Using a tray for a battlefield

Months ago I had a lingering man flu that really stuffed my lungs up. When I was resting up I really wanted to play a game, and I was eyeing off the tray I was eating a meal from.

This gave me an idea for making scenery to play a game.

I created some removable terrain bases to put in the tray and put some figures and scenery on to see what it looked like.

This is what I came up with for a 15mm scale game:

There is just enough room to play a squad level game on the tray.

Same tray with a 15mm tank on it to give it some perspective:

The green terrain boards I made warped a bit, so this made me think of doing something a bit more permanent.

This meant buying a new tray that would be ok to 'destroy' to make my playing area.

I went to Bunnings and purchased an MDF tray.

I taped the inside edges, undercoated it lightly in black, and then flocked it.

The tray was much smaller, and doesn't really work for 15mm squad level games, as you can see in the following photo where I placed five figures on the tray with a tank:

This is a photo with a Russian village and two full opposing squads placed on the tray:

It looks good, but there just isn't any room to manoeuvre.

So I started thinking that maybe using one to five 28mm figures per side might work better in my smaller tray. I placed some basic scenery and a couple of figure (including some that are a work in progress) to see if I could be done:

I was very happy with the results. You could easily play a small skirmish in the tray.

I honestly don't think any modern game would work well due to the range of firearms, but anything from Black powder backwards in history would work.

I got to thinking that maybe Wild West, Pulp and 1920's gangster games would work, and they tend to be in close action wise.

 And what would work is if you added the fronts of buildings only and not the whole building. This would allow for scenery to be placed in the tray, but not take up so much room.

This was my initial concept photo to see if my idea had any legs so to speak:

Next I knocked together the shell of a Wild West building to see if it would really work:

I was happy with the results, as I could have a town in the tray for a shoot out, and there was room to hide around the corners to give cover to the figures:

Making the most of my enthusiasm on this project, I cobbled together a small collection of buildings of various types and sizes and came up with this:

Now I need to add the planking to the buildings, as well as windows and doors, and it will be good to go. I might even buy an new MDF tray so I can have sand as a base instead of grass... it would be better for a Wild West town.

I also intend to make an "adobe town" using the same method and some wilderness 'scenes' with trees, rocks so that I can vary where the game is played.

If I were to play a campaign, each battle would be a scene in a story rather than a whole chapter.

The great thing about the 'tray battlefield' as I am calling it, is that it is easy to move around with it, doesn't take up much room and can sit across your lap when you are in a chair.

  Put your scenery and figures in a box and you have a game you can take with you on holidays for example.

You can also keep up to date with what I am doing with my Tray Battlefield on twitter. Either follow "@shelldeake_au" or search for #TrayBattlefield.