Since I seem to be heading to more tournaments these days, I had been considering building a display board for my army. Not only do they make it faster and easier to transport/deploy your army, they also look considerably nicer than a regular old cafeteria tray. The only problem was... it seemed like quite a bit of work, especially considering the number of other projects on my desk.

Luckily for me, I had a birthday recently. Some of my buddies got me the X-Board Travel Display, made by the gang at Battlefoam. With some minor modification, this thing should work out nicely. Since Da Grand Waaagh is only a week or so away... I better get cranking.
 

The basic board fits together very easily and gives you a 21"x15" area to work with. It's not a ton of space when you're running an Ork Horde, but I should be able to make it fit.

My initial idea for a display board was to have a space cut into the board for each individual model, and to have the surface of the board match the bawsing theme for the army.

Since I didn't want to cut into the textured plastic board, and potentially ruin the surface, I figured some kind of 'overlay' would do the trick.

For the board overlay, I decided to use MDF board. The stuff is cheap, resilient, and textures well with glue and gravel. Hmmmm, probably why I use it to base all my terrain.

At any rate, I cut the MDF board to lay on top of the existing plastic display board. The overlay is in three pieces so I can disassemble and transport it in the same case as the board.

Using a power drill with various sized bits, I cut the holes where the models will sit. Then I used a Dremel to sand the edges somewhat smooth. You can also see in this picture where I started texturing the surface.

Here's a shot of the board with 1850 points of Orks on it. My vehicles fit nicely into the blank areas between the infantry holes. The Vommit Kommits are on pieces of clear plastic rod for display.

Their regular flight stands wouldn't fit onto the board with the rest of the army, so I decided to raise them above the army for display purposes. They're magnetized so I can stick them back onto their flight stands for gaming purposes.

Next up, finish texturing this thing.

Here's a close of the front of the finished board, showing the texturing and the "Waaagh!" plate.

I figured since I was making the overlay to make the board modular , I should probably make the name plate removable too.

I used some small adhesive velcro strips to attach the plate to the front of the board. That way I can swap out the plate for a different one if I ever decide to use the board for an army other than Orks.

Yeah, I know. Fat chance! But hey, no harm in keeping your options open

And here's a final shot of the finished board, all ready to head to Da Grand Waaagh.

Wish me luck, folks.