A friend and I are picking up MechWarrior Dark Age while waiting for Skyrim, and we decided to make our own game board. Neither of us have ever done this before, and aren't really 100% sure what were doing. I was wondering if anybody has tips, ideas or suggestions to make this more of a fun project and less of trial-and-error mess.

I've been doing some research, and Hirst molds seem decently priced and highly recommended. Has anybody here ever used them before? Or know a better supplier for Mech-themed terrain and buildings/objects? I think im going to try to make some rocks and other terrain pieces out of Styrofoam and a hot knife, and then paint it(obviously).

tl;dr I need tips on building a small game board for Mech Warrior.

I used isolation foam to make the gaming boards base. It's easy to use and shape. After that, a layer of glue and the sand effect I wanted on. Extra sand away before continueing. Then, give it a paint job (the sand, unless you like how it looks right there and then). finsh with a laye of glue and water mixed together 50-50 (not just any glue, it needs to be fluid glue to begin with). If you want building in, just place them at the same time on the glue as when you put the sand effect there and they should smoothly fit right in.