Ship Mat Mounting: Plywood

**Craig** · 03-07-2014, 03:27

Annoyed at the tendency for the ship mats to slip around and worried about damaging the manoeuvre cards picking them up off the table, I headed to the hardware store.

I used pieces of 5mm plywood, 30cm wide, 25cm high. A dark wood stain for naval timber ambience (different tones on each to make it easier to remember which mat goes with which ship), glued the frames to them with PVA, then a satin spray varnish over the top and a very light sand with fine grit paper on the non-cardboard bits to smooth out the varnish. There's a 1cm wooden margin on the top and 1.5cm at the sides of the frames, and enough space below to place the manoeuvre cards (both the current cards and the deck) and action chits.

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Size: 230.9 KB

It makes the whole thing more sturdy and stable, stops the ship inserts from sliding under the frames, and means that you no longer have to get a fingernail under the manoeuvre cards to lift them off the table; just slide them to the edge of the plywood and lift them easily. With a little care, you can even lift the whole thing and move it during play. I'm pleased with both the appearance and practicality of the result.

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Craig

**7eat51** · 03-07-2014, 07:20

I would be pleased as well. It looks great.

**Nightmoss** · 03-07-2014, 08:35

Looks very nice! You matched the colors with the stain well.

**Nightbomber** · 03-07-2014, 08:44

Well done, Craig. Nice looking and useful:)

**jcm211** · 03-08-2014, 11:59

very nice, was thinking of using foam core but I like this idea better

**Andy Blozinski** · 03-08-2014, 18:34

Wow...and here I thought I was going to be cool using lexan sheets. Your idea is 100 times better. Golf clap to you for your genius and curses to you for dooming me to another trip to the home improvement store.
What stain did you use?

**Craig** · 03-08-2014, 19:10

Originally Posted by Andy Blozinski

Wow...and here I thought I was going to be cool using lexan sheets. Your idea is 100 times better. Golf clap to you for your genius and curses to you for dooming me to another trip to the home improvement store.
What stain did you use?

The dregs of an old tin of something anonymous from the back of the shed. Sorry, that's all I've got...

What I'd suggest is to try and get something a bit darker than the cardstock mats, and then thin it down to a variety of hues in order to get differentiation between your boards. The vagaries of wood mean that you're unlikely to get four perfectly matched boards anyway, so you may as well turn it into a strength. Perhaps even try to match the hull colours of your four favourite ships.

Rubbing the stain in with a rag or sponge helps, and sanding/grinding the sharp corners of the boards into curves was also worthwhile. Go light on the PVA (but make sure to get some in the corners), and have plenty of rag ready to wipe up the excess that will appear when you clamp down the cardstock. Lotsa thin coats of varnish is better than a few thick coats. Make sure you've got somewhere relatively dust-free to do the varnishing in.

Good luck...

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Craig

**DeRuyter** · 03-13-2014, 14:16

Looks good - great idea and well done!

**Naharaht** · 03-18-2014, 18:35

That looks good. A great idea, Craig!

**Bligh** · 09-26-2015, 09:31

Just got round to this via your AAR Craig. It solves a lot of the problems I have re space for mats on my table edge. A very elegant solution to the problem. Thanks for the idea.
Rob.

**Clipper1701** · 09-26-2015, 18:44

Excellent game aid idea! I will be making several, including a dual ship design so I can move around the table and sail two ships simultaneously. Thanks!