Finished Citadel Realm of Battle board

*Squeek*
One of the great things about Expat life are the famed "leaving sales" when a fellow traveler decides to head home.

If you haven't experienced one before the concept is simple...
...everything must go!

Furthermore, because everything must go (in Japan, you have to pay to throw away big items so people really do want to get rid of everything) you sometimes get really, really good deals on everything from bikes to furniture to - you guessed it - Citadel Realm of Battle Gameboards.

In my case a really good deal meant I picked up mine for the fine price of...
...0 Yen.

Usually in Japan this item would cost 33,800 yen. This is a whopping 282 Pounds Sterling (155 is the list price in the UK) or 439 U.S. dollars (290 list price in the US) at time of writing. I know, very lucky!

The catch?

• Some of the original boards missing.
• No clips to hold them all together.
• Some boards already painted up (not a bad thing, but it meant a consistent look would be difficult!)
• I had to carry the whole lot home on the train (heavy!)

Anyway, to cut a long story short I decided to add some new boards to get the set I wanted.
First I went to Tokyu Hands and got some two foot square wooden boards cut up to relace the missing 2 pieces.  (610x610x9) They didn't have any 10mm width wood, so I also bought a also bought a few packs of 1mm circular rubber feet. (BTW, Tokyu Hands = Best Shop EVER!)
I also ordered the scenery painting pack from GW HQ in Tokyo and then waited for a day with suitable weather to arrive. (These was NO WAY the Skaven Queen would let me do all this in the burrow itself...)

Eventually, I spent a beautiful (if cold) day in the garden getting everything made up. Here are the results (Sorry about the poor quality of the photos. The light was really tricky.)

Some dry glue still shows.

Unweathered corner:

At this point, I hadn't done any weathering or drybrushing on the rock formations I had painted, so that's why one of the rock formations looks much more "Codex Grey" than the others! See EDITS below for updated images.

1mm rubber feet.

EDIT: Added the images below of the "unweathered" rocks after washes and drybrushing.

It came with the original carrying bag, so I thought I would post a few shots so you can see the size of that (audio CD to scale):

Lessons learned:
1. To avoid ridges and wrinkles when flocking, definitely do follow GW's advice in the scenery pack about how to flock the board. (Also available HERE on the GW website) . I spaced this at least once when distracted and it does look awful if you mess it up.

2. If you intend to go"Full Grass" as I did, it is worth the effort to save and recycle every blade of grass/ flock you can. Work over paper and gather up any spill. Transfer all the original grass to ziplock bags before you start so you can seal up between uses and to keep safe in case you drop the bag etc.

3. Do consider packing away with a layer of added protection between each board.

4. Use the PVA in the painting pack sparingly or be prepared to purchase another couple of tubes before you start. (Non-branded works fine of course) I may have got the ratios wrong when making up watered-down PVA but I went through it pretty quickly!

Overall I think the sturdiness of the Realm of Battle Board is pretty good and the mould quality is very high. I have both the older "Roll Up" battlefield and the fold-away cloth battlemat, but when not travelling I will definitely go to the trouble of using the board for the overall impact. I do like the hills and slopes that are moulded in.

Would I pay full GW Japan prices for it? No, not when they are so much higher than the UK or US (and having blown everything on Christmas presents for the family!), but if I had the budget I would not any worries about durability stop me. I expect this product will last.

Now I just need more scenery to compliment the board. A lone Warhammer Chapel doesn't really do the trick!

Cheers,
*Squeeek!*