Koopa's Troopas! The quest for a new field

Well, the local Blood Bowl league is now in full swing. Sadly, I can't participate because of conflicting work schedule of the wife (someone has to watch the little egg head, lol) so I was given the opportunity to play "challenger". This means that, when my schedule allows, I can show up and smash heads with guys in the league so they can "attempt" to get some bonuses off me while I bash their heads in *insert evil grin here*. That being said, I decided to dig out my old Lizardmen.

Upon looking at them, their current manager Danzig (formerly manager of the Chaos team "Danzig's Destroyers") just didn't seem to fit the bill. So, I sent him packing back to the Destroyers and began the search for a new manager, new name, and overall a new look for the team. That's when it hit me. These lizards need to be lead by the king lizard. King Koopa himself! So the Koopa's Troopas were born!

Fast forward a few minutes and it was decided that Koopa's Troopas don't play on cardboard. These reptiles are elite! They demmand the finer things in life. Thus, they require a custom pitch! I broke out some graph paper and began to plot how I wanted the field dimensions to look:

I have the basic pitch size with a few minor tweaks. I increased the side lines to 2 squares so figures running down them don't have to fear of falling off the board. The end zones were also increased to 3 squares deep because I plan to add end zone graphics of some sort to them. Next, I took stock of what grass colors I had:

I have Light, Medium, and Dark grass to play with. I decided that instead of a universal spread of grass, I would alternate squares to give it that freshly mowed look. To add to that, I didn't want the typical lines back and forth so I went with a different type of design:

So now I had everything mapped out. Time to start putting things into motion. I hit my garage and grabbed some insulation foam and cut my 30" x 19" board out. I then proceeded to grid the entire board (I didn't really need to grid the sidelines or end zones but all I had was a ruler so I played it safe for accuracy):

Once the lines were drawn out, I ran an exacto knife down each line to deepen the groove. I was careful not to cut the foam too deep. Once the lines were all cut, I pushed my ruler into each groove and rocked it back and forth to widen the gapes between each square to give them more definition:

Next, it was off to the garage to use the bandsaw and cut myself a piece of hardboard to go underneath for added support. Foam won't last long at that size without some form of stury support underneath:

And now, as I sit here typing this, the pitch is in the garage, drying. I laid it out on a few stools and applied woodglue to the back of the foam. The hardboard was then laid on top with a few weights to keep constant pressure to ensure a tight and firm bond. I have found that woodglue works best when gluing foam.

So that is the current status of the Koopa's Troopa's new field. I have a few ideas and templates made up for the center field logo as well as a few other odds and ends. Pics and future work will follow soon as progress happens!