For the longest time I’ve been looking for something that could be used to cover not only the ocean floor (for Deep Wars), but also the surface of Mars (Gruntz/anything else sci-fi), and even a desert landscape (Malifaux, Fistful of Kung Fu, etc). Part of the requirements was that the mat’s textures and colors complimented the (now out of print) Badlands terrain pieces put out by Battlefront. I don’t know why they take their obviously well-selling products off the market regularly, but that’s another post…anyway, I was having a devil of a time finding something that would cover the bases…then I stumbled across Deep-Cut Studios. They have some of the most gorgeous pre-printed mats I have seen to date. Printed on thin vinyl and matching the colors I was looking for, I caved and ordered a 4′ X 6′ Badlands mat.
I had originally asked the team at Deep-Cut about a custom sized 4′ x 4′ or 3′ x 3′ for the Badlands, but learned that it and a few other designs on their site are licensed designs (I believe Dave Graffam is licensing his great cardstock mats through them for printing on vinyl) and are only available in the sizes listed. So pro: you can get some of their mats custom sized, con: mine wasn’t one of them…oh well, not a deal breaker.
Oh, and by the by, the product ships from Lithuania, so if you’re in the US be patient. It wasn’t a long wait, but when you were antsy to get it in-hand…well…;)
When the mat arrived it was packaged nicely in a solid tube that I’ll use to store it in (note: shipping from Deep-Cut is a flat rate, so if you’re considering ordering multiple mats, do so at once, that’s a nice feature for us across the pond who are interested).
The mat was rolled tightly up in the tube, making me a bit worried on how it would roll out and lay on the table:
But it spread out nice and flat. These next couple images show it with a bit flipped over to the back and how thick the mat is (was asked for thickness…it’s pretty thin, but sturdy):
A few shots of it on the table. Note that my dining room table isn’t quite 4×6, but the overhang you see didn’t impact it when I did lay it flat or when I went back to roll it up. It has done a great job maintaining its ‘flatness’:
Since I wanted to see how it looked with some models and terrain on the table we then set up some of the terrain I’d be using with it most and shot a few pictures. The color balance changes a few times depending on my angle and the glare from the window, so use the darker images as a better color reference (and that on the website) to get you a better impression.
These pictures don’t really do it the justice they should. The mat feels durable and is fairly non-skid (have a space mat on different vinyl from a different manufacturer and the Xwings slide around on it…Deep-Cut makes some great looking space mats…hmmm…) and is exactly what I was hoping for when I ordered it. I’m not a big fan of ordering sight-unseen like this, so the material, image quality, and customer service when I asked about a custom size have definitely impressed me. Expect to see the mat featured in future battle reports on the blog. 😀
All in all I’d give it a 4.5/5. Only downside for this mat was the lack of size customizing, and I know that’s being picky, but I’d love to have one at 4×6, 4×4, 3×3, etc to meet different game needs without marking the space. 🙂
They seem to be coming out with quite a few new items, so check them out , you will probably find something to your liking and at a very reasonable price. www.deepcutstudio.com
shiny penny musings 