Smart Boards for Axis & Allies 1940 SE

H All!

Thanks for the help in creating my original enlarged map board. I found an original scan of a board online (I cannot remember the original creator, but I searched for “High Res Axis Allies Map.” If you were the creator of this, thank you very much! Kudos!

I wanted to do a 4 foot by 6 foot enlargement. The original file wasn’t high res enough for that, so I worked on it in Photo Shop by increasing the size and dpi. I’m pretty much a novice to Photo Shop, but it wasn’t that difficult after some google queries on how to do it.

Once I had it enlarged to the size and resolution I needed (beware, this apparently can bog down your computer if you are using a basic MacBook), I then went about finding a print shop. I ended up going to BannerBuzz.com. I’d never heard of them before, but their website was easy to use and the price was good.

I put my 4x6 map on vinyl, had it laminated, and had it shipped to me for about $50 total. The process took roughly ten days from me uploading the file, choosing the options, proofing it, and having it created and delivered.

The map looks great. in retrospect, I might have increased the resolution just a touch more, but I’m pretty pleased with it. If anyone wants the file, I can upload it or send it to you - Remember, it is a 4’ by 6’ version of the 1984-87 map, as in the original Milton Bradley version, and if you are a newbie to this, I can answer questions that I learned through the process.

Thanks to all the people who assisted in this!

@hopper1999 I’ve access to both resin and PLA printers, and while resin has a couple of extra steps compared to PLA, I wouldn’t consider it painful. I’ve come to appreciate resin’s ability to show detail even in very small scale. For me its worth the extra steps to clean and cure, for those results. What’s great is there are so many free units available, with some simple editing/converting you can quickly build cool armies.
As for casting, while I haven’t casted any A&A parts yet (still building my unit library), I have casted a lot of 3.75 action figure parts. I’ve gotten best results using a syringe and pressure pot. (I converted a old paint pressure tank). You inject your mold, and then put it under pressure, I’d do around 30psi, to help the resin into the thinner parts of the mold and prevent bubbles. It also helps, when making your mold to put it under pressure as well. I’ve found it helps prevents bubbles in the silicone and between the silicone and the part being cast.
I plan on using casting to duplicate units I already have, that I can’t find stl files for.

I’ve tried priming these twice and the primer just won’t stick. Are these a different plastic somehow?

@Young:

I’m deep into trying to get my custom card decks released right now, but I will certainly look into it.

Yeah I use your first card deck without the house roules for my games.  :-D

Thanks for the advice!  I will try a different primer.

@Dafyd:

or the little “IG JOES”

:lol: :lol: :lol:

That’s a nice set-up!  While there’s a lot of really great tables out there. I’m one of those guys that really just doesn’t have the space for a huge table. This is nice. Good job friend!

this first pic is what i had been using, i manually printed things out in one page sections via “print selection” command and pieced them all together, and laminated them with clear packing tape. Ultimately it proved to be a little larger than the default gameboard like I wanted, but still sloppy looking and with some bumps here and there which complicated unit placement due to tipping or sliding:

it was larger enough than the default board that things in europe didn’t seem so crowded anymore, but shoddy looking still, and that can wear on the nerves.

So I finally said enough is enough, and took the map pdf file on a jump drive down to minuteman press in London Kentucky and had them blow it up and laminate it….it costed $118 IPCs U.S. Dollars.

Its 2 foot by 3 foot, and gives us plenty of room for stacks. I got tired of kenny’s fat fingers knocking over my german stacks and scattering them across europe…he says my money was wasted because “those damn germans were going across europe anyway I just helped you out is all”.

but here it is: