MSRaynsford

Empire continues to provide a wealth of inspiration and material to work with. The game features an entire star system with recognisable constellations for anybody wishing to perform their 'magic rituals' through the concept of astronomancy . So I made this star chart which shows all the Tulpas in their relative positions in the heavens, the names, the attributes and the law associated with each one, another handy reference. Holding the board up to the light reveals all the stars that make up the constellations. ( svg here ) 29 Projects/ 34 Weeks

The standard light source in the 3060 leaves the machine looking a bit dingy. So I decided it was time for an upgrade. I installed 2 light strips into the lid of the machine to provide even illumination. They both run off 12V so a little power brick supplies the power for that. I also wired in a micro switch to detect when the lid is open, no point having the LED's on when the lid is open. The new illumination is on the left and the old one on the right, quite a large improvement and the LED's take less power than the old fluorescent tube.

I've been making some minor improvements to the Useless machine. I wanted to add some a real hinge to the back of the box so I put in this simple hoop and pin. Because the pin is on the flexible hinge it still needs a bit of work to make it more sturdy but it's a step in the right direction.

I finished the first version of the realm tile game for Empire. It's based upon Ingenious , the idea is to place symbols onto the board next to existing symbols scoring 1 point for each symbol in any given direction. There are 6 symbols and your final score is the lowest of the 6 tracks. I just replaced the symbols in the original game with the symbols for each of the magical realms. ( svg here ) 28 Projects/ 33 Weeks I decided to integrate the scoring tracks into the edge of the board as this is going to be played in a field and it's going to be easier to carry around.  The starting tokens points are added on top of the board to give solid points to push the tiles up against.

The shed was a bit of a mess and a lot of stuff that could live in the shed was occupying space in the garage/workshop. So I decided to make some shelving for the shed, conveniently I had some large ply sheets left over from my bench upgrades  and some stud work timbers, screws also left over so I only had to buy £10 worth of material to complete the shelving. With the new shelves installed I began freeing up garage space, a good use of a sunny day (about 2 weeks ago now)