Friday, August 1, 2014

My next GRAND project...



Hi all!

Well... I know things have been quiet at The House of War... as everyone knows, I've lost the actual Room of War to my son.  Now, I have been doing a little work on his room (the photos here are from his mural in his new room, which we are about to move him into... the Africa ones were from his current "baby" room) but I do have another project planned!

A new Wargames table!!!

Well... sort of.

A beautiful breathtaking war-games table with customized buildings and bridges and waterways that might possibly dedicated to... Thomas the Train?

Yep.  I am making a train table for my son, who ADORES Thomas the Train.  It will actually be very similar to my old war-games table... build on rolling ikea shelves, custom foam, trees... just with a train set running about it!

I plan to start with these shelves, which have storage space for these big, slide-in plastic tubs... perfect for toy storage.  I am considering using a taller one... the one pictured is only 14 inches tall, but there is a roughly 24 inch one as well... which do you think is best for a toy table?  I'll screw casters on the bottom so the table can roll around.  Across the top will be either a thin sheet of 3x5 (or so... I have to test the railroad layouts before deciding on the size exactly...) plywood or a frame.

Over this whole will be a pink foam world, with a few rivers cut out... basically the under board will be the level of the water, and the foam will the the land.  The land will be sanded and painted, the rivers painted, and some detail done.

I will run the track over it, using a bunch of wooden train track pieces I have from when I was a little kid and some more pieces we bought recently.  I've got a few bridges and turntables and the like to fancy it up!

I then plan to base up some of my 25mm trees, and create a set of interchangeable buildings... basically, building a new "war-games" table!:)

I'll post the work as I go... it should look pretty wood, when it is all said and done!:D

2 comments:

Lasgunpacker said...

A train table is a great idea, but having it "fixed" is a great deal less fun for the boy than having one where he can build to his own specification.

My own son has a crate of wooden track, and enjoys building layouts far more than actually driving the trains about...

Author said...

I agree... he actually will have two tables:) He has one "sandbox" one where he can move whatever he wants and build whatever he wants, and then the "fixed" one. I have to glue the tracks down, unfortunately, because of the water and bridges and all of that.

Thanks for coming by!