Western Desert Project - hex grid for battle mat

After making the battle mat yesterday, and pretty much getting colour tones and coverage to my liking, the next step was apply a grid. While a square grid would have been relatively straight forward to apply, I wanted a hex grid for this project, which are not so easy to do.

The models on their 2x2 inch bases fit nicely into a 4 inch hex.

I started by creating a hexagonal template using an old cardboard box. Two bits of cardboard stuck together in fact, to make it sturdier when used. Then using a brown permanent marker pen which helps the lines to blend in with the mat colour. I started from one edge to draw the hexes slowly working around the existing drawn hexes.

The one trick I found was to draw the line but don't worry about jointing the lines at the points of the hex. By doing this the inaccuracies, which do occur, are not obvious or are easily disguised.

template and permanent marker

2 hours later the completed battle mat

I chose a hex which is about 4 inches wide. This allows my 2x2 inch square bases to fit quite comfortably in the hex. When all marked on the mat I get 13 hexes by 18 hexes on my 6x4 foot table.