Urban Board

by Greg Hojek Greg Hojek created this excellent 4 x 4 urban game board
When I decided to make an urban game board, the first thing I did was pick up pencil and paper. When working on a project like this, planning and drawing a layout is a must. I wanted to design a board with above and below ground walkways, some kind of trench system, and a below grade roadway.
After my project was laid out, I began building it on 3/8" MDF board. I used 2 - 2'x4' pieces of board to get a 4'x4' playing surface.
I did not attach these together so the game board would be easier to store and transport. Since there were so may angles to make when I cut out the styrene, instead of trying to use one solid piece, I broke the foam down into basic squares and rectangles, glued them on and blended them together with filler.
For the trench, I decided that an actual trench in a city didn't make a lot of sense. But a drainage ditch made perfect sense! For a little realism I added junk and old newspapers. The newspapers are just that, dipped in pva and crumpled or folded up. I used them in several parts of the board.
The bridge is a ho scale train bridge that was widened. The steps are 3/4" styrene and 3/8" foamcore board. I alternated each step between the two materials to get the correct rise of each step.
I made the steps 3/4" wide, giving the 1" based models plenty of stair to stand on without falling over. This is also detachable for storage and transport.
I covered the whole project with pva, used light sand, and painted it with various shades of grey, browns, and greens.