What makes a permanent grid on white board? Help needed with homemade "tac-tiles"

[d12]

If you have a very steady hand there is also a paint that leaves a raised residue on the surface. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the product but we used it to make a grid board for the military on a white board.

The stuff came in little bottles with an applicator and was available in a variety of colors including black, different shades of gray and even light blue (to match graph paper).

If anyone knows what this paint is called, please chime in. It sounds like it might be the thing I need.

 

[chriton227]

If anyone knows what this paint is called, please chime in. It sounds like it might be the thing I need.

That sounds almost like Liquid Leading, a specialty paint used to make faux stained glass. It comes in black, silver, and gold, and leaves a distinct bead to simulate the leading you would find in real stained glass. But I've never seen it in blue

 

[Kzach]

Assuming this is a cardboard product with a plastic overcoat on a white paper background, I'd recommend a ball point pen, preferably one with no ink left.

It has to be a thick line ball point pen so that it doesn't cut into the product even if you press hard.

With a nice straight-edge (metal rulers are best), score the cardboard deeply (but not deep enough to actually cut through the thin plastic coating). Then use a whiteboard marker and go over the lines.

What happens is that the ink from the whiteboard marker fills in the deep grooves and only comes off if you really get into it and scrub out the grooves. And even then, the grooves are deep enough to see even in low light.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I think tact tiles were actually screen printed. Not sure if you would want to go that far though...

 

[fenzer]

I've use an exacto knife to grid a featureless whiteboard. Went pretty well (make sure to use a metal ruler of some kind as a guide). Dry erase "residue" accumulates pretty fast in the grooves and the grid darkens as it is used.

AR

Ditto. This is exactly what we did and it works very well. The residue negates any further need to mark the lines. Clean, crisp, permanent grid.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I just used permanent marker.

Spoiler

It didn't work well in the long run; it eventually got erased.

 

[Kzach]

This is the closest I've been able to find doing a search online for this product. This is really frustrating 'cause this is as close to Tac-Tiles as we're likely to get and I'd really like to get a bunch of these.

Wipe Works

 

[Kzach]

Multi-post.

 

[fba827]

Another vote for using thin tape (black or even masking tape). Measure it out and tape it down. Works fine.

While I have never used it for a D&D prop, we actually used this method for a work schedule and tally grid at the office for several years. So it went through lots of wipe-downs every week without a problem.

 

[Nyaricus]

I'll chime in for using a knife and cutting in the lines on the whiteboard. works PERFECTLY - and so long as you have a decently steady hand, no mess!

----------------
Now playing: Amon Amarth - Annihilation of Hammerfest