Ancients project game mat

The Ancients project painting has slowed down in the last couple weeks. This delay was partly due to the recent WW2 floor wargame, which was time consuming, and some Napoleonic wargames to test out a few rule changes. This week I managed to get the project progressing again with a couple of units getting painted and this weekend I created a game mat.

Some of the distractions delaying the Ancients project.

Over the last couple of years I have created a few game mats using material and paint. This mat is for an arid looking tabletop and to keep costs down I used a canvas drop sheet purchased from the local hardware store. This needed a good iron and trim before starting to paint it.

Canvas drop sheet. An old fashioned heavy one without plastic backing

The drop sheet needed ironing before starting...

... and needed trimming.

All ready to start.

In the first step I sponged a sandy brown wash all over the sheet. While it was still wet I sponged a lighter sand colour all over, this helps to soften the sponged colour. I did this a couple of times with increasingly lighter sand colours until the right balance was achieved.

The first sandy brown wash is applied.

The picture shows the lighter colour sand sponging.

As I wanted an arid look rather than a full sandy desert look. I applied areas of a green wash, then later over sponged very carefully with a mid-green colour. Throughout the whole process of adding colour gradually I kept checking with a based and painted unit.

Areas of green were applied to make the overall look arid rather than just desert.

The completed mat on the tabletop.

A closer look at the mat

With a completed mat on the tabletop it was time to get the two armies out and on the tabletop. With any luck I may be able to have a game.

Armies out of their boxes and deployed on the tabletop

All the figures are HAT plastic 1/72 scale miniatures.

A view from the Carthaginian side.