The goal is to build a series of game boards covering Longstreet’s Assault on the 2nd day of Gettysburg. I decided to try and go for actual contours so that players could see the elevations more clearly.
Ground scale: 1 inch = 40 yards (this works out to the 20mm scale for Johnny Reb 3.
Elevation scale: 1 inch = 24 feet (this gives a pretty good overall ratio so you can see the contours)
Terrain scale: N-Scale (10mm). I am using 10mm Rail Fences (Musket Miniatures), 10mm straight Fences (GHQ), and 10mm Stone Walls (GHQ). Buildings are 10mm Starfort and 10mm Musket Miniatures. I also used 10mm miscellaneous haystacks, hay bales, etc.
STEP 1: Finding Source Maps
After considerable research, I settled on Desjardin’s “The Battle of Gettysburg” maps. These are a project of the National Parks at Gettysburg and produced in 1998. My main decision was that they included setup points for the various battle phases, had 8 foot contours, and showed fence/wall placement and type. While these maps may be lacking in a few areas, overall they worked for what I wanted.
DESJARDIN MAP
I supplemented this map with McElfresh’s “Gettysburg Battlefield” map, taking from this map the content of each field (i.e. wheat, rye, hay, corn, etc).
McELFRESH MAP
STEP 2: Scaling the maps
Once I decided on a ground scale, I then had to determine what I was going to use to make the contours. I settled on ¼ inch fiberboard. Fiberboard is available in 30”x40” sheets, so that became my map size. I scanned the Desjardin map and cut out a section to be covered on my boards using Photoshop to a 60”x80” area at 1” = 40 yards. This would allow me to fit everything onto 4 boards, and luckily it covered the historical area of Longstreet’s Assault.
Desjardin Source Map
Once I had the area cut out, I scaled the maps using Photoshop to ½ size. These files were printed at Kinkos.
I used Kinko’s plotter to double the size. This gave me my final source maps in actual board scale.
FINAL MAP – BLOWN UP TO SCALE
STEP 3: Making the Base Boards.
Using carbon paper I traced the contours onto fiberboard. I then cut out the fiberboard along the contour lines and then glued them together, building things up like a layer cake.
FIBERBOARD CONTOURS
I then filled in the contours with flexible modeling paste to give a more gradual look. Then the final board were glued onto a bottom sheet of plywood for stability and then edged in thin plywood for support. The last step was spray painting the entire board an earth brown.
PAINTED BOARD
STEP 4: Transferring the Map Data to the Boards
Using carbon paper, I traced all the map detail onto the boards.
 |
 |
BOARD READY TO DETAILING
|
MATCHING UP BOARDS |
First the streams and roads were cut out using a drimmel tool. The roads were then painted on using course grey for Emmitsburg Pike and course brown for the minor roads. The stream bed was painted blue and then filled with a glass bead compound.
At this point the stone wall were glued on and then the woods (using Grass Blend from Woodland Scenics).
 |
 |
MAPS READY FOR FENCING |
|
Fences were then glued on. And the fields were then flocked. A 50/50 mix of Grass Blend and Earth Blend was used for overall. Burnt Grass was used for Hay fields and a yellow flock for crops. Plowed fields were left brown.
 |
 |
FLOCKED BOARD |
FROM BEHIND BIG ROUND TOP |
Finally, Fine Ballast – Grey Blend was spread over the areas stated to be rocky or rough. Olive Green Underbrush was spread randomly throughout the woods. The plowed fields, fences, walls and roads were painted with a Tudor Stain polyurethane to darken them. The final map was covered with Dull Coat, after which the trees were glued on randomly on the wooden areas.
 |
 |
TWO BOARDS COVERING HOOD’s ATTACK |
A VIEW OF THE ROUND TOPS AND DEVIL’S DEN |
 |
 |
EMITTSBURG ROAD LOOKING NORTH |
A VIEW FROM WARFIELD RIDGE TOWARD ROUND TOPS |
 |
 |
A VIEW FROM THE ROUND TOPS LOOKING WEST |
BIG ROUND TOP |
GRAIN FIELDS
At this point, buildings have yet to be placed. In addition, the boulders of Devil’s Den and Little Round Top have also not been placed.
Work has now begun on two more boards which will cover the Peach Orchard and the area of McLaw’s and Anderson’s attack.
 |
 |
For more photos of this project, visit http://lshmwaco.org/ and
http://lshmwaco.org/miniature_photos/gettyburg_terrain/Roundtop-near-complete/index.html