide around as needed on top of a bigger playing area. My table is 65” x 95” in total with a 5.5” arm rest around the outside and the middle is a recessed neoprene surface. I have the OOB Global map mounted on 1/2” rigid foam with a 1/2” aluminum frame around it. This allows the map to slide up close to whoever’s turn it is, but then be in the middle so both players can roll dice In front of them without disturbing the map and in easy view of the other player. (Plus we like lots of room to roll the bones). This ability to adjust the surface along with a standing height, makes it comfortable for long uses because you can move around more and don’t feel as tied down.
Things I’ve learned and changed from original design - I originally used too big of a frame for the map and mounted it on too high of a foam block (you can see these pictures at the bottom) - it made it hard to see the other player’s dice and the big frame took up too much real estate. My global map is mounted on much thinner foam (the framing is bad, you can see if you look closely) but I also used much thinner aluminum angle for the frame. This gives just enough grip when needing to move the map around (I use furniture slides on the bottom, which glide very nicely on the neoprene) but doesn’t make the whole thing too bulky. Having it an inch or so off the surface keeps the dice off, but isn’t so heigh that you can’t see the other player’s dice rolls. When playing other versions (such as Zombies) the board is much smaller, but it can easily swap in and out on the same table since it can move around where ever it is needed or be pushed aside.
I originally made it normal table height, but found long reaches while sitting were harder and it just felt cramped. Standing height with a bar stool is a great way to have the best of both worlds.
The 5.5” rim around the table itself gives you a nice arm rest that doesn’t interfere with the gaming surface. I’m playing with how to best add some cushion to this part - open to suggestions. Sometimes I just lay a piece of leftover neoprene on it.
Dice bounce nice on the neoprene and stay off the floor. It also feels nice and has enough give to allow things to slide but be picked up easily. Wouldn’t definitely go with neoprene again as a surface covering.
I made the drawers open to the inside of the table so you can stay hunched over the action while accessing and stowing stuff away. 50/50 on whether I would keep this if I were to do it again. If I were doing it again, I might try to build customer drawers form scratch using actual drawer glides, but that was beyond my ability when I first did this, so I just used clear plexiglass boxes with aluminum pulls mounted on them. It’s nice having them clear, and I was happy with how the pulls came out, but without glides they can be a little fussy sliding in and out of their slots.
I originally designed the table so that I could put a cover surface back on top when not in use, but find I don’t really ever do that, so if I were to do it again, I might not mess with that part (I never even finished staining those as you can see in the pictures).
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All, I’ve finally gotten a 3D printer of my own, so I have been able to launch my own little Etsy shop with the mission of getting these models out there as affordably as possible! Huzzah!

While my shapeways store will stay open, doing self-fulfilled prints on Etsy is going to be a win-win; much more of the proceeds going directly to creators, which brings the price down for everyone. The only con is that I will have to maintain the 3D printer and do all of my own post-processing…

Anyway, I wanted to welcome everyone here to the shop with a 10% off coupon for the rest of 2021! Just use coupon code AADOTORG21 at checkout. Come be one of my first customers! Visit my etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NathanDetr0itDesigns

I’ll be adding new things and ideas constantly - including bundling items up for complete kits ala G40 etc., so please DM me or respond below and let me know what else you would like to see!

Thanks Dauvio. I appreciate it.

Thank you for both the response and all of the info. Any recommended material to print on? Vinyl seems pretty common so far but I’m not sure if there is better.

Make up your own House Rule……here are some ideas

Recruitment Center (this one just happens to be a Nazi)
-The ability to build Reg. Infantry at non-factory territories
-Territories must have a value of (1)
-Only (1) Center per Territory
-Cost: 9
-Movement: N/A
-Build of (1) Reg. Infantry
-Can be Burned, or removed round before capture
-Can be Captured and be used
-Can be Bomb and unable to produce Infantry till repaired.  Cost of Repair is (3)IPC

These will be on my Shapeways Store Soon
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/war-game-miniature

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@Young:

Thanks CWO Marc, really appreciate your comments… do you play often? I understand there is a lot of players in Montreal, do you have a game group?

For many years I’ve had too much going on in my life, professionally and otherwise, to have had time to do much of anything other than collecting the A&A games.  And, to be honest, I have too many issues with many of the features of the various A&A games that I’ll probably never play anything other than what I’m hoping to create at some distant point in the future when I do have the time for it, which is a completely personalized version of the Global game that, for all intents and purposes, keeps the sculpts and the map board but throws out the entire rulebook and reconceptualizes the game from scratch.  And it’s not even fully correct to say “keeps the sculpts and the map board” either.  I’ll be expanding the number of nations and the number of unit types by making use of the very large pool of A&A sculpts I’ve acquired over the years, for instance the ones from the early-edition games and the ones from 1941 and 1914.  And as I’ve noted in the thread where I’ve posted pictures of my custom table, one of the first things I did to the Global 1940 map was to rework its “under-the-plexiglass” roundel allocations to better reflect the structure of the world as it existed prior to the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, as a starting point from which I can then modify the map (by placing roundels on top of the plexiglass) to represent any subsequent starting date from 1931 onward.  A related project that I worked on to create the infrastructure for this eventual new game was the Global 1940 map inventory, a copy of which I posted over here last September:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36590.0

But at this point I don’t have an actual plan for what this reconceptualization will look like.  Nor am I likely to do so until I have the time to work on this project solidly for months at a time…so this may have to wait until retirement (which isn’t for tomorrow by a long shot) before this idea translates into anything concrete.

@CWO:

@John:

Congratulations to you, and KNP! :-D

Hear hear!

Appreciate it Marc! :-)

As before THANKS!!!