MSRaynsford

Another year   on and I got to make the rune tags for the LRP Hospital again. I like to bring a little variation to the design so this year I gave it some shape as well as the year number.

By request I made a medium sized Empire Map , it's pretty much the same deal as the big one but with a few tweaks. This map is intended to be taken too and from the events so it's a bit smaller at 1000mm x 900mm. It has some extra Otkodov regions at the top and also  the barrens  just to the right hand side. The regions are one of three different heights instead of four different heights. The main difference is that each region is removable, this was achieved by placing two pegs under each region. The regions line up and with the pegs and sit in the right places on the board. Finally I added a little celtic flourish in each corner, you might recognise these as the Celtic knot dice. It turns out that having the six basic sides of the dice allows me to quickly and easily construct flourishes for decoration.     

I cut a handful more castles for the Nissed Pewt Tavern . I believe these will be details added to chairs but I'll update when the finished pics come through. Not sure if I ever followed up the finished signs so here it is again, apologies if you've seen it before.

After the mini map comes the inevitable maxi map. Prototyping an item of this size is, of course, logical and sensible but it can't iron out all the creases for you. Each region on this map was cut as a separate section, to more clearly define each territory. Each region has a different heigh to most of it's neighbours, loosely based on whichever tile has the most mountains.   One of the regions was just too large for my laser cutter at home so I had to take it to Nottingham Hackspace and use their shiny new machine . The base boards were also cut and etched on that machine, each 800x600mm etch took just 90 minutes on that machine.   Just like a giant jigsaw puzzle the map slowly came together. L ast time  the region names were just etched into the plate and they disappeared into map, this time I chose to outline the letters instead (and making sure they weren't engraved) I think coloured the letters in with a sharpie pen to make sure they stood...

I have been given an opportunity to remake the Empire map , there are a few things that were requested and I'm taking the chance to play with new techniques and toys like the nottingham laser. Here are the test pieces I've done so far, the outcome of which is basically that colour doesn't really work on the maps so we're sticking to standard wood colours. I'm now desperately waiting for my wood to arrive or I'm not going to be able to do anything in time for the event this weekend, there's easily 30 hours of cutting in this project and I can't even get started yet. Each region is cut as a separate piece giving it clear definition and it is elevated from it's neighbours making them more distinct. The names of each region are also cut with a low power line making them stand out much more than the previous version  

I was informed this week that the league have their own set of runes. So I engraved a set upon request and this time added all the names of the runes to the back as well. It makes sense really so now you can tell which each rune is. The colour is red with a spot of black, they've come up really nicely. It's the same wood underneath so it's funny to see these runes quite pale but the wood showing through the black runes looks really orange

The last set of merit badges must have all got lost because I honestly don't remember there being 50 children at the empire events. It's probably testament to the game and to the hobby that families can blend seamlessly into the scenario. I know Eli really enjoyed it when he went . Anyway so I cut a whole new batch of merit badges ahead of this years games. 

John  runs a tavern at Empire and he wants a new pub sign to go out the front. He tasked me to cut a series of letters to stick on the sign. Given some of his awesome instructables projects I can't wait to see this stuck together and finished, I'll add photos asap.

The first Empire LARP event of the year happens this easter, I'm reminded of this because people are requesting laser cut items already. I made these Rune tags before but they were all given out. This batch has the game year inscribed on the bottom which hopefully means a repeat order next year too :)

The material wheel was previously finished to my satisfaction but not to the customers. It's hung around for a while so I prodded until I got some answers about how it was to be finished. A few of the pictures changed and the whole thing was to be black ink washed. I actually mixed some silver into the black to give it a bit of sheen. The final item looks quite different so I thought I'd post it again, I definitely hit the brief to make an bowl with 8 sections that looks like a wheel.

A variation on the bigger boxes, practice definitely makes these things easier. I need to start learning some parametric drawing programs like OpenSCAD  but in the meantime I stuck with lengthy redraws. This box follows very similar construction guides as the other boxes but is slightly simpler internally and has about half the volume. The logo on the top was acheived with multiple passes at different powers and then outline to increase the definition. A nice little box I'm very pleased with. ( svg here ) As I sat and worried about how I was going to catch up on project 52 and I looked for inspiration on my lists of ideas I realised I had actually started a dozen projects and not finished them yet. It's given me a little burst of activity this week but I still have to finish 3 projects a week to get to the end in time. Busy times. 39 Projects/ 46 Weeks

Another event in 2 weeks times means more custom rune wheels and more rune tokens. Which is all good, I like to have the machine occupied while I'm drawing then next thing

Things are going to get a little bit wicker man  at the next empire event (only the dog heads, not the nudity). So we need some animal masks, cue the laser. I cut the head off some 3D animal models, then unwrapped them with pepakura , printed the files to PDF and imported them into the laser for cutting. Although slightly time consuming the laser saved me hours on this first head and then began the slow reassembly process and paper mache covering. I forgot how time consuming adding 3 layers of paper was. They look good though and there is a rabbit head in the pipeline now. ( svg here ) 33 Projects/41 Weeks