Nice one! I actually did a table top project on a table with the same shape. Gotta love those oval tables. I am thinking about doing another tabl with some kind of map on it, so was really interested in your instructable.

What a lot of work though! I wonder if one could achieve a similar effect by covering the "world" parts and then applying stron paint stripper to the rest of the surface. Well fo course then you do not get that nice structured background.