I love Power Grid, I think its an outstanding game. My Secret Santa (BGGMom) was kind enough to bless me with both the game and the Italy/France expansion. When I heard that there was a new free expansion out, I had to find it. Then I found out that it was a print-and-play deal. Not to be put off, I decided that it deserved the correct treatment in creating it, as it would likely see a bit of play from me. I didn't want some laminated papers, as they would just slide around too much. Here then is how I went about putting together this expansion. But first, please let me thank the creators for their work - this is top notch.

Ok, the first step was to get the image files and PDF instructions. I printed out the instructions (thankfully) - they note that you need to double print the Connection Cost Tile image.


Next I started printing. I have an HP inkjet printer and I printed all the images at their default size, on the top quality, onto basic white cardstock paper (I got mine at Michael's - its common stuff and should be readily available). While the printing was going on, I went ahead and prepped the board-backing.

For the boards, I used Bienfang Illustration board. I've found this at Staples - it comes in packages of three 20"x30" sheets. Three sheets should be sufficient to do the project, but you have to measure pretty carefully to get everything to fit without a lot of waste. I happened to have an extra 1/2 sheet around, so I wasn't overly concerned.

I measured and cut a piece out for the connection cost pieces. I spray painted one side of this with the Black Hammered metalic spray paint. Next I measured and sprayed another piece for the city and resource boards (I skipped the power plant market tiles since the aren't really needed - I'll probably go back and make them sooner or later). For these, I used a metalic copper spray paint. Finally, I sprayed 2 1/2 sheets with a blue metalic spray paint.

One can of the blue paint was not enough to get the coverage I wanted. In all spray paint cases, I sprayed over the boards once lightly to get get a light layer down, then I immediately went back over the board to cover all the areas that were light enough that the white board was still visible. The trick here is not to paint so heavily that you "soak" the board in paint. Also, try and get the board laying as flat as you possibly can.

While the boards were drying, I started trimming the printouts. I left a small white strip around each edge - this would allow me to trim the paper and boards all at once later on. Though you could probably do this project with a ruler and an utility knife, for best results you have to have a straight-edge roller cutter.

Once the papers were all trimmed, I layed out all the printouts and proceded to lightly spray a series of crystal clear coats onto all the images. I sprayed very lightly from each side of the image, so essentially I layed down 4 light coats onto the pictures. I did these all at once (ie spray, move, spray, move, spray...) and then let them dry completely (about an hour in low humidity). You do NOT want to spray too closely - 8-12" in an even series of patterns will come out very nicely.

Once everything has been sprayed and dried, it was time to put them together. I layed down some newspaper and coated the unpainted sides of the boards with spray adhesive. I worked in small batches, as the glue dries fairly quickly and the instructions say that immediately attaching the two items will form a more permanent bond. I carefully placed the paper on the boards. I then used a small wallpaper-seem roller (pocket change at any hardware store) to make sure that there weren't any bubbles and that everything was firmly pressed together.

Once all the pieces were assembled and had a good chance to dry overnight, all that was left was to trim everything. By leaving the small white edge around each image, I was able to make very straight cuts for all the boards and for the connection cost tiles. As a side benefit, the few places where the edges hadn't quite cemented down didn't even matter as they ended up on the cutting floor.

I think this turned out great and I can't wait to play it with my gaming group this weekend.

Well !

Congratz, it's fantastic job and i'm really proud of your result !

Enjoy with it !

JC Adelmand

Wow, too bad I won't be there this week. Make sure and bring it next week, too. I'd like to see your finished project.

JC Adelmand;
Thank you so much for providing this for free, and thanks to everyone who was involved in its production. It's an amazing piece of work.

Tatsu;
I'm currently working on mine. Having plumbed the many discussions here on BGG about making high quality games at home, here's how I'm doing it: Images were printed on an office quality laserjet (HP 4600)on regular 20# stock. Cardboard is 2mm matte board from a local art supply. I'm applying the paper by 3M '77' glue, and rolling down with a wooden paper towel holder. This is followed by 4 very thin coats of Krylon UV protectant (glossy). I'm trimming using a self-healing mat, utility knife, and metal ruler. I have such envy for your fancy cutter.

So far so good. I did the counters yesterday, which is the most labor-intensive part. The only obstacle from here on out is finding a well-ventilated area to complete the mission, as my wife is complaining about the fumes.

For some strange reason, I really like the market tiles, so they're a priority.

Anyways, nice job! I'm sure your gamer friends will be grateful for your investment.

BTW, why did you paint your backings? Was is the white? My matte board is white with a black backing (albeit with some printing), but I saw no reason to paint it.

Nice job Charles. Like Bobby, I would like to see it so try to bring it a week from Friday too.

Illustration board is white on both sides and I just wanted to something that matched a little. The white looked too "homemade" to my taste. Also, the amount of work required to spray paint a couple pieces of board was pretty minimal (10 minutes) - it doesn't have to be perfectly even, because slight un-eveness still looks ok on a backing.

The thing with the market tiles is that I didn't like them in two pieces. I think I'll end up making it into a single board which I'll put in with my regular game. The other thing was that I wanted to get this done enough to play with this week. The market tiles are not needed, but the other pieces were, so I tried to save time by doing two less tiles. I still have 4 of the connection tiles to do, but I have enough of them to play pretty much any size game right now.

The next project is to find a box that is just the right size...

That looks aweseome, Charles, great job! I look forward to seeing it.

Wow! Can't wait to see it, much less try it out!

So, are you going to have M.R. christen it with Dr. Pepper?

Good ole Mace can't even avoid taking a beating here!

Hey, if you spew the Pepper, you get treated like a leper!

Okay, that came out more harsh than I intended but I couldn't come up with a better rhyme.

If you laugh and spit, you're gonna take some sh*t?

We got to play using Charles' set last Friday and it is VERY nice. I wish I had the patience to do this.