More experiments with hexes!

Those who have been following this blog for some time will be aware of my quest for the perfect hexagonal grid playing surface. I said some time back that I wanted to produce a one dimensional 'portable' board along the lines of the actual C&C game board. I have been playing a round with various ideas ever since and having abandoned the idea of sticking printed graphics onto the hexes - it just did not look right aesthetically- I have tried a new approach. As I have a spare Citadel battlemat I decided to see how practical it would be to cut and stick this to individual 80mm hexes. It works really well, no edges lifting off so I'm now trying to find a method to create wood hexes and hills etc as well as town/village hexes, but all modeled in low relief so that figure bases sit on top without appearing too ridiculous! I don't think there is a perfect system, but if I can just get my head round the question of scale and think in terms of playability then I reckon this method should work. I have calculated that using the new 80mm hexes I can produce a single portable game board, framed up nicely with neat edging strips and very lightweight to a size of  just 25" x 41". The woods wont be perfect, but then the individual trees on my larger grid don't look much better really and I have to remove them when a base enters a wood hex anyway! Everything will be modeled down to this scale, probably more a 2mm scale. For hills I'm going to ask Tony at ERM if he is able to produce 80mm hexes in slightly thicker material.

Looking at the photos below I have to say I do like the look of it. I'll let you know how it goes.