HeroQuest DIY and everything else MB/GW

TL;DR - I like HeroQuest/Space Crusade etc.. most of my old sets met an unfortunate fate, looking to DIY new stuff... anyone here recommend good methods/materials for achieving this.

Or anyone with HQ/AHQ/SC stuff for sale and not wanting a small fortune.. hit me up.

Also happy just to talk about anything else GW/MB did... loved the (fairly) straightforward gameplay, but still with some plot. Not a skirmish, but not taking hours and hours to play either (most of the time).

Full post:
So I have very fond memories of HeroQuest, I used to have the Australian base set when I was about 10, then over the years found a second base and Keller's Keep at a garage sale, Return of the Witch Lord and Against the Ogre Horde for $10 each in a clearance store if you would believe.

Fast forward to me being in my 20's and having all my board games kept at my mothers house, she splits with hubby #3, the douchebag never returns my stuff (oh no wait I got my Space Crusade missing about 50% of the pieces >_>). So all that HQ is probably in a landfill in tasmania somewhere q_q

Fast forward to earlier this year and my lovely wife spies a HQ base in a thrift store for $5, brings it home. It's pretty beat up, but all the contents are there, with some crappy paint jobs and broken weapons lol. ROTWL was in there too which was a nice surprise, as well as a random metal skaven and what looks like a hog thing riding a wolf lol.

My prediciment now, is that I cannot afford to replace the other expansions at ebay prices, and I'd love to try the other NA sets, but definitely not shelling out $300+ for them. I have digital copies of all the tiles and characters, so I figured I'd just DIY some of the tiles and use paper figures, or possibly buy replacement figurines off ebay or something here and there.
Anyone here have experience with creating your own tiles? What kind of paper did you print on, did you mount them etc? I don't want any fancy 3d effects or anything, just something solid like the cardstock on the official tiles... any recommended bases for figures if I go the paper route? (door bases?)

Also of course if anyone wants to unload any official HQ/AHQ or Space Crusade bits and bobs for less than the blood of my first born, let me know :-P

It has been years since I have seen a HQ board, but I think they were 1" squares. How about using hirstart molds for the board?

[url=http://http://www.hirstarts.com/]http://www.hirstarts.com/[/url]

I just finished a big PnP tile project so I can give you a few tips.

I had access to a color laser printer when I printed my tiles, but an inkjet would work. If you go the color laser route you might get away with not laminating/sealing, but with the inkjet you'll want to laminate/seal for sure. I used full sheet labels for all of my tiles. To laminate them I placed my labels back-to-back with plenty of margin so that, once it was laminated, I could cut inside the lamination and both tiles would separate with lamination only on the printed side. I just used a cheap home laminator so I had problems with some of the lamination looking "cloudy" where it didn't get hot enough. I just ran them through the laminator 2-3 times until they came out clear.

A lot of people swear by using spray glue and spray sealer, but where I live it's only suitable for spraying about 30 days out of the year, so I never use them.

HQ expansion tiles are relatively thin, so I'd either get some single-thickness chip board from a hobby store (like Michaels or Hobby Lobby) or mount the tiles on the back of a cereal box, something like that. You'll want a self-healing cutting mat and for cutting out the tiles I'd use a utility knife (i.e., box cutter) with replacement blades, along with a cork-backed metal ruler. An exacto knife is okay, but I feel like the utility knife is more stable while making straight cuts.

If you're on a super-tight budget, you might get away with using Mod Podge as a dual-purpose glue/sealer. It'll be more messy (and inkjet ink might smear), but it should seal it okay.

As for bases, the Star Wars: Jedi Unleashed game comes with 90+ bases and can be had for relatively little off eBay. Otherwise I'd just scour the thrift stores and try to get some for cheap out of other crappy games.

There was a site a while back (maybe four or five years ago?) that sold Space Crusade parts individually, and at a pretty decent price. I lucked into a RIDICULOUS trade and got Space Crusade and the Dreadnaught expansion for something like Goa. I'm not kidding. The only thing was it was the Dutch version of Space Crusade, Starquest. So I ordered all of the parts I needed in English from this place, including a couple of extra bits to replace some broken figures.

I just do not remember what the place was called. I do recall that they had Heroscape stuff as well.

Score!

Why doesn't Hasbro re-launch something similar? Is it GW that isn't keen any more? Or is it too much hassle for Hasbro?

@SebastianBludd - thanks, I was actually thinking about cereal boxes... great minds and all that am I right
Wonder if I can get away with using the work laser printer... hmm...
Does laminate make the tiles too slippery? I guess if they are flat it won't matter.

Jedi unleashed is a good tip, I'll keep my eye out for a cheap local copy, otherwise I'm up for $20+ shipping from the states.

Let me clarify a bit: if you don't plan on doing anymore PnP projects after this one then it's more cost-effective to use a spray-on matte sealer than laminating pouches since the sealer is about $5(?) a can whereas a package of 8-1/2" x 11" pouches is about $15. My latest project consisted of 18 tiles (6.75" square), a dozen player info sheets, and a page's worth of pawns, so it made sense for me to laminate.

IIRC, the HQ expansions only run about 2-3 sheets of counters each so you'll have to decide if it's worth the money to you to laminate. I personally don't think the lamination's too slick, and if you aren't rough with your bits you might get away with no protection at all if you're able to use a color laser printer.

Also, tonight I remembered that I have a lot of the cardboard bits for Advanced HQ if you're interested. I have all the room tiles, I'm only missing one corridor tile (corner junction), I have 2 of the 4 "Map" tiles (Plague Temple and Magic Maze), and of the room hazards I'm just missing one floor grate. Shoot me a PM and maybe we can work something out since they were extras in a trade I made a few years ago and I don't have any plans for them.