Fishing Shack, Part 1

So far, I only have the front of this building done but it will be a fishing shack suitable for use with 28mm miniatures.

As a template for this building, I used a paper model spray-mounted onto the Palight PVC board. The paper model is Dock Building A in the Ravenfell set of EZ Dungeons by Fat Dragon Games.

Using the template, I cut out the windows and door. When it came time to remove the paper model, I found that it helped to heat it first with a hair dryer. It loosens the glue and makes it easier to peel the paper off. Then I cleaned more of the glue residue off with rubbing alcohol.

Colors shown were mixed for the base coat. I mixed in a light gray for coats over this.

Before painting, I carved grooves for the clapboard siding, using a hobby knife. For the wood grain texture, I scraped the clapboards with rough sandpaper.

I used styrene strips for window casings and door frame, glued on with superglue gel. 

Stippled green colors on along the bottom and other random places to represent algae or moss growing there.

I also gave this a wash, mixing the items shown with some water. 

Textured Rolling Pins from Green Stuff World

I picked up two textured rolling pins from Green Stuff World and tried them out for this post.

The top two pieces in this image were made using the Small Cobblestone roller, and the bottom piece was with the Small Dutch Bricks roller. The material used was Original Sculpey, and I painted them with Vallejo colors.

I also tried pressing the texture onto blue foam. Not as good as Sculpey, but might not be bad if I took my time with the paint job.

I set up this display to see how the bricks would look as a vertical wall. To see how I made the floor, check out my post called Wood Floor Part 2.

Dice Tower With Concealed Tray

Here is another dice tower I made for tabletop gaming. Unlike most dice towers I've seen, this one has a concealed tray.

Side-view:

The tray is where the dice land after they fall through the chute. Here is a front view of the tower, showing the tray, which is screened on three sides. A concealed tray might be useful for Dungeon Masters if they don't use a DM's screen, or others who need to hide their rolls from other players. 

This tower has a cavern-like style, with jagged rocks (made from blue foam) on the sides. The colorful rocks in the front are meant to look like crystals. 

The "chute," shown below is made from Palight PVC board and joined with Superglue. 

I had a better process for making the chute this time. Below is a picture that makes it pretty self-explanatory. I measured out where the "bumpers" go and then drew their placement on the side panels. So when it came time to insert the bumpers into the chute, I had guides. Before, I was just winging it. 

Also, using tape helped a lot. Much easier than trying to use clamps as shown in some of my other blog posts about dice towers. 

The red stuff is Vallejo's Earth Texture product.

Wood Floor, Part 2

For this project, I made a larger piece of wood floor to match the one I made in the last blog post. It is shown on the left in the picture below. 

I wanted them to match, but I did try a few subtle differences:

• I used the screwdriver to taper the edges of almost all of the boards this time rather than just a few random ones (see the other blog post for details). It is fine but I think I like the original a little better without that effect, it seems more realistic. Plus, one negative side-effect of tapering all of them is that the board warped a little -- it's not a big issue because I was able to bend it back, and if I wanted I could just mount it to another board. 
• I made the nail holes in the boards smaller, and I like that better. 
• I made a more regular pattern for the ends of the individual boards, which I like better. 

Wood Floor Made from Palight PVC Board

This floor could be used as gaming tiles or as part of a diorama, with minis. 

I measured floorboards 1/4" apart, and then cut grooves in them using a woodcarving "v-tool" gouge.

I also marked the ends of the floorboards using various combinations of tools shown. 

I used a hobby knife to draw grain marks along the boards, and marked up the boards using rocks to give a worn texture. 

I used the end of a screwdriver to press the material down along ends of boards. 

Marked off nail holes with a marker then poked them in using an awl. 

I used the screwdriver again along the sides of some of the boards. 

I primed with grey spray paint then did a base coat of tan and burnt umber. 

Here are the colors used for the second coat. 

I made a wash mixing the two colors shown.

I lined the cracks with the colors shown, using a liner brush, and then used the sponge to wipe off as I went along. 

Next I glazed over the boards, mixing up the colors along the various boards.

Those other floors shown in the photo below, in the upper left of the photo, are taken from paper  models by Fat Dragon Games. I had mounted them onto foam core and we had used them in something else, but I was using them here as source material / reference. 

Over that I glazed with sepia and an orange-brown. 

Toward the end I added dirt and grime using Agrax Earthshade, Secret Weapon Sewer Water and SW Cement. This was applied using an old worn out 1" brush, in a stabbing / stippling motion.

At that point, I did a slight dry brush with "Iraqui Sand" color paint and it looked like below. 

But then I decided to give it another glaze of sepia, and then I painted it with a light coat of Liquitex gloss varnish, which resulted in below. I think it's done!

Dice Tower Made With Pringle's Can

The Pringle's Potato Chip can was textured with modeling paste. The purple undercoat was clearly a mistake, apparently I had something else in mind in the beginning. Eventually I painted over that with flat black. I didn't even need to texture the outside of the can because it would be covered with bricks, but at that point I did not know I would use bricks.

The tray bottom is made from Palight PVC board, and then I added cork over that for texture.

For the skull, I used a hollow plastic Halloween decoration. I filled the hollow inside with blue foam to make it easier to glue to the can.

I wanted the tower to look like old ruins, so here and there I used cork where a brick might be, which makes it look decayed.

The top of the tower was decorated with cork and Sculpey that had been textured to be like cobblestone.