Picture this: You’ve just finished dotting the final eye of your final model, for your 2000pt list. You’re done, and proud of what is likely the culmination of two dozen or more hours purely painting, not to mention time spent assembling those minis. That’s the end…right? While of course you can expand your force, especially as the meta shifts, or jump feetfirst into a new faction, there’s another hobby project worth considering, especially if you intend to attend tournaments: A display board. When you’re attending a Grand Tournament, that isn’t just a test of skill, but of hobby prowess & sheer stamina; it’s two (or more) days of play, likely with friends old and new, and models you’re proud to showcase on a big stage! A display board is a vehicle to enhance that showcase, and something that doubles as a means to participate in Armies on Parade, a yearly-ish hobby celebration by GW. With all that said, how do you even start working on a display board?
As a bit of background, being someone who’s played Warhammer for a decade & a half, this isn’t my first display board. As a caveat…it’s my first in a while. See, one of the major considerations when planning out your display is how to store the darn thing, and during my college years living in a cramped dorm/apartment was not conducive to grandiose constructions of cork & plaster. I still don’t have an incredible amount of space, but it’s a good first lesson: Don’t plan something you can’t store. Even a modest, fairly flat display is still fantastic to see, and can be stored like a painting or print, flat against the wall. I opted for one predominant raised feature on mine, because I have shelf space, but the most noticeable aspect is in the steel sheeting—my army’s bases are magnetized, and not only will a metal surface lead to better long-term stability for the display, but reduced risk of accidents or models falling off.
So, what’s the easiest way to start work on a display? At a baseline, all you need is some form of flat material that can withstand primer & weight, and everything you’d normally use to base actual miniatures; in my case, that was a corkboard, foam sheets, steel sheeting, and cork coasters (on top of primer & paint). The best way to conceal the fact you’re working from a flat surface (unless you’re cutting/heating foam) is to build up, and small ridges made from stacked & shaved foamboard can provide depth, still letting a board store flat if need be. I carved out a rear ridge for my board, as well as a raised front corner, in order to provide the illusion of this being a low-lying crater amid the Ash Wastes. I knew I wanted some kind of central feature, whether just a hill or something more, so I snipped away my steel to provide room for a cork coaster, which I’d nicked away at to look ‘rocky’. This is also where my filler of choice starts seeing use, being construction adhesive; in order to fill gaps, smooth together metal and foamboard, or affix everything, it was the go-to solution that wouldn’t eat through the material. Lesson learned here as well: Buy a pair of good tin snips/steel cutters, because I had a rough time with crimping the edge after making my cuts.
This is where it becomes important to touch on safety, because while hobbying with Warhammer minis is an extremely safe endeavor (as someone who started when he was 10), many aspects of building a display…are not. Sheet metal gets sharp, construction adhesive contains silica, and crushed glass—the black pellets here—aren’t great for microabrasions. The biggest thing, though, is your choice of coverage: Whether you’re intending to eventually flock your board to mimic grass, or keep it fairly industrial, some combination of dried soil/sand and tile grout will be in the mix. It looks fantastic, but requires not only gloves, but also ideally a respirator & goggles. I made do with a mask, but I was working outside.
When working with particulate cover like grout, sand, etc, you’re going to start by laying out some slightly-thinned PVA over the primed surface, and dusting it on top, not worrying about natural ridges (that’s part of the effect). Critically, though, you’re following this up with atomized isopropyl alcohol, soaking the entire thing to break surface tension, followed by a thorough gooping of more thinned PVA. By doing so, it’s able to flow between the individual grains of glass & grout, and dry rock-solid.
As for the centerpiece, I decided to try my hand at constructing a stone archway, the likes of which I imagine existing in an ash waste environment wracked by erosion. The actual execution I’m mixed on, to be honest, but by layering two columns of foamboard and eventually connecting them, it began to mimic shale (which finalized my pick for a dark stone color). Beyond that, to tie it back into 40k, I wanted to make sure it had some techy bits—the upturned gate to a Skorpius Dunerider made for a great little meeting point, and both cloth & doohickeys from the Ash Wastes terrain expansion would provide some room to tie back into the cloth & rusted metal across my actual army. Scatter terrain followed, with a Helamite husk one spot, some canisters half-buried in another, until finally I felt good about the layout. I used a cheap grey primer for everything that wasn’t plastic, and defaulted to Wraithbone Spray Primer for the important bits whose detail I didn’t want to be washed out. Basically, treat craft supplies like craft supplies, and Warhammer plastic like you would your minis.
Some quick layering of cheap paints to block out where the stone & sand would broadly be, and then it was onto grouting. This had to be done in pretty short order, so I unfortunately didn’t grab pictures, but essentially I covered all the sand areas with PVA-drenched grout, and then cleaned up with AK Interactive’s Dry Ground, which is what I use on my actual minis. This was incredibly important to hide some of the metal sheeting which pulled away from the foamboard, due to some mild moisture-related warping, and it thankfully doesn’t show in the final product. Indeed, I was perhaps a little too zealous with the grout & texture paint, but just enough of the original stone ridges show through to provide the illusion of it being the base layer, atop which ash is deposited. In the end, my normal basing of sandy color->matte varnish mixed with a dark grey & water->drybrush white took this terrain to its grizzled endpoint, and wiping parts of it dry of wash allowed for greater variation on the lowest points. The craters, scattered ridges, and rough surface all really make the landscape feel dangerous, and a fitting home for the irradiated forces of a lost Admech expedition.
Am I entirely happy with how the board turned out? No, but that’s also okay! Ultimately, unless you’re really shooting to win a Golden Daemon or Armies on Parade, the display board is akin to a rather nice bit of bread—it’s a vehicle to deliver the actual delicious, showstopping feature, your minis. Once you see an assembled force on this board, you forget about some of the weird portions where the varnish didn’t dry matte, or color didn’t fully permeate. In terms of arriving at a cohesive vision, a little project like this is doable over the course of a week, for likely less than the cost of a single kit. I’ve always been a huge proponent of treating your models well beyond just the actual purchase, in terms of carrying cases, varnishing, etc, and having a kickass display board is just another facet of it. If you’re going out to lunch at a GT, you want to leave your minis for viewing in the best way possible. This is it.
What other ancillary hobby projects do you want to see covered? Are there any huge tricks I missed here? How have you approached building a display board? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
