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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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I had such good intentions when I started this blog... I so wanted to stay on top of it and actually accomplish something. Well, it looks like I am going to be incapacitated on the print-and-play front for a while. My home computer went kaput... I'm trying to investigate what might be going wrong (as it stands, it won't post). I thought it might be a bad power supply, but further tests have revealed that not to be the case. Might try out a new stick of ram to see if that is the problem, but I suspect it is either the motherboard or processor.
The thing is pretty old, I had been thinking about upgrading anyway. I may not put a whole lot of effort into fixing it and instead look into upgrading with a whole new motherboard and processor. That will take time though... time I wanted to spend printing and cutting.
This is so aggravating. I haven't been able to get any crafting done over the last several weeks because I had been so busy with putting in a new garden, and now that I have that work almost done, this happens. And what is more, in the past week our tv also went out, and something got into our chicken coop (coyote I think) and got all of our chickens.. No more fresh eggs for me until the little ones we got are laying 
I've been looking at
tom franklin
United States
Garner
North Carolina
and all of the progress he has been making and I am just chomping at the bit to get back into it. Hopefully I can get things up and running before May 21... I'm still holding to that as the deadline to finish the Hoth game. Hmm, maybe one of you came and sabotaged my computer in hopes that you would get the game sent to you... you will be defied!
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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In this post I'll go through the rest of the construction for making BSG Express.
---The Dice---
Dice play a big role in this game, so you can expect a lot of them! If you are thinking of making this, you need to be prepared to make 24 custom dice. A popular option is to obtain indented dice and make stickers. My method is a bit different. Since I enjoy papercraft and origami, my sensibilities were drawn to the idea of making origami dice. I stumbled on a method for creating origami cubes when I was developing some origami explorations for a geometry class I was teaching. It occurred to me that this method would be perfect for making custom dice. I've made a post about this before, so I won't go into every detail on how I make them. Instead, I'll refer you to my tutorial.
Here is the setup:
I can fit 9 dice on one sheet. I could probably squeeze in one more, but I was afraid my printer would cut off the image at the margin.
I like to put a real die inside of the origami die to give it heft and keep them from getting crushed. My local Dollar Tree often sells ten-packs of 16mm dice, so I stocked up on them the other day. (Note - around here it is hit or miss whether they actually carry the dice, so your mileage may vary) You can see one of those packs in the above picture.
The picture also shows my cutter. This is a relatively new purchase. So far, I am really liking it. It makes doing repetitive straight cuts so much easier. Since I have to cut out so many little rectangles, it was handy for this project.
Once you have the rectangles cut out, you need to fold them over each other to make the tabs
The ones without the die face form the cube base. In my tutorial, it was noted that putting the base together can be a bit fiddly. One way to mitigate that is to start with a die and just put each panel on over it.
The die adds stability and keeps the sections from falling in on themselves.
All that is left not is to put the actual face panels on. This process is detailed in my tutorial. Here is a picture of the final results.
---The Board---
I don't really have much to add here beyond what Andrew Tullson already detailed in his seminal tutorial on making folding boards. The board for this game is easier in that it is just 3 panels, so it will just be an accordion fold. Normally I would use illustration board or chip board or whatever you want to call it. I had some scraps, but nothing big enough for the full board. Instead, I decided to just glue together three sheets of card stock. While this certainly isn't as thick as chipboard, it was stiff enough.
Here is one section being taped. I am using strapping tape from staples.
Here is the reverse side with the other section is taped.
The only thing that I do differently than Andrew is that I fold the edges of the board over to the back of the board. In fact, in the above image you can see the flaps from the middle section. Also, I don't use label sheets. I am too cheap and I find spray glue to be pretty easy to use. (See my previous post for a discussion of my spraying station setup)
Here is the left panel. I cut off the corners at an angle so that they fold over easier.
Note, I made a mistake, I should have tapered the right edge of the flap as well. This mistake had some unfortunate consequences that I will discuss in a minute. Here is the back showing how the flaps folded over.
And, Here is the final board completed.
Note that there is a visible gap between the left and middle panel. This is where my mistake came into play. After I had it all glued on and tried to fold the board, I encountered resistance. Well, it turns out that I accidentally put the section about 1 or 2 millimeters over the fold line. Since the top edge was folded to the back, it prevented the board from folding clean and I ended up mucking up the board. I had to go back and do a bit of surgery. Ah well.
---The Tiles---
While I do have a method for making double sided tiles on chipboard, for this project I decided to follow the instructions and just fold a piece of cardstock. Here are the pieces, scored on the fold-line.
To make them a bit thicker, I put another piece of cardstock in the middle, much like I do with making cards. All it takes is a quick spray of glue, some rolling with the handy rolling pin, and some cuts. The finished chits can be seen in this picture.
The final results are pretty nice. Not quite as nice as if they were on chipboard, but they will work well.
DONE
All that is needed is a box to put them in. Unfortunately, I haven't taken up box construction yet. Here is the box I am using for this game.
I bought a bunch of boxes in the after Christmas clearance sale. This one seemed to be a good size. Eventually, I'll print out a cover and glue it onto the front.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have some things to show you soon for the Hoth game.
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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I'll first go through the process that I used for making the cards. There are two people who were highly influential to my process, do lets pay due props first.
First, Nick Hayes has a very nice tutorial here where he describes a method for creating cards that have a lovely linen texture.
The main difference between his method and mine is that I don't use linen card stock. Instead, I use plain linen paper (24 lb white - Southworth). By itself, this would not be very stiff, so what I do is glue a sheet of plain printer paper (currently using Staples brand 20 lb multipurpose paper) between the linen sheets. The end produce is closer to the thickness of regular playing cards than you would get using card stock.
The other influential tutorial was given by Sean Forrester. His post provides a nice method for making sure that the front and back are registered correctly. Before I read this, I used to line the front and back at a window and then I would get some tape and tape the sheets together. This method is much easier. Now, for BSG express, the cards are already in this format, so I didn't have to use Sean's nice template. Still, I refer you to his post to read.
Now lets get to the pictures. It always starts with a printout. Here are the pages you need to print for the cards:
This is a pretty card-light game, so you only need 5 pages (a total of 18 cards).
Now, before I do any assembly, I want to seal the card faces. The stuff I use is called "Kryon Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze". It looks like this:
So far I am pretty happy with this stuff. It leaves a pretty slick surface that both shuffles and fans pretty well. The trick is that you need to really coat the surface. Do not do several light coats! If you do, the surface will actually be more "gritty." Also, don't spray too far away.
I have a spraying station where I do all of my spraying (both sealing and gluing). I took a large box and cut along two of the edges so one of the faces folds down.
The problem with spraying is that if you want to spray multiple things, you risk getting the subsequent items all sticky. My solution to this problem is to put down a few bricks to elevate the item from the bottom of the box. Since the paper that I am spraying has a bigger footprint than the brick, the brick never gets any spray on it. This frees me to place the next thing on it without fear of getting anything messy. Just look at the box, the inside is nasty!, wouldn't want my nice printouts sitting in there. Here is a picture of the setup and a picture of a sheet that is about to be sprayed:
I usually let the spray dry for about a day before I move on to the actual card assembly step.
--Assembly--
Fast forward to the next day. First, score the cards along the fold line. There is enough bleed on these cards that being a micron off won't make it look bad.
Next I put the card sheet upside down and spray-glue the back of it. I am using Super-77. This works really well, but it is unforgiving if you make mistakes. Before fold it up, though, I grabbed a sheet of printer paper and lay it over half.
I then fold over the other half, sandwiching the printer paper between the front and back sides. Normally I would have cut the printer paper in half, but I was a bit lazy that day...
The next stage is rolling.
This is an old pie roller that has since been replaced in the kitchen with a nicer french roller, so I now use this one for my paper projects. I give it a good going over, making sure everything is tightly sealed.
Here are all the glued sheets.
After they have had a chance to dry set for a while (I think I gave it a day... maybe less), I then get to cutting. Remember to cut with the back side up. If there were registration errors, you don't want them to be seen in the cardback!
I have a corner rounder that is passably good. Here is a picture of it:
I have been a bit frustrated with it because every once in a while it cuts too deeply into the card, leaving a nasty notch. I'm not sure what causes it, but I now make sure to tap it good after each punch to make sure there isn't any debris in there. It is such a hassle to have to go back and redo all the steps just to replace one card.
Punch away and you are done:
Okay, next post I will outline making the board and tokens.
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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I've felt like a slacker. I took a mini vacation with the family, and after that I was enjoying my spring break and the lovely weather we have been having. I was thinking that March would go by without any progress. Then, in a flurry of work, I actually managed to make a complete game! This game is based on a popular space faring franchise, but it is not the Star Wars game I have been posting about.
Guesses anyone?
I made a copy of that lovely pnp hotness, BSG Express!
Now, this isn't really the kind of game I would normally make for myself. While I am very interested in the game and would love to play it, it isn't something that I can really get played. I don't really have a game group here, so most of my games are played with the family, and this kind of game isn't really up their alley. This last weekend, however, I traveled up to Madison, WI to take part in a big car wars game that some old friends ran. I figured that it would be a great venue for this game, since we all like the regular BSG game pretty well. So I decided to engage in a whirlwind construction project and got the game done in about a day (not counting time allowed for glue and finish to set).
Here it is:
Alas, though, my work was for naught. While there was interest, we didn't get it to the table. Thanks a lot, "friends"
Ah, that's okay, the car wars game was tremendously fun and I had a super time. The main problem was that this game plays only 5, and we had a bit of a larger group. I'll see that group again at Gencon, if not earlier, so there will be other opportunities.
There is an upside, it is giving me fodder for this blog! I took pictures while I built the game, so expect an upcoming post detailing my process.
On the Star Wars front.. well I have made zero progress. For some reason I am not finding the motivation to sit in front of the computer and finish up the design work on the laser towers. I might need to skip that part for a moment and just start working on the other components.
I do believe that I need a true deadline for finishing this project. So here is my challenge. If I can't get Assault on Hoth done before May 21 (the original opening date of Empire Strikes Back) then I vow to finish it up and then send it off to someone who is reading this blog for free. That should provide sufficient motivation! Really, that is a lavish amount of time, but I also have a bunch of work that I need to get done in our newly established garden so I know my "hobby time" will be pretty divided.
Okay, I'll probably pop back in this weekend with some pictures of the BSG Express build.
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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So... Though it is true that the last several weeks have been extra busy at work, I am afraid that it cannot completely account for my lack of progress. One of the reasons I started this blog was to push myself in order to stay focused on a project and see it through to completion. That has been working great, until this happened:
I was in our school bookstore buying some things for the department and I came across this book. It stopped me in my tracks and I had to pick it up... and somehow it stayed in my hand to the checkout...
A book like this could be really dangerous to my free time. They should have just put a picture of a black hole on the cover, because it could just suck me in. I WILL BE STRONG! I'll just flip through it and read the intro chapter...
What would it hurt to just try a few of the simple techniques outlined in the introduction, like square and hexagon "twists"
That was pretty nice, but it isn't really a full fold. Before I put the book away, I really have to try at least one of the projects! No one could fault me for that, right?
Cool! But, you know, that one was based on a square grid. Most of the projects are based on triangle grids. I really ought to try one of those out, just to compare how different they are to build. I mean, I HAVE to do it in the interest of science! What do you think I am, a science hater or something?!
That looks pretty neat! Good, I got that out of my system. Let's put the book away and get back to making Star Wars models.
Oh dear... Help Me
Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:41 am
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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Rebel Fleet assembled and ready for action!
I actually finished these up last Sunday. I just haven't had the time to sit in front of the computer and get the post written up. (blah...blah...excuse....blah)
For the snowspeeders, the hard part really is just getting the components assembled. Once you have them set, they come together pretty easily. I'll walk through the process in case you are interested.
First, I take the body sections and I not only blacken the edge, I also mark a bit of an outline along the edge on the reverse side.
The reason I do this is because these two pieces are going to be glued together. Even if you are very careful, it is likely that these two pieces will not line up absolutely perfectly. Even if you are a fraction of a millimeter off, you will see a white line. Unless you have a very fine tip marker, it will be impossible to go in and cover it up cleanly. If you use a regular sharpie, you will end up over marking it and having the black bleed all over your beautiful model. So, I just decide to avoid this potential disaster and do a quick outline before I glue.
Now you need to put on the back "grill" section. This not only serves as the back of the model, it helps to add structure to the model and support the angled wings. Just glue this onto the back of the model.
After you have this piece on and it has had a chance to set, put some glue on the "wing" section and the bottom half of the "grill" piece (the side that will be covered). Notice that I didn't bother edging all of that piece because I knew it would be mostly inside the model. Now put the top on and the angles should conform nicely.
Now for all the bits. Start with the cockpit. This just goes right on the little rectangle of the body. The triangular flaps should fit together. Note, again, that I colored in the triangular flaps because I knew that they won't fit exactly, you would definitely see some white space.
Note in the picture you see a black outline around the triangle flaps. This would have been white space and if you would have tried to mark it up after you glued it, you would have a much bigger black marker line (unless you have a nice fine tipped marker)
Next are the back panels. Note the orientation, the red is in the back. These just glue on.
Remember those tiny little rectangular tubes? These go between the back and middle panels. Here, toothpicks are very helpful in getting these positioned right.
There aren't really any guide marks on the model itself, you just have to eyeball where it looks good.
The little triangular panels go on now.
You have to give a bit of consideration to the orientation. They should be placed so that the top face runs horizontal.
Last, put on the cannons.
Viola, you are done!
My poor photography skills simply do not do these models justice. They are absolutely gorgeous. I don't know how to put it, they don't only look great, they have a great "tactile" feel. They feel very solid, and all the little parts make it seem like such an intricate model. I love love love them. Maybe it is just nostalgia, I fondly remember my childhood toy snowspeeder. It was probably one of my favorite possessions. Seeing them all done makes the effort totally worthwhile. Of all these little star wars models I've made for this game, these are by far my favorite.
Okay, so what is next? Well, I designed my own rebel "Laser Towers" that were used in the hoth defenses. Here is a really poor photo of one that I had left over from when I built the one over Christmas.
Not too bad considering that I have never designed a 3D paper model in my life. As you can see, though, the proportions seem a bit off. I've started going to actual movie stills and have looked more carefully at the proportions. I'll try to get a post out later detailing my thinking process and show what I come up with.
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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Guess I shouldn't get cocky, we all know what happened to the guy who uttered those words. Still it is very satisfying for the left bowl to be empty...
What that means is that all the component parts are done and now it is just a matter of assembling them all together.
I promised some shots of the building process, so here it goes. I'll start with the body sections. Here is the bottom part:
Not much difficulty here. Just need to fold and glue a little flap in the back. I used my embossing sylus to great effect here. I got a nice fold on the side flaps of the body without any unsightly score marks.
Here is the top of the body:
Pretty similar. Flap in the back and a couple of folds along the length.
Next is the back "grill"
This part gives shape to the body. It basically folds up like a box. Keep in mind that it is best to score the flaps on the inside of the lines rather than on the lines. Remember that the flaps have some width to them, so you want them to tuck inside the top part.
Now we have the cockpit:
There are a couple of important considerations for this part. Here it is very important that you do NOT score along the lines. If you do, your cockpit will end up lopsided. Again, remember that the flaps have a bit of width. If you scored it along the lines, it would end up looking something like this:
You need to leave a space about the same width as the cardstock. Here is a picture giving an idea of where you should be scoring it:
Now are the really fiddly bits. Not only are they small, there are two per speeder, so you have to do 16 of each of these!
Note: Do not trim your nails right before doing small pieces.. I don't know what I was thinking.
Here is the back panel:
I failed to take pictures while building them, sorry! They basically fold like a box.
Here is a very small tube that goes between the front and back panels:
Not so bad, just small.
Next are the front panel pieces. They are a real pain. They are hard to fold precisely, hard to edge cleanly, and hard to hold and glue in the right position.
Remember, again, score on the inside of the lines so that the bottom flaps fit inside the top part.
Now for the cannons. Glad to have something easy for a change:
Now just repeat 8 or 16 times depending on the part and that is it.
Tomorrow: Final Assembly
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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Quick update, because I am sure people really care...
Speeders still aren't ready. Darn work is really cutting into my play-time. I'm going to have to have a discussion with my department chair about that. My goal has been to work a bit on them each day after I get my kid to bed, but that hasn't happened. I haven't even had a chance to play a game of Armor Grid: Mech Attack! with the mechs I built.
I did do a bit of work over the weekend, though. As you can see, the left "unassembled" bowl is now quite a bit emptier than the right "assembled" bowl.
I intend to have the speeders done this weekend. I've taken pictures along the way so I should have a long "build" post coming soon.
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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The month is almost over and I feel successful having made at least a few Mechs for Armor Grid: Mech Attack!.
In my last post, I failed to mention the name of the expansion that I bought. It is called "Mech Factory-Battle Colors". You can find a link for it here . The heavy mechs and associated weapons span ten pages in this expansion.
The first step is to cut out strips and score along the red line. They have all the components aligned so that you only have to do one score line.
You may notice a little X in the corner of the strips. I did that so I would quickly know which side is the cutting side. You see, all the components have black outlines, but the side on reverse of where you are cutting has a thicker outline. This allows for slight mis-alignments when you fold. This close-up shot illustrates the difference
Once you have it scored and folded, it is time to glue it up. I mentioned the problems I had with the glue. While spray glue would have been good for this, I opted for Aleene's Tacky Glue since it was close at hand and I had used it before successfully. It worked pretty well for this, no warping or anything. After I glued it, I made sure to go over it several times with an old rolling pin that I swiped from the kitchen. That is really important to make sure the glue sets evenly.
Here are the glued parts ready to be cut.
Now, I have read about people complaining about how hard it is to get these finished, and I always thought to myself "pshaw.. how hard can it be?! the model is just a bunch of flat pieces. No complex folding are anything." Well if you are anal like I am and follow the contours of the outlines exactly, then you realize that it can be a bit difficulty. Lots of zigs and zags. So it took a bit longer than I would have expected. I guess I was too engrossed because I didn't take any shots during the cutting stage.
Since the cutting takes a while, you may be tempted to just skip the edging step (running a black marker along the edge of the pieces). Don't, it makes the model look much better. Here is a comparison between a model with edged parts and one without.
I think it looks much better.
A note of caution for those of you thinking about building these. All the parts have little slots that you cut that allows the pieces to attach to each other. Make sure you err on cutting too small (cut on the inside of the lines). I accidentally cut several too big and found that they couldn't attach securely (they were too loose). What I had to do was put some glue on a toothpick and run it along the edge of the slot. I let it dry, then repeated. After about two layers, I got it to a point where it was attaching snugly.
So, I have enough parts to field 4 heavy mechs now . I may try playing a quick game with just those (as my son said, "robots vs machines") before I start building the medium and light versions. And even then, I don't think I am going to build everything all at once. I will probably just cut and build what I need as I need it. After I finish building what I want from the expansion set, I may try building a few of the original style mechs just for comparison. I also will have to think about building some vehicles and infantry models from the base set as well.
I guess that is all for now...What's that? How are the snowspeeders going? Well, I AM working on them. Here is my current progress. Bowl on the left are unfinished parts, bowl on the right is finished parts.
Still have a lot to do... Don't think I will make my end of the month goal. Ah well.
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Peter Wiles
United States
Charleston
Illinois
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I have an update on the glue that I had bought.
This is most definitely not as good as the glue I was using before. Today I started working on some of the models for Armor Grid: Mech Attack!. These models require gluing a much larger surface than the little tabs and whatnot for the Star Wars miniatures. The one that I glued warped horribly. Oh well. I guess I have a couple options. Spray glue would work well for this kind of thing. I also have some Aleene's Tacky Glue lying around. I'll work it out and post my results.
Other updates, I cut out the pieces for the snowspeeders. Don't sneeze!
I don't think I will be very systematic here. I've got all the pieces in a little bowl and whenever I have spare time I'll probably just grab a random piece, put it together, and put it in a second bowl. I'll try to take pictures of each of the main components as I do it.
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