Les Bonnes Choses

In case you're parachuting into the story and want to be able to easily jump through the narrative, here are links to the rest of my tale:
Prologue
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Tonight I was going to play a game of Settlers of Catan, but somebody bailed. So instead, Brett (who is in town for a conference) and I played the card game version of the game. I know, you're probably quite surprised that there is a card game version, and that I have it. Don't hold your breath for me to make my own version of that game, though.

I'm not the first person to work on a 3D Settlers of Catan board. I thought my version was a little pricey, but Mayfair Games has their own official board, made of similar materials, and for twice as much as what I spent on materials to make mine. And my version has two stunning innovations: Not only can they be flipped upside down and shuffled, but you may have noticed I have holes in the sides of my tiles. That's for the magnets that are going to keep my tiles together.



These teeny magnets were the smallest I could find, and have a pull strength of 0.7 pounds -- just enough pull to keep the tiles together. Assuming you didn't flunk out of kindergarten science, you'll know that magnets have polarity: opposite poles attract. I was too lazy* to do the math, but it turns out that when all the tiles have magnets of alternating polarity around their edges, they pull themselves together quite nicely. If you try this, you'll want to do it with a clear head. That's because if you screw up the magnets, some of your tiles will repel, and that is not what we're going for. I recommend coming up with a foolproof system. I was unable to do so; you can infer from that what you will.



For the first bunch of tiles, I used a hot glue gun to set the magnets. Having completed a basic set, I would in retrospect recommend using epoxy putty instead, if you are going to magnetize the tiles.

The decorating step was a fun bit of artistry. This was where I got to go overboard, as I had promised. I had vowed to go all diorama ninja on the tiles, and picked up everything I needed for landscaping in one little box at Michael's. As for paints, some Krylon primer, and black paint for plastic, and some matte clear sealer took care of my inhalants. The detailed painting was done using some $0.99 acrylic paints (this is the brand I used) from WalMart. You could spend about five times as much for craft paint at a hobby shop, but after 25 years of painting small things with small brushes, I don't think there's any justification for it.



Whether you just want to paint the tiles or texture them is up to you, of course. It's your project. I'm sure it's possible to go even more nuts than I did. But hey, look how it turned out!



Dig the sheep in the pasture. They are happy sheep. You can see how I handled the ports below. They fit into the water tiles. Here's the board after setting up the inaugural game. Gill won. Probably why she bailed.



*Truthfully, I wouldn't know where to start if I wanted to make a formal geometric proof, very much like the situation I faced in my final exam in Discrete Math ten years ago. The memory still haunts me.

This concludes the series detailing the construction of a DIY 3D Settlers of Catan board. Feel free to stick around for more entertaining stories!