The portable wargame: How to represent roads?

My recent blog entry about the terrain I hope to use with my portable wargame generated quite a few comments ... and several ideas as to how to represent roads. My existing solution – to use cream masking tape – meant that roads were not easy to see on the vinyl chessboard, and the very helpful suggestions that have been made have given me much food for thought.

The suggestions include:

• Identi-tape – This was suggested by Ross Mac. It is a form of gaffer tape that comes in different colours and widths. It is sold in the UK under the trade name of Pro-Gaff gaffer tape.
• Double thicknesses of masking tape – This was suggested by Bluebear Jeff and means that I can use my existing stock of masking tape.
• Coloured masking tape (also known a Washi tape) – This was suggested by Chris and jfidz, and it is readily available from the John Lewis Partnership.

In addition to these suggested solutions, arthur1815 proposed that I use lengths of coloured paper/card to represent rivers, and that they could be stuck to the vinyl chessboard with double-sided sticky tape. This has the major advantage of making it possible to make rivers that are not straight, thus improving the ‘look’ of the whole thing.

All of these suggested solutions are not only feasible; they are also very practical and relatively inexpensive. I discussed these alternatives with my wife, and she suggested that I consider using arthur1815's basic idea for making rivers, but use repositionable Pritt Glue Dots to fix the paper/card to the vinyl chessboard rather than use double-sided sticky tape. As she has a supply of these Glue Dots that I can use, I am going to experiment with them as soon as I can. As to the roads, the Washi tape looks like it should be quite easy to obtain in appropriate colours as there is a branch of the John Lewis Partnership at the nearby regional shopping centre.

Thanks to some of my regular blog readers – and my wife – it looks as if the problem is solved.