If anyone is looking for custom vinyl play mats I recommend looking at: http://www.bannersonthecheap.com/
For a vinyl 3x6 "banner" they are charging $23.56 + shipping. I just purchased one of their banners for a map for my RPG and it looks great. I plan on purchasing a mat for Armada here soon.
To make it I am downloading some of the free 300 dpi images from the hubble space telescope. It makes for some amazing play areas.
Salcor
Excellent idea, thanks!
Thanks for the tip, Salcor! If anyone's interested, they're apparently having a deal for free shipping on their site, plus some discount on the mat itself. Got my 3x6 for $20, with free shipping. Hard to beat that price!
thanks for the post Salcor, I've been looking to add a playmat.
Ordered mine just now. I really want a good 'mouse pad' style mat but for $20.03 shipped it was worth a role of the dice!
Thanks for the tip!!!
J--
I see that the ships slide around to much on this kind of stuff, and in this game with the movement tool range rulers and the very critical arcs of fire lines. A ship sliding as little as 1/32 of an inch out of line or range while setting the tool or ruler can loose a game for you and other such things. Felt all the way for me and I'm thinking of adding a small tab of Velcro on the ship bases too.. just my out look on game mats. 
Most banner-makers when they say vinyl they mean the krinkly banner type stuff, which doesn't make a good playmat. Let us know how the material works, if it's mousepad-style I would want to pick one up
Got mine in the mail yesterday.
it looks good and lays flat. ill take a picture of it this weekend if i think of it. for 20 bucks this was a hell of a deal. easy to make and easy to get. they run their 15% off promo almost constantly too from what i can see.
Got mine yesterday, too. Can't wait to try it out! No complaints here.
Nice!
Care to share the 300 DPI images you used? One of my students has parents that owns print shop, so I think I can get something similar done for mates' rates.
I really want to try one of these mats but I'm afraid that they will wrinkle or they will be too slippery. Can anyone give some quick thoughts on how they turn out?
I see that the ships slide around to much on this kind of stuff, and in this game with the movement tool range rulers and the very critical arcs of fire lines. A ship sliding as little as 1/32 of an inch out of line or range while setting the tool or ruler can loose a game for you and other such things. Felt all the way for me and I'm thinking of adding a small tab of Velcro on the ship bases too.. just my out look on game mats.
I've been playing X-Wing since release, and I've played on every surface out there. Felt does present the least slip, but at the cost of being very hard to cut and keep at actual size. I've never played on a felt mat that was even close to being a true 3x3 or 3x6 square, and one of our stores had a family member who was a professional seamstress make their felt mats for them.
The slip on vinyl BannersontheCheap (my preferred gaming mat, HIGHLY recommend them for the cost and quality) is no worse than the slip on the mouse-pad mats (including FFG's official mats, which are gorgeous but expensive) and is far less slick than poster mats that other companies sell for much higher prices. And all of that being said, the traction on felt isn't that much better than the other surfaces, as any bump with enough force to move the ship will usually move it on just about any surface. I suppose it would make a practical difference on very very light accidental bumps, but those are pretty rare.
Edited by AllWingsStandyingBy
Thank you, you are a gentleman and a scholar.
Tried their site, but the image I was using, while under 20mb, was 50mp and would not display, was this an issue with anyone else that got a mat made?
Does anyone have a picture of their mat? I'd love to see what they look like upon arrival.
I've had several PVC mats printed and they work fine. They are a bit "slippy", but not the disaster that people think it will be. Generally if you place your ship carefully there's no problem - I've played on the more mouse-mat style of mats too and generally, if the ship gets an accidental bump, it's going to end up out of position regardless.
I've used this place: https://www.pixartprinting.com/
They have an online pricing tool that will give you a total cost that *includes* delivery - usually about €20 / €25 depending on if you have a discount (I'm on their mailing list and they run 20% discounts every few months).
Attached is a sample pic. This was originally a 6x4 mat for playing Battlefleet Gothic that I added some translucent borders to to reduce the play area to 6x3 - also gives you a nice set-up area for cards
The material is 500gsm PVC. This is the cheapest you can get really. The mouse mat style for me cost €80/€90 so it was a price decision as I can nearly have 4 of these mats for the same price - I've had several printed for playing 40K too (adds a lot to the game)