[GZG] Hex starmap

["Thomas Barclay" <kaladorn@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi, 

Suggestions: 

1. If you have a sheet of bristol board or large sheet of cardboard, create your hex
template out of a smaller sheet, use a marker to draw it onto the larger one. Then, very
carefully punch holes along the marked lines. In this instance, I'd suggest using
something like a leather punch. In fact, nothing precludes using some old vinyl or
something (as long as it is smooth and can be drawn on) for your larger template.

The point for the larger template is to 1) give you a lot of coverage vs. overspray and 2)
let you do a larger area at once, thus leading to fewer misalignment problems - if you try
to manually align forty or fifty hexes by hand versus a couple of template alignments,
which do you think would be more problematic?

Of course, if you have a sheet of thin MDF or the like, and a drill, you could draw your
hexes on the MDF, drill instead of punch (this also works with a dremel and a sheet of
styrene or the like) and thus you have your template. Then use it and spray away.

2. Given the choice, use black felt. It takes paint reasonably well. It also tends to sit
flatter and stay better than thinner fabric. Given the choice, look for a dedicated fabric
paint. I used to use some (brush application as I used to paint images on jackets for
people, like the Aussie Flag or old cars or whatever) from a company called Dylon or
Dylan. They dried and were washable, which is handy if you are actually using a fabric
rather other than felt. Even if you aren't using felt, try to avoid diaphanous(sp?) fabrics. 

3. You can buy iron-on hex templates from someone. Someone here must know who.... (or has
good google-fu). These might be the easier answer and are designed to be applied to fabric. 

4. If you are spraying, don't get anxious. Let the paint dry and consider applying
multiple coats and letting each dry before moving your template. You want a visible grid
or what's the point?

For starmats, I was just at a nearby fabric store. I saw 72" wide fabric, like black felt,
with glitter on it. The glitter reminded me of the bases of many SF ships (the hex plastic
ones with built in glitter - silent death maybe?). It was $15.00 Cdn per meter. So, to do
an 8' table, you're looking at 45.00 Cdn. But a geohex (or MKP or whoever is doing it now)
is about 45.00 US for 4x6. So you'd need about 90.00 US to get the same effect. Definitely
cheaper. I'd like to know how they got dispersed glitter to adhere to the backing fabric
without using an adhesive that stuck too much of it on.... I'd like to make a similar mat
using black felt as a base and using an even less dense glitter... but something tells me
my spray adhesive from the hobby store would end up leaving the entire mat sticky. I wish
I knew how they managed that fabric preparation....

Tom B
_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l