[GZG] Hex starmap

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
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