Sunday, April 1, 2012

Rake's Corner map

This weekend I've built a new game board, using Dave Graffam's recently released Rake's Corner map. As the map is tileable, it can be built in many configurations. In my case, I chose to print 24 tiles in 50% resulting in a 21"x20" board. The first step was to open the tiles in Gimp to resize them. Then I arranged them in six pages to make assembly a little easier. I've printed them in 120gsm couché paper and, since that paper doesn't absorb the ink too well, I  sprayed some "waterproof spray" over them.

The next step was to cut each tile to make them ready for assembly. Here's a "preview" obtained just by placing them side by side.

After that, I used spray glue to place the tiles on a large sheet of 2mm thick rough cardstock. Then it was just a matter of cutting around the board. I left a margin of about 1cm to protect the edges of the map. Maybe later I'll cover the edges with some kind of adhesive tape to avoid wear.

Now I plan to make some buildings to place over the map. For now I have completed the warehouse, asylum and cottage of the Rake's Corner set. I've also put the longhouse I had built some time ago on the map.

This project took me most of the weekend, between resizing, printing and assembling but I'm very satisfied with the results. Even the small casks and crates for the warehouse came out well.

6 comments:

Kurt said...

The board looks really good. I'm sure you burned a cartridge or two of ink. What game are you going to be using for?

Spacejacker said...

Very nice! I am always impressed with your paper miniature exploits, it's nice to see how they can be used.

Ricardo Nakamura said...

Thanks for the comments!

@Kurt: I don't have a precise measurement but printing the board and buildings took about 1/2 of the cartridges. That's part of the beauty of printing for 15mm :)

Note: I've printed a little less than half the Rake's Corner map, and at 50% so it was like 6 full-color A4 sheets for the board, printed at normal quality.

I intend to use this for Song of Blades and Heroes (it's been a while since I played), Chain Reaction Swordplay and possibly FUBAR Medieval.

Kurt said...

I look foward to following your Song Blades campaign - I've been wanting to start one myself. I want to finish one more ATZ encounter and start a 5150 campaign. I found a print and play game which can easily add space travel encounters to 5150. If you want I can send you the link. You can add it to your current 5150 campaign.

Ricardo Nakamura said...

Kurt, that sounds really interesting. I'd really like to check out that game.

Kurt said...

Hi Ricardo, Here's the link:
http://uranus.ckt.net/~keepflyin/

I really think this has some possibilities if played with 5150NB. Basically it provides a mechanism to transport items to other planets and to and set up encounters in different worlds. It fills an area that is lacking in 5150.