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Showing posts from March, 2023

Hobby Update - The shifting maze

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 Over Christmas I got inspired and built a shifting maze game board. This is a recent game of Solo Stargrave. At the start of each turn the player picks up the spare tile and puts it at one end of the 2nd, 4th or 6th row or column and then slides that whole row or column down so that the just placed tile is part of the maze and the tile at the other end pops out and becomes the spare. The only restriction is you can't put the tile back where it came from. As the tiles slide past each other, new entrances are created and others closed off. Players can use the changing of the maze to advance their own characters, hinder the opposing team or unleash monsters. In this game it was very difficult to keep the whole team in the same tile and as a result the team got separated and in some cases eaten alone and in the dark. For the monsters I rolled randomly where the spare tile would go. In the end 3 members of the team made it across the board with a couple of treasures. I made the tiles w

Hobby update - volcanic vents

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 I got inspired by a picture of some volcanic vents on the Crooked Dice site. These are STL files Being old or at least old skool, I embarked on making some of my own. I made these by casting some vent shapes in large glasses. I made the molds out of tin foil. The vent shape using a rolling pin and then bending the foil back over itself with a toilet roll which was just wider than the end of the rolling pin. I had to carefully stuff the foil into the glass and then fill the shape with casting plaster. For some of the first casts I made the casting plaster too watery, I wanted it to flow into the gaps in the mold but it ended up a bit weak and fragile. I got the mix better on the second batch. I then glued the vents to bases and painted them. Dark on the outside and then tried for a glowing effect on the inside. These make nice line of sight blocking terrain for infantry and obstacles for vehicles.