SciFi Tabletop & Terrain Progress

Just a quick post today --- I've actually made a lot of progress on a few things I'll be posting about here soon, but for today just a few pictures of progress on the SciFi front.

First up is my table for Firestorm Armada.  I'm using a 6'x4' F.A.T. mat from Frontline Gaming.  I have to say these mats are outstanding.  The F.A.T. mat is mounted on "mouse pad" material which means it lays flat immediately upon unrolling it so you don't have to wait for it to settle (or just put up with folds in your mat).  I have been using a felt mat previously, which is also a good option but sometimes requires ironing to flatten it out.  The F.A.T. mat was worth every penny.

A word of caution on a different product.  I had previously ordered a space mat from Warzone 40k that looked great on the website, but the actual product is severely lacking.  First, my mat arrived with scuff marks all over it - now, the customer service is great and they have sent a replacement mat - but the core product is what I have a problem with.  It is printed on a thin material that does't settle - kind of a thin plastic/canvas type material.  You can't iron it or do anything other than put something really heavy and flat on it ... but even that does't get rid of the deep fold through the middle of the mat.  At the end of the day, a waste of money for me - I was much better off buying the F.A.T. mat - but hey, lesson learned.

The space terrain is from Greenleaf Terrain.  I was lucky enough to pick it up off of Ebay.  The terrain is excellent and consists of planets and asteroids.  I have more terrain I'm doing myself which includes additional asteroids, space wreckage/debris field, and nebula that I'm doing by coloring pillow stuffing.

I put out my Sorylian Collective 800 point fleet I'm working on (nearing completion, finishing up 2 destroyers later today, then I just need to wrap up 4 frigates and 1 more escort).  I'm also getting ready to do the engine lighting effects using my awesome airbrush.  I have a large Dindrenzi Federation fleet I've sent off to Poland to get painted by the fine folks at Awaken Realms.

F.A.T. mat and new space terrain
(Sorylian Collective fleet WIP as well)

Great asteroids made from blue foam

After a year on order my Robotech RPG Tactics tabletop has shown up.  The tabletop is from Games & Gears.  This table is for Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander - which is 10mm - and I know Robotech is 6mm - but this will look great anyways for Robotech (and my 4Ground buildings I have).  What you see in the picture is the table "out of the box" - the roads and fields come pre-painted.  This is going to look great once I put a little extra work into it.  My only gripe with this product is the tile attachment system.  There are U clips that are using to connect each tile together, but I've found it almost impossible to assemble the tiles while they are right side up.  In order to get it assembled I had to arrange the tiles upside down first, lock them together, then flip the whole thing over (right side up).  Perhaps there is a trick to this I've missed ...

Games & Gears Dropzone Commander tabletop that
I'm using from Robotech RPG Tactics

I'll be posting up good pictures of my Sorylian Collective fleet once I finish painting those up - so more to come!