Re: GEOHEX Terrain

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I've made a number of square(ish) terrain boards from 12"-24", a lot of
stand alone styrofoam terrain, cast some resins, and own a lot of
geohex.
My experience has been the following:

a) Jigs are necessary. I used a guide, but even then getting perfect
squares (the large razor knife liked to lean one way or the other and
the
hot knife liked to sometimes bow and cut a little off line) is tough. A
full jig is necessary. For all the different hex shapes, that's a bit
more
involved.

b) To match geo-hex foam, you not only need to match the size and shapes
and where the cut outs intersect edges, you need to also match the sort
of
foam used. There are lots of types and each is slightly different. If
Geo-hex had failings, they were that edges were very vulnerable and that
someone leaning slightly on the board could dent them. (I have about
$500
worth of the stuff - 100+ pcs). The corner lock idea was interesting,
but
not worth putting down most of the time (plus it would chew up your
corners).

c) Geohex used flock by the bucketload and that stuff ain't cheap. They
had
big enough trays to lay their pieces in.

d) The adhesive they used was very uniform and didn't tend to cause
clumping with the flock. If you've made terrain with PVA/water mixes,
you
may realize that at times you'll get some clumping in the flock either
on
the work piece or in the flock remaining for the next pieces. Whatever
they
used as adhesive, it was very uniform and I never saw a clumped bit of
flock on any piece I got.

e) Hand-cut is a bit a of a misnomer. I think they must have used a
tabletop wirecutter which let them set angles precisely and jigs as
well.
That's not just a hand-held hot wire or knife.

For a while, Geohex produced a line of non-geo-hex hills that were made
from foam and painted and were *cheap*. They did away with them because
they claimed there wasn't much demand, but this staggers me as every
gamer
I know that has seen them says 'I love those hills, where did you get
them?'. I think they did away with them because they distracted from the
more pricey and fiddly geo-hex.

KR also had a vac-former that he did craters and tents with until OSHA
issues convinced him the vac-former was too much of a bother. I like the
idea of having a vac-former that can use heavy stock as you can make
some
great craters, pup tents, etc. (even hills) but that's an expensive rig
if
you count filtering/ventillation etc.

My friend Kevin built the desert boards we used at ECC a couple of years
back. They were really good - styrofoam,
PVA/water/sand/painting/PVA-water
to seal, plus a river, waterfall, and pond. He's going into the custom
terrain making and figure painting business on the side soonish. (For
those
who were at ECC, this is the fellow that won all 4 painting categories,
though he disputes whether he should have won SG-25 or SG-15 as there
was a
lot of good competition and we both agreed the scratchbuilt FT ships
with
the 'pepsi/budweiser/etc' containers was great).

Tom

-- 
Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their
family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything.* 
*--
Willa Cather (1873 - 1947)Solitudinem fecerunt, pacem appelunt
-- Publius Cornelius Tacitus (from the book Agricola, attributed to a
speech from Calgacus)