My Catan Board So Far

[julybighouse]

Some have been asking for photos of my Catan Board in Progress. Well, here are the pictures so far and I hope to update this as I continue making what I hope is a “delux” Catan Set.

Each resource is being made out of it’s own type of wood.

Lumber → Mahogany
Brick → Bloodwood
Sheep → Hickory
Wheat → Yellowheart
Ore → Walnut
Gold → Walnut with gold/black acrylic inlay
Sea → Curly Maple
Desert → Pine

I had pre-purchased boards from Amazon for this project and realized that they were “slightly” too small. Catan pieces are 3.125inches from flat side to flat side. My amazon boards were 3 inches, so I had to shrink the tiles slightly to fit.

I started this project by making my own number tokens.

The ones with stars on the backs are the extra numbers for the 5-6 player expansion.

Close up of the numbers.

I haven’t finished all of the tiles yet, but here is what I do have.

Brick → Done in Bloodwood, but hasn’t been cleaned with rubbing alcohol yet so the detail is not as crisp as it was when it first came out of the Glowforge.

Wheat → Done in Yellowheart, which apparently doesn’t show up on my phone, it’s almost post-it note yellow.

Ore → Done in walnut, this was the first one I did and changed the design to have engraved holes, and not through holes. I have to cut out “plugs” to glue into the bottom of these.

Gold → Walnut with gold/black inlay (Thanks @smcgathyfay!)

Sea and Fishing Hole → Curly Maple. These will be dyed blue later. With ALL the expansions there are 27 Sea Tiles. Thankfully I have a bunch of Curly Maple on hand, and the natural “ribbon” of the wood just adds to the sea-like quality of the tile.

I’ll update as I get more tiles and pieces done. I still have Lumber, Sheep, Desert, Fish, Boot, Fish Chevrons (Ports?), Port ships, and Border to do. I’m also considering re-doing the number 7 as I want a bit more contrast from the other number chips.

[Tom_A]

Having never seen the game, I can only assume this is very cool.
Certainly looks very nice!!!

I’ll have to look into it one of these days!

[julybighouse]

To me this is still “rough” looking. The detail is great, but I look forward to cleaning out any and all soot and sawdust, and then the all important application of the finish (thinking about shellac since that will leave most of the feel of the grain, but will have to apply MANY layers). Once those things happen, the color will pop SO much more than it is right now, and to me, THAT is when the magic truly happens.

[Jules]

Lookin’ great!

[Tom_A]

@julybighouse

To me this is still “rough” looking.

In that case, I really look forward to the finished product! 'Cause this really looks pretty great as-is!

[Jamie]

Love it! Keeps me motivated to keep cranking away on mine.

[julybighouse]

Lots to do, but we’ll both end up with awesome boards

[smcgathyfay]

Awesome!! Next time I’m up that way to visit my daughter…I better get to play a game with you…lol

[tim1724]

WOW, what a gorgeous Catan set. I can’t wait to see the rest of the tiles and other pieces!

[jonnyvermont]

Ok. That settles it. I have to learn this game.

[julybighouse]

This set is actually going to be a gift to my parents, but once this is done I just might be making a second set. Although, I’ll probably only make the basic with 5-6 player expansion for myself. I would love to play this with you and whoever you decide to bring with you! Come on by and visit whenever you get the chance.

[UrJac]

I love it. I hate you. I don’t hate you. Just ignore me I want my Glowforge.

deep breath

Ok. That looks AWESOME. Nice work. Please keep posting as you go.

[jamesdhatch]

Looking really good. The wood varieties in lieu of stain is awesome. Well matched to the resource.

One question on the design though. When I made my board (on my K40 ) I used just straight hexagonal tiles. Is there any play advantage or something when using the interlocking tabbed version you’re making or is it just one of those personal preference things?

[julybighouse]

Well, I considered both, and my family currently has a number of kids that have on a number of occasions bumped the table or reached in and out of innocent curiosity have picked up part of the map.

Also, there have been times that we needed to try and move the map so we could have dinner after a particularly long and involved game.

However, I have not gone so far as to make any sort of “locking” mechanism for the cities, settlements, roads, so they are still loose. Also, if it wasn’t for the GF free version already working out the kinks with the interlocking parts, I wouldn’t have pursued that path.

[jamesdhatch]

Hmmm…I made mine to fit inside a larger frame so the pieces were in a tray of sorts. You can mix them up but not create land chains - it’s always the same overall shape. I’ll have to dig up a pic.

[julybighouse]

ahhhhh, ok. With some of the expansions the map can get BIG. I didn’t want to make a tray that could fit all the different scenarios.

We played a scenario the last time I visited that incorporated 60 some tiles. It was huge and took awhile to set up and play.

[sqw]

Just to be boring here - but as a game designer I have to point out that any graphic work as part of any game is copyright.

While you are free to re-design pieces, art, components, cards etc - you are not allowed to copy artworks or graphic design from any original game.

Saying that the game is only for your own use does not make it legal.

I’m not saying the pieces here have been copied - I am making the general point…

If art - whether game, photograph, painting, sculpture, music, writing, designs - has been made by someone else - then copyright applies and you do not have free use of it.

[julybighouse]

The graphics for the Glowforge Catan Game have been expressly stated as free-to-use.

There are many places where this is discussed, but @dan had a good statement on it in at least this post (his is the third post):

Free Official Glowforge Designs?

I love this Catan board, the project that sold me on the Glowforge, and the awesome thing is that Glowforge has uploaded it and shared it for free! http://glowforge.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/game-board.pdf I’m wondering if there are any other “Glowforge Official” designs that have been uploaded for free at this time. Could be cool to collect all the links in one place, if so.

Beyond that, I have modified (sometimes heavily) every single one of the designs so that they fit the use that I want. I have no desire to fall on the wrong side of the law, and we have been told that we have full use of these sets of graphics for our own Catan Board building. If that doesn’t protect us, please let me know.

[jamesdhatch]

@julybighouse

Beyond that, I have modified (sometimes heavily) every single one of the designs so that they fit the use that I want. I have no desire to fall on the wrong side of the law

I did my graphics because I like mine to be unique and I like mine better too Since I’m not (wasn’t) coloring them, I needed to make sure the engraved images were more distinctive - when you design with color in mind that’s part of the distinction but with just burned/not burned to work with contrast in design is more important (IMHO).

[julybighouse]

I tried for about three days to create my own and I’ll point to my above comment of my lack of artist skills. I even tried using photos that were marked free-to-use and couldn’t actually get them cropped just right.

So going back to the Glowforge designed tiles was really my fourth or fifth choice. But I’m still happy about the way that it has been turning out.