Monday, September 20, 2010

Review: Battlefoam X-Board Travel Display





I had the chance recently to paint up the Battlefoam X-Board Travel Display.  The image shown above is directly from Battlefoam's website but below is how I painted it.


First, the good.  This is an efficient way to get yourself a tournament display board.  It is modular so you can have the hill in the middle or on the edges.  It packs up into a backpack sized case (included) and when put together it is very sturdy.  

Now the bad.  The texture on the board is rather poor.  If you've ever looked up close at the GW Realm of Battle board, this is nothing like it.  The cliff isn't very realistic.  It can be kind of a pain to put the clips in that hold it together, and it's even more of a pain to take it apart.  Furthermore, the flock rubs off every time you take it out of the bag.  Even if you're careful it still scrapes off the edges.

So if you want a tournament display board but don't want to build your own, I would recommend this.  Even though the texture is rather poor it will be covered up by your models.  As long as you're not constantly taking it in and out of the bag the flock should be fine (I would recommend not flocking the edges though).

Even if you have the gumption to build your own, I would say that this board is a great starting point.  You can certainly add a lot to this board and the fact that it snaps together and apart is a big plus.  While I was painting it I imagined placing ruins on the hills and sculpting a few craters in the flat area.  Of course it may not fit in the bag anymore depending on how you do it.

A few notes on how I painted mine:  I tried to match my client's bases as closely as possible.  The flock is the same that I used on those, I don't like the radioactive green grass I see everywhere.  I tried to go for more natural patches of grass as opposed to a bunch of green blobs.

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