Several weeks ago I posted a tutorial on how to mount flimsy cardstock player boards to chipboard to help them match the look and feel of other board game components. I included some instruction therein on how to make and mount artwork backings to those boards, and offhandedly mentioned the same process could be use to mount/make double-sided player boards.

That wasn’t enough information, though. People had a lot of questions about how I do double-sided boards, and a lot of comments trying to extrapolate the process that didn’t quite hit the mark. So, I figured I’d sit down and make a separate tutorial for that process.

Bear in mind: Much of this process is close to, if not identical, the “Mounting Flimsy Boards to Chipboard” tutorial, so if you’ve read/followed that post, a lot of this will be repetition for you. But if you want to do double-sided boards in the future, I suggest following this tutorial all the way through so you can internalize the differences.

I will also reiterate: this is a purely aesthetic upgrade! We’re not creating dual-layered, recessed boards here. We’re just making nicer player boards so those of us who have a problem with component inconsistency or feel card-stock boards come across as cheap can rectify that production decision.

MATERIALS NEEDED

A Note About Corner Punches: Most craft punches, like the ones made by Fiskars, will not cut chipboard. The one I link to above is, in my experience, the best option for rounding the corners on chipboard components. Wargamers have been using Oregon Lamination corner punches for decades to smooth out the corners on the chits for hex-and-counter games, and they’re right on the money. These punches are amazing. Accept no substitutes.

With single-sided boards, I’ll typically just mount the included game board to chipboard and call it a day. With double-sided boards, however, I prefer to scan both sides of the board and print new copies. There are a lot of ways this process can go just slightly sideways, and having printed scans allows me more leeway for mistakes.

I won’t go into details about scanning boards and all the fiddly bits involved with that. You’ll have to be comfortable with print resolutions, possible color and/or size corrections, and graphics software that will allow you to make the boards look as nice as possible. I’m not the right person to teach those skills, so I’m going to limit my instruction on this point to:

Scan both sides of the board you wish to mount and print off the copies on a high-quality color printer using nice linen-finish paper. I have an older Canon Pro 9000 MkII printer, and I print on Neenah Paper’s CLASSIC Linen Digital in Avalanche White. The linen finish adds a nice texture to the board and feels nice to the touch. It’s a good aesthetic choice for game boards.

I’m able to print up to 13”x19”, so my print looks like this:

MOUNTING AND CUTTING THE “FRONT” OF THE BOARD

Take your print of the front side of your boards – in my case I’m using the boards from Century: A New World, so the “front” for the purposes of this tutorial are all the “1” sides of each board (A1, B1, etc.).

Trim away most of the excess paper around the print, but leave a small white border around your board (about ¼ inch).

Then, flip that image over and apply a generous amount of spray adhesive to the back. Don’t spray the chipboard in this step – always do the “front” board image.

Lay the image, glue side down (duh), on a chipboard sheet. I suggest AGAINST trying to align the edge of the board with the chipboard; that way lies madness. It’s easier to just drop the board onto the chipboard and trim away the excess, and it will produce cleaner results.

The first thing you’ll want to do before cutting is look at your image and determine which edges would be best to trim a little off. Find the sides that don’t have any play information or are close to board elements.

We’ll start by cutting the sides that can’t be trimmed.

Place the glued board onto a cutting mat (don’t cut over a surface you don’t want marred), and align your ruler with one side of the image, as tightly to the edge of the images as you can.

Put pressure on the ruler so it doesn’t move, then cut away the excess chipboard.

Important Note on Cutting: Do not try to cut through the chipboard in one cut. You’ll dull your blade faster and generally end up with a rougher edge. Use firm but not hard pressure and cut through the board in multiple passes. With a new, very sharp blade, It’ll usually take 2-3 passes. As the blade dulls over time it may take up to 5-6 passes, but be patient and don’t try to force it. The final product will look nicer if you take your time.

Repeat this process for one other side of the board, again aligning the ruler as tightly as possible to the image edge.

Here’s where the process diverges from mounting single-sided boards a little bit. For these cuts, we’re going to be trimming away a small – very small – amount of the actual board image so that the resulting board is about 1mm (or less) smaller in both directions than the back-side image we’ll be mounting it to.

NOTE: I had several people tell me there are better ways to do this, suggesting things like content-aware fill and other methods. Their reasoning is that trimming some of the image away means you’ll potentially be cutting off usable parts of the board you’re mounting. I assure you it’s just not true. We’re talking about making the boards less than 1mm smaller, and you’ll be purposely trimming away useless bits.

If you understand what content-aware fill is and have access to the software to implement it, then you don’t need my help making things like this. I, for one, do not have access to more advanced features like that, and I’m trying to tailor these tutorials for as many people as possible. So, for this tutorial, I’m telling you to trim a little bit of the image away.

For the other two sides of the board, align your ruler about 1mm into the artwork from the edge (the amount does not need to be super precise, as long as your alignment is).

The cut away the two leftover sides, eliminating all the excess chipboard.

MOUNTING THE BACK-SIDE IMAGE

Now that you’ve mounted and cut the front side of your board, what you should have is a board that is very slightly smaller than your back-side image. To check this, lay the board you just made on top of your back-side image and check the size.

If you have a light box, you can skip the next couple of steps if you so choose, because you can use the light box to do your alignment. I, however, prefer to draw guide lines on the back of each board anyway, because for me it makes aligning the boards easier.

With a light box, lay your back-side image face down on so you can see the image through the paper.

If you don’t have a light box, use a window to mark the edges of the image on the back of the paper, like this:

NOTE: I stole the above image from my previous tutorial, because I forgot to take one for this tutorial.

Draw lines on the back of the print to mark the edges of the image, like this:

This way, you’ll be able to line up the placement of your board for the next step. I also like to write “Top” along the appropriate edge on the back to help me remember how to align everything.

Now, apply a generous layer of spray adhesive to the back (blank) side of your already mounted board.

Then, using either the light box or the marked lines from the last step to determine alignment, place the board glue side down (duh) onto the back.

Place your mounted board onto a cutting mat and align your metal ruler with the edge of the board.

Use your xActo knife to cut away the excess paper, making sure the blade lines up exactly with the edge of the chipboard.

The reason we use a metal ruler in this step is to ensure the xActo blade doesn’t accidentally bite into the edge of the chipboard and unintentionally carve away a section of your board. Again, when cutting, use firm but not hard pressure. Even if it takes two cuts to get through the paper (it shouldn’t with a sharp blade) it’s worth going slow.

Then, repeat the process for all four sides.

FIXING ERRORS

There’s always a chance that when you mount the back-side image to the board, you’ll find a sliver of white when you cut away the excess paper.

Fixing issues like this is fairly straightforward. Just align your metal ruler with the edge of the board, but stepped in far enough to cut away the mistake.

Put pressure on the ruler so it doesn’t move, then use a very sharp xActo blade to carefully trim away a sliver of the side of the board.

APPLYING FINISH

With normal linen paper like this, you’ll need to apply a few coats of varnish to ensure the ink doesn’t peel, fade, or become marked. Spray one side of the board with acrylic sealer in fine, light coats, waiting about 15-20 minutes between coats, until you’ve built up a nice surface.

Once the varnish on the front side is dry, flip the boards over and do the same for the backs.

DON’T try to shortcut this process by spraying a single heavy coat! A heavy coat of sealant will create a blotchy effect and can potentially soak through your linen paper and undermine the adhesive underneath.

Acrylic varnish will help bring out the colors on the board as well as protecting the ink from damage. I really like the way the finished boards look.

And you’re done! Well… maybe.

Unless you want to round the corners of the board for aesthetic purposes, that is.

PUNCHING THE CORNERS (OPTIONAL)

As I mentioned at the start, you’ll want a good, heavy-duty corner rounder for this step. The only ones I’ve found that truly work consistently and make nice, smooth cuts are the punches from Oregon Lamination. The link above will take you to the exact punch I use.

This step is easy: Slide the corners of your finished board into the punch and squeeze. That’s it.

This will produce a nice, rounded edge to your boards that, in my personal opinion, is much more aesthetically pleasing than squared corners.

This also helps prevent the corners from getting damaged in storage or if you drop a board.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Now, you can replace your thin, flimsy, card-stock boards…

…with nice, mounted, double-sided boards that match the look and feel of the other mounted board game components!

I love this particular upgrade. It really bugs me when companies use card-stock for player or central boards in games. It always feels cheap to me, and I love upgrading them like this. I just flat like the final result better than simple card-stock boards.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I’d love to see your results if you follow this tutorial for your own player boards. Happy gaming!

NOTE: Although I post a lot of the custom artwork for the various boxes and poker chips (and one playmat) I’ve made, I will not post scanned artwork for game boards. There is too much risk of pirating/counterfeiting in that instance. If you want to do this, you’ll have to scan your own boards to make it happen. Sorry not sorry.

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Category: Tutorials