Tutorial: Felt Gaming Mat - Urban

I bought a Deepcut Studios mat for Walking Dead a long time ago. It's a very nice product, but the layout doesn't really fit my collection of modern buildings. So I've been tinkering with making my own gaming mat for some time. The result is a super cheap and quick to make mat.

Showcase: Add the end of the page.

Materials

• Felt (80% viscose, 20% wool)
• Masking tape
• Cheap spray paints
• Magic Marker

Step 1 - mark it up

The felt I've bought is 3' wide and I bought 3' of it - for 55DKK (~$10). Take your different buildings into thought and make sure there's room for them in the center square.

Make sure the roads you mark up is wide enough for two of your toy cars. I've used two strips of masking tape with each line. It'll make it wide enough to not spray paint on the wrong side and it'll leave some nice pedestrian sidewalk. 

At this step you can also mark out some parking lots.

Photo shows me toying around with my church, gas station and brick houses.

Step 2 - road markings

With a white spray paint, add some spots to the middle of the roads and where you'll want pedestrian crossings. Let if dry. Add cut up pieces of masking tapes, covering the white and making strips. 

Step 3 - Roads

Use a black spray and paint the roads. Give it a light coat. The grey felt and white paint will make different nuances on the road. 

Step 4 - Grey

Use a bit of cheap grey spray. It'll give a bit of nuance to the large grey areas. 

Step 5 - Finishing touches

Remove the masking tape. Use a magic marker to draw pavement tiles and add some cracks to the road. The pavement will be a lighter grey, as we didn't spray paint it.

Step 6: Ironing

Iron the mat, make it nice and even. And any flimsy fibres will melt into place quickly.

Optional: Park

I've made two different size parks for the center square. Use some pieces of green felt. Add some light coats of browns and greens with spray paint - from approximately 60 cm distance. Don't want visible spots.

Extra: I've made an expanding mat for this. See it here.

Storing

Using a pants hanger is perfect for this mat. Easy to store, doesn't get wrinkled.

Showcase

Photos of the finished mat with different setups of modern buildings and scatter terrain. Check out the Modern Terrain Hub for all these projects. 

Gas station and apartment building.

Church and parking lot.

Four different apartment buildings.

Large park area.

Small park area.

Restaurant area.