There's a great tutorial on CoolMiniOrNot about making your own Lava board. I've been wanting to make my own for a while so I thought I'd follow his steps.

Here's a pic of his finished LAVA board!

What I like the most about his board is the added detail to terrain pieces. This, in my opinion, is what separates it from your run-of-the-mill gaming board. He also did a great job explaining the process and materials used.

Materials:
3/4" x Foam Board
Foam Cutter = $8, but we paid $4 from Michael's coupon
2x4 MDF boards = $2.18 a sheet from Home Depot
Locktite caulking x2 = $3 each. Already had a few of these.
Acrylic caulking x2 = $2-3 @ Walmart
Caulking Gun = $1 Again had this laying around
Hot Glue Gun (Optional) = $3 for gun + $7 for 100 sticks
Black Latex Paint = $1-10 @ Home Depot/Walmart
24oz paints = $1 from various craft stores.
Paint Brushes = $1 from dollar store
Batteries, D cell for foam cutter x2 = $5 (cost more than the cutter)


1) I started with a 4x8 foot sheet of foam and cut it into 2x4 sheets. Three sections are going to make up the board while the fourth piece may be another section or maybe for terrain pieces.

2) After a couple doodles I decided on a design and sketched it out. My only dilema, as a chaos daemon player, is having enough room to deep strike my units. Unlike the other board I opted to not make a volcano in the middle and instead added a lowered section of terrain.

3) Cutting the foam. Pretty straight forward. It's about as difficult as cutting butter with a warm knife. I moved the wire in a sawing motion to add some jagged edges to the lip.

4) Adding a little detail to the terrain. The 90 degree angle didn't look right for this board (maybe an ice board) so I wen't over it again at a 45 degree angle. This gave it much better detail.

5) I numbered the sections so I wouldn't forget where they went. Good thing too since I had a fun time trying to get them positioned correctly, lol.

6) With everything cut it was time to glue the board in place. I loaded the locktite multi-purpose adhesive (it's just what I had in the tool box) and got to work. Pretty straight forward, just pull the trigger and keep the glue about 1-2 inches from any edges. Keep a nice bead going and cover the board evenly.

7) The three sheets were stacked on a flat surface with the mdf board facing up. I placed plenty of weight over it and let it cure for 24 hours.

Recently, while reading through a lot of how to and DIY threads I got inspired to make my own carrying case. Looking around the house I found a thick plastic tool case I had stuffed away in the closet.

Perfect!

I considered doing the copper coupling method to add slots to the foam, but a majority of my army won't fit in them properly. Instead I took a piece of perforated foam left over from an old case and tore out the sections I needed. Fortunately I was able to get most of my figures in a sheet without much wasted space.

The case is from a Dewalt Tool set that was on display in a hardware store. A lot of those places save them and eventually throw them out, so if you can get your hands on them they work great for storage containers!


Argh... Chaos stuff is too pointy to fit in anything properly, lol. I think this will work out in the end, though.

Next Iadded more to the bottom layer then start on the top half. For that I used a piece of foam board and glued it to the foam with spray adhesive.

The uncut piece of foam board.


Here I used pieces that were about the same height and cut them to fit


Since this layer is thinner I may use it for more troops and oddities.


The foam on the bottom of the lid comes out and holds the rules books, dice, etc.

That's it so far. This weekend I'll get to gluing the foam together and making adjustments. After that I'll give it a coat of paint and maybe the Imperial Aquilla or Chaos Symbol.