Making a Sand Table

For our demo game at Triples in Sheffield were are putting on a Lasalle Napoleonic game on 28mm.  However just to add to the challenge we are also going to use a portable sand table for the game.  

Today we thought we better have a practise to make sure we knew what to do it on the day.

4 of the old timers gather around Kens wargame table.  The key items used are a simple wooden frame, 3 heavy tarpaulins and 5 bags of sand and a bit of tape. Flock is used to add texture to the finished table.

After the frame is screwed together the Tarps are laid out and tapped together. If you can get a bigger tarp then this would make life easier.

Tarps in position.

Add the sand and spread out. I would advise using gloves. 

A small trowel is good for spreading the sand.  Ideally the sand should be dry as this is easier to work. You can wet the sand of needed to mould a terrain feature.

The table begins to take shape. Hills and landscape can be realistically created.

Once the terrain is landscaped we are going to use flock sprinkled on top of the sand. We only did this on a small patch to show what it will look like.  Pretty realistic.  Roads can be left as sand and for rivers and streams just remove sand and expose the greeny tarp for the river. River banks are easily created.

The battlefield dressed with the village of Plancenoit in the fore ground. It will look so much better once it's all flocked.

A sunken road sculputured in the table.

Here a few shots of the table with the troops added to the basic, un flocked, sand table.