ShatterDragon sent in these pics of his astounding build of Pubs & Inns and Castles & Keeps. He will be posting here to explain the process he went through to mount the model sets on a rigid backing. This looks like it would make an amazing project for some of you WorldWorks die-hards out there (and me for that matter). Thank you so much for the pictures and following tutorial ShatterDragon!

"                                                                              "

So cool I'm speechless!

These are really nice pieces.  I especially like the corner pieces; Very good!  I'm interested to hear about the process and what Shatterdragon has used for backing in these parts!

In a word - WOW!

drools....

First of all let me once again thank Denny for hosting these pics for me , and if it weren't for the wonderful work he put into these great sets I would probably still be using vinyl mats and wet erase markers for my game setups.  I really appreciated the opportunity to show some of what I have been working on and can gaurantee that in the near future I will be adding shots of modified buildings incorporating sets  from VillageWorks (I have several ideas for modular buildings with internal and external setups), CastleWorks Interior and Exterior, as well as more shots of walls from Pubs & Inns InteriorWorks.  This post will be followed shortly by a post describing the process and materials used in making this modular castle set.  I just wanted to let you know that I am aware that they're up and to give a breif description of what the pictures above were meant to show.

Second, its Shatteredragon (play on words like broken dragon), not ShatterDragon (although this sounds cool!)

Pics 1-4 (link at end):  The first is a complete layout of the current walls, corners, doors, floortiles and a few odds and ends like the raised dias that I have put together using CastleWorks InteriorWorks.  It is followed by a few closups of some corner variations, walls and doors.  The walls, doors and corners turned out perfect, I couldn't have been more impressed myself, I am even working on some specialized combined door/cornerpeices that will allow me to set doors in hallways, as well as a few prototype opening and closing doors (I may have to give up on this idea and just make seperate doors that are in the open position to replace doors that my players have opened).  These pics were to show an overall of what I had made up to that point for my modular castle system.  I didn't take any pictures of it (though I will be when I include future pics of the construction of future peices), but while I was glueing the floor tiles to the wall sections I had to stack several books on top to keep the sections flat and straight until the glue dried.  Talk about durable, even before the glue had set I was able to stack several of my roleplaying books on top of just four corner peices (I GM Rifts & Palladium, they're about the size of a D&D book but usually thicker, The stack stood over a foot high, overkill I know, but my curiosity about the durability prompted me to risk it, and I now beleive that I could have easily increased the size of the stack to two feet or more if I had wanted to).

Pics 5-8 (link at end):  These Pics are of a small stone tavern I thought up and threw together in under five minutes.  The versatility of the peices allows me to exchange and place them quickly in game, thus allowing for quick setups when necessary.  My players love it and I have to say it makes life easier as a GM/DM.  The fourth pic in this grouping was to show how it would look with miniatures, I have over 400 but painting them is the most time consuming process of my hobbies, which is why several of them are currently not painted.
(somewhere along the line I must have thought there were four pics for this post, hmmm... nope, on second perusing, one is missing, didn't notice that before, not that it's important )

Pics 9-13 (link at end):  I was a little concerned with the durability of the furniture, especially considering I have players that like to jump up on tables, chairs and other objects in game.  Using cardstock was easier, but if you tried to put your standard 25 mm miniature figurines on them they would collapse (I also have two cats that like to sleep on my gaming table, even though technically they're not allowed, they still do).  This could get a little costly in the long run, so I looked for more durable methods of constructing WorldWorks furniture that would still allow me to keep the low costs, which is what had drawn me to WorldWorks in the first place.  The end result as you can see was a great surprise even to me.

Pic 14 (link at end):  This last pic was to show the durability of the peices I had constructed.  The figurine standing on the chair is 55mm tall, and though not my heaviest, you can see the chair easily stands up to his weight.  The other two minis are of a human female and a dwarf male for scale.

The pics have once again been moved and can be found in this forum link.


Thanks for the comments all, instructions will follow before the end of today.

*Edit: the above link has once again been updated, it will take you to my pics at DKD's site.

Just as a side note...If I had the money this is how I would want the sets produced. Preboxed and pre-built with this kind of modularity (not that the sets arent modular as is). One day grasshopper...one day

Materials: Elmers White Glue (soon to be replaced with craft glue as I hear it works better and has less moisture in it)/Extra-Strength Office Gluestick (although previous posts in the tips section have made me wonder at the long term durability of this glue)/A durable, heavyduty E-xacto knife or similiar sharp cutting tool/Cutting Board/Rolling Pin/Metal or metal edged ruler/PosterBoard 1/16 inch thick (optional: sheets of Styrene of similiar thickness can be used).  It took me awhile to find this as most large craft and office supply stores apparently havn't even heard of Posterboard in it's thicker form.  I looked around and found that it was easily available at smaller art stores.  I'd toss in a price but I lucked out and got 5 2X3 foot gold embossed sheets for $5 canadian each as noone wanted to buy them, otherwise I think similiar sized sheets go for around $10 each.  An additional benifit is that you can purchase Posterboard in a variety of colors, very useful in my opinion./Optional: I recently purchased a heavy duty cutting board able to cut a thickness equal to 15 sheets of standard paper, I picked mine up at Office Depot, and I warn you it will cost you around $30-$60 depending on quality.  It can cut through 1/16 inch Posterboard which cut down on a lot of preparation time.  A sharp, heavyduty E-xacto knife can cut through Posterboard but on average takes about 2-4 passes. /And of course several pages of the WorldWorks set you want to add to your growing collection, I still print mine out on 110lb Cardstock.  I havn't used standard paper so I'm not sure if the results will be similiar.

Basic Furniture Instructions:
These are the easiest to make, and provide the basic instructions for assembling many of the other furniture peices I'll use the Pubs & Inns front desk for an example where needed. (Examples: KegShelf, BookCase,  Wine & Alcohal Shelf, Desks, Bar, and similiar standard box structures).

1) Take the printout and cut out the item to be assembled, remove the tabs normally used for gluing during assembly, use a straight edge to guide your knife (unless you feel confident eneogh to use scissors, I don't).

2) Glue the cut out item onto the posterboard and let dry.  Then cut out.

3) Folding is impossible at this point due to the thickness of the posterboard, you have to segment the item to be glued. (eg: the front desk gets cut into five seperate segments, front/rear/left side/right side/top.)

4) This step allows me to make clean joins in the furniture.  This is also a tricky part to explain, and the most dangerous to do, so please be careful.  I will have pictures in the future, but for now I'll do my best. All edges to be glued together need to be cut to a 45 degree angle.  To do this place the peice to be 45'd on the cutting board, then set your ruler on top for support and as a guide (I do this freehand sometimes but it is easy to mess up), line up the ruler so that only 3/16th's of the edge to be cut is showing.  Run the blade along the edge of the ruler at a 45 degree angle while pressing firmly down on the ruler, as the peice your cutting will want to move, especially smaller peices.  I highly suggest using a very sharp blade for this task, and the angle doesn't have to be perfect. (eg: the sides, front and back of the desk get 45'd on their top and side edges, the top gets 45'd on all four edges.)(I was also recently informed that there is a specific tool that allows you to make similiar types of cuts but I have no idea what it is at this point, but if I find out I'll let you know.)

5) At this point I suggest you use whatever edging technique you prefer to hide any white edges that may be visible after assembly, I currently use markers.  Fill in the white edges of the 45'd angle's as these will show through.  If you look at the pic of the bookcase above you can still visibly see some of the white posterboard beneath along the edges that  have been glued (it is also the first peice I successfully assembled).

6) Time to assemble. (eg: Take the front and one of the side peices, apply glue along the edge to be attached and place the peices together, hold until the glue bonds.  I use a corner made from my old lego bricks to keep my peices square during this process, and it helps to have a flat surface to insure the bottom remains flat.  Repeat with the back and other side peice.  Then glue these two peices together you should have a box with no top or bottom.  Fit the top peice into place before you glue to insure it fits, if not trim it to fit then glue it in.

7) Let dry and it's ready for gaming.

Advanced Furniture & Modified CastleWorks will include the same materials mentioned above, as well as several of these steps in their assembly process.  I will be posting the instructions for both tonight if I have time, or tomorrow if I don't.

While pricey you may want to look into the use of Crack 'n' Peel or a similar adhesive backed paper (Peel off decal paper), getting rid of a few steps. As this is for a permanent set up the extra cost might be worth it.

Looks awesome!

The Auld Grump

Advanced Furniture is a little more complicated to describe than I originally thought.  I am working on it and should have it finished for tomorrow.
Denny, I totally understand the whole cost thing, but I'm happy it didn't stop you from creating a great business.  WorldWorks is still one of the best gaming sites I have ever visited, keep up the great work!
The Auld Grump, thanx for the tip, all are appreciated.  I will defineatly look into it as gluing is currently the longest part of the assembly process (currently I prepare several peices, then glue them all at once, this allows me to cut down on lost time waiting for the glue to dry).
Sorry if my posts are a little wordy, and please, feel free to ask me clarify anything that doesn't make sense.

It may not be any cheaper, but I strongly recommend picking up your cutting boards at a sewing supply store such as Jo-ann's.  They also have a device known as a "razor wheel".  Wonderful for fabrics, I can only imagine that it would work extremely well for cardstock as well (and the reason I can only imagine it is that my wife would have my hide if I tried to use her razor wheel on cardstock).

I think another huge time saver here would be to invest in a quality spray mount. Spray mount is often used for mounting artwork to matt board. You can pull off a nice even coating and it wont lift from the surface EVER. The down side to spray mount is that its highly toxic, unforgiving and on the expensive side. You either need to be outside when youre doing it or you need a kick butt mask but it is fast

Shatteredragon - that is VERY cool!  Great idea and well done.  I've done board/tile fortification in my , but have never tried fortifying the actual pieces themselves.  Sounds like a lot of work, but well worth the end effect!  :-)

Hey Shatteredragon,
great stuff, maybe I have some advice on the 45 degree cuts. The poster board you're talking about may be what we in Oz call foamcore? Two bits of thin card with foam in between? I use this stuff all the time to make scenery and instead of a 45 degree cut on two pieces to get a right angle I cut through one layer of card and the foam on one piece the other piece can then be glued into this right angle making a very strong joint as it is glued on two sides. Not easy to describe, I'll try an ascii picture...
Before:
 HH  
 HH   Vertical foamcore, end on view
 HH
     
 __IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Horizontal foamcore, end on view
Cut end, design on this side

After:
HH
HH
HHIIIIIIIIIIIII

Steve

Thnx for the comment SteveFirth.  I guess I should have been a little clearer when I said posterboard.  The stuff I use is not foamcore, although for awhile I did look into using it.  It's more like pressed paper (and yes I do mean paper), 1/16th inch thick, not sure what it is called yet but when I find out it will be posted.  The shop I picked up the original stuff I have from is a little out of the way so you'll still have to wait till I make my next visit.  I will also try to find some online but can't guarantee anything at this time.

P.S. thanx for spelling my sign in name right ::).

Just putt’en my two cents from the perspective of a player. I am one of the so-called players that jump on furniture (they realy do hold metal minitures up) in Shatteredragon’s campaigns. Now I want to clear up a misconception Shatteredragon has made. Some of you may think we are savages that have no manors. We do have manors; it’s just that tables provide much needed height for tactical advantage. Especially when you’re outnumbered. And a flying chair provides a necessary distraction while you try to save a fallen comrade. So you see its need not lack of manors that have us walking on furniture, its necessity. I hope that has cleared up any confusion.
Now let me tell you that the pictures you see do Shatteredragon’s pieces little justice. These pieces are amazing. Once you’ve seen them in action you will wonder how you ever managed with a plastic grid map, erasable markers and what ever else you can dig up as props. These models really help make the game seem more real and Shatteredragon’s attention to detail is really something. I hope everyone here has the same amount of fun with WorldWorks designs as Shatteredragon and his band of Hooligans do.
So I want to thank WorldWorks and Shatteredragon for taking RPG’s to a new affordable level.
Darwin