Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Making Pillars for the Dungeon

If you've been following the blog recently you'll have seen my take on the 2.5D dungeon system (if not, you can find it HERE).

Anyway, since then I've been experimenting with a couple of simple pillar/column pieces (as seen in the image below)...

...and if you'd like to have a go at making a few yourself - here's how I did it...

* * *

The first thing you'll need to do is download and print out THIS pdf file (which contains all of the textures needed to create these pillars).

Next, take an empty toilet roll tube and cut it down the middle (lengthways):

Then, lay the tube on a cutting mat, and cut it to a height of 2" (note that you should be able to get two pieces this size from a regular toilet roll).

The next step will depend on how fat/thin you want you columns to be - but in this example I'm making them around 3/4" in diameter ...and so cutting the above piece in half (making two 2" x 3" pieces) is plenty big enough.

Once that's done, simply bend the curved part of the toilet roll around something circular (to reduce the diameter of the tube) and glue the 'overlap' together.

Note that I'm using the syringe that I use for refilling my printer's ink cartridges in this example - as it's the perfect size. When doing this yourself, try and find something roughly 3/4" in diameter, as we need the pillar to be smaller than the 1" base that we'll be gluing it to.

 (I like to wrap an rubber band around the piece while it dries)

The next step is to cut a length of the 'pillar' pattern from the pdf file provided (in this instance a 3" length should be more than enough)...

...and glue it around tube:

* * *

For the pillar's base, simply cut out a 2" square from the 'stone' pattern provided in the pdf, and a 1" square of thick (double-corrugated) cardboard (though foamboard might be a better option if you have it):

Then glue the cardboard to the back of the paper...

...cut little slits in the paper that will allow you to wrap it around the cardboard...

 ...and glue the tabs in place.

* * *

At this point you should have a square base for your pillar, as well as the pillar itself...

...which just need to be glued together with a hot glue gun:

And that's it!

Note that if you're creating the pillars the same size as those above, then each toilet roll and printout should yield four pillars.