MSRaynsford

I've been slowly upgrading my Christmas lights over the last few years (and apparently not really blogging it). What started as one 300 pixel string  has crept up to four pixel strings last year and I was going to add a fifth this year. The 'From Shadows' event approached with a strong venue that has power throughout and suddenly I was able to take along my light strip and put it to use displaying messages in the gaol. I purchased two more strings (because it's easier to make fonts with 7 lines) and I bought an Teensy Opto adaptor  to make connecting them all up easier. I tried previously to hang up the strips at various intervals across the distance but there was always a lot of droop in the middle and it was tricky to get all the strips lined up horizontally. This time I attached the whole length to four back boards and cable tied them every 15 pixels. This ended up with a very sturdy system where all the strips stay in alignment despite being moved around....

The 'From Shadows' event was held at the Gaol in Oakham and as you would expect from an urban air soft site held in an old prison there are still actual cells available for playing in. Looking for a futuristic way to indicate if a cell is open/closed and being unable to actually lock people in cells I was asked to make these 'door locks' for the event. Each door lock is a simple arrangement of batteries and LED's, keeping them cheap allowed me to make ten locks within the budget. The state change from locked to unlocked is done with a micro switch that becomes activated once a key card is inserted into the slot at the top of the unit. Once I started pushing cards into the slot though I realised I would be able to do something much more clever for minimal effort. By taking a number of notches out of the bottom of the card and having a similar notch arrangement inside the slot I could set it up so that each card would only open the appropriate door lock....

From Shadows LRP had it's fourth event on the 25th-27th of Oct. The previous teleport return unit was quite successful so those asked for some more units to be made, only this time they should be a bit smaller so they are more manageable and store-able. Because I didn't have the original unit to hand I opted to make them half the size, in hindsight this feels a little bit small but they are super cute versions of the full blown unit.  When you push the button the software comes out of sleep mode and counts down from 10 to zero. At zero the whole thing flashes to indicate that the team has 'teleported' in or out of the situation. The unit uses a USB battery bank for rechargeable power but one charge was sufficient to last the whole weekend. As the unit is smaller is was swung around a bit more and there were a few minor issues with cables coming lose internally so I had to strain relief the battery in the middle of Saturday and, players being players, someone j...

I had a little run on parts for Eldritch, I've done these foam saw blades before but this time I was just squeezing as many parts into the sheet as possible. Where I was unable to cut full disks I cut some half disk instead to really optimise the foam usage. Simon turns them into great, futuristic/post apocalyptic LRP weapons.

It's a bit hard to get a sense of scale for this whole machine so I finally remembered to take my camera along and get some pictures of the whole thing set up in the hut. Over the years I've now replaced all of the original panels with new ones, it's quite cool to have this whole machine evolve over the years. It reminds me a bit like hex from the Diskworld books. There are some very minor adjustments left to make in the new year but for now it has gone away for the winter.

I made this 5 point Iris way back in 2015, it was entirely wooden and given that it has been stored in containers and moved in and out and around for each event I'm surprised how well the whole thing has held up. Now that it's time to revamp the machine I wanted to keep this piece and turn it into a much more central part. The Iris previously led to a hole in the wall which could be (but never was) used to put things in and out. It always had the feeling that you were staring into the heart of the machine when you opened it and looked through (mostly because you could see the backstage junk through it). With my recent work on Infinity cubes it was fairly obvious what needed to go back there. This leaves a minor problem though, any large box on the back of this panel is going to be quickly destroyed as it gets moved in/out of storage. The solution to this tricky problem was to build a cube that could unfold and lie completely flat. The final back panel of the cu...

For another machine panel I wanted a way of passing smaller ( smaller than person sized ) objects in and out of the machine. The idea was to have a few different sized drawers in the panel, so I cut a few random sized boxes and looked to install them. This was the point where I had a much better idea and had to scrap those boxes. I have a tonne of 39mm squares from my caverna storage trays , they've been accumulating in a box waiting for something to happen to them. I realised they would look great on this panel and then the drawers could be in unit sizes and they would hide amongst the squares. I set out to fill the board leaving gaps for where I wanted the drawers to be and I alternated the grain on the squares to make a very subtle checker board pattern. It was a pain sanding and shimming each drawer down to fit exactly in the gap as required but ultimately worth it because it's hard to see where the drawers actually are when they're closed.

Another custom Vale treasure chest . I like to make them all slightly different because it's still not a massive game and these boxes are likely to be in similar places at similar times. If they were identical it would be really obvious. This one has internal storage trays, utilising some of the space above the smaller resources. The trays secure into place with little dimples to stop them from sliding around on the shelf. There is the usual hidden compartment under the shorter trays too. This is the smallest box so far and has the most space so I'm quite pleased with it. The lid is cut from two sheets of 3mm poplar, the dragon pieces were removed and painted before being reinserted onto the top layer. There are fine dragon details carved into the black areas using a low power cut, it's hard to see in the pictures but they're definitely noticeable on the lid.

As part of the revamp of the vale machine, I was asked to make several new panels. I had an idea for a very large hatch that could be used to send big things in and out of the machine. I wanted it to have a sturdy metal feel so I decorated it up in metallic paints with rust effects. The whole hatch is hinged so it lifts up and allows things (or people) access to the inside of the machine. When/if this gets used it'll be fun to see what happens, for now it's bolted shut with a few hex bolts so it's not immediately easy to open.

I wanted to make a puzzle for the Vale machine that could be used for various different scenarios, lots of different configurations that can be adjusted and connected as required. I decided upon this sliding puzzle with a pipework theme, the goals can be created as required to connect the points around the outside. After a good hour of faffing with routes I ended up just filling the board with at least one complete solution, all points connected and no endless pipes. Each tile was engraved along two edges which allow it them to have enough slack to slide along each other. With large slide puzzles you can pull on all the pieces at once and generate enough slack to pull them out of the puzzle. To eliminate any possibility of that happening I glued every other tile into position, the puzzle can still be solved by moving round these islands but now the parts can't be pulled out by accident.  The frame was made with a 6mm gap around the outside so that it can be in...

I needed a lecturn to hold a book while I read from it. It would be nice to be able to take it into the field for EMF and Vale and other places I might use it so I came up with this simple folding frame design. The book board flips over all the way to the back and nestles amongst the legs so that the whole thing is almost flat. The hinges and book stop were laser cut and glued into place on the board before assembly. The whole thing worked well at Vale recently but I was a bit rough with it and snapped one of the cross bracers (6mm Poplar) so I shall be replacing that with 6mm birch before it's next outing.

I was commissioned to make another Vale Box  for a different group, it's nice to make them all subtly different so I made this one with an oak wood stain and changed the lid configuration again. The mana/coin tray sits on top of the box and locates into place, the lid is a cover which clips down over it. The lid and tray can be removed together or singularly to allow access to the usual array of resource holders underneath. Small feet underneath, built from the side walls, lift the box slightly off the floor and add strength to the base.

I've started doing ritual magic at vale. It's generally a 10 minute performance where you create an interesting magic item. To time rituals more accurately it helps to have an appropriately themed measuring device so I bought a plain glass sand timer and built a custom cage to go around it. To line up the curves more accurately with the cage I took a photo of the glass and scaled it appropriately in inkscape, this let me quickly and easily trace around the basic shape to get something that holds the glass securely.  The decoration was quick and simple, just using some runes from the vale alphabet and their corresponding meanings that might relate to rituals and time.