PIRATE'S COVE GAMING BOARD – pt.2

Marko Paunović, 22nd August 2020

This article finds the second and final part of the step by step tutorial of the building process of a gaming board for a board game called Pirate's Cove that my club's (terrain workshop did a couple of years ago.

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The Design:

In the previous article, Andrija and I made the basic outline of the board with the frame, ran the wires underneath the board and made all the ships. The next thing, before the actual build, would be to have all the electronics installed so the terrain could be built around it. Before installment, we needed to check all the calculations and agree on the final layout of all the features.

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Electronics:

In this model we decided to fit the smoke generator (hereinafter - fogger), and in every house an LED would be built in order to evoke the effect of burning lamps or candles. As the power source for the board we chose the electricity from the grid which meant 220V AC current (in Croatia). Therefore the alternating current must be mentioned here, since the fogger is powered via the adapter from the city grid. The adapter which goes with the fogger changes AC 220V current to 24V AC also. (NOTE: If the device transforms the current from 220V AC to 24V DC for example, it is then called the transformer - author's note).

The advantage of using city power grid (ie adapters and transformers) is that there is no concern about the consumption of electricity, namely, no batteries which could be spent.

Since the LEDs are working exclusively on DC, it was necessary to connect the LED circuitry in parallel with the fogger. Apart from the fogger branch, we needed to extract one branch to go through Graetz bridge which would be connected to all the LED circuitry. As explained in a previous issue, Graetz combination (ie single-phase full-wave rectifier) only corrects the voltage, but it does not ''straighten'' it. In order to straighten the voltage it is necessary to add an RC circuit. In this gaming board, that was not necessary to make because the local electrical grid works on frequency f = 50 Hz (meaning that the voltage is sinusoidal and makes 50 cycles per second). Using a single-phase full-wave rectifier that frequency doubles, so the frequency is 100Hz. The human eye does not notice the higher frequency of 20Hz. What does this mean exactly? That our LED will be flashing 100 times per second, but you will not notice it. Indeed, it will look as if the LED were constantly lit. It should be noted that Graetz circuit losses of approximately 10% and that voltage 24V DC will therefore be around 22V DC.

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The calculation of the LED circuits is relatively simple because there is a lot of repetition. Each branch (except Crew Island) looks the same and as far as the resistance calculation runs as follows:

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and for Crew Island:

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Here we calculate the electrical power in each branch :

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which is relatively high power. It is no surprise when one considers the fact that the resistor reduces the voltage for 20V! This information is important when choosing the resistor, because when you buy it, you will need to emphasize that you are looking for such a powerful resistor. For the Crew Island two resistors of 50Ω and 0.04 W are required

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This result is also not surprising because the resistor reduces the voltage for only 2V, and through it flows a current of 20mA.

We now return to the beginning - the adapter, which in this case has Imax=1200mA. The next step is to add all the currents in the branches.

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So, to run all the LEDs you need 240mA which leaves 960mA for fogger to work, which after testing with a multimeter showed that is enough. If it were not,the calculation should be revised.

Finally, the elements needed for this project are:
• Fogger (with adapter AC 220V → 24V AC)
• 2 pairs of male-female Jack's
• Graetz bridge
• 7 switches
• 10 R = 1kΩ resistor R, P = 0.5 W
• 2 R = 50Ω resistor
• 27 LEDs (yellow, 3mm)
• 2 LEDs (red, 5mm → Treasure Island, the eyes of the skull)
• 1 LED (red, 3mm → Tavern Island, the upper floor tavern)
• a minimum of 10m of wire.

The Continuation of the Build

Once the electronics were installed and the Graetz bridge was prodected inside a box that was made from balsa wood, we did a test run. The LEDs indeed did not flicker, the volcano produced the fog and we could proceed with the terrain build.

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The first island we tackled was Crew Island. We decided to have a small sea town with a town hall and a church with a graveyard on a hill. The streets of the town were made from plastic pieces of a 1/72 medieval castle. The buildings were built by Andrija from 1,5mm thick balsa wood and thin card. The window shutters were about 1x1mm in size and were each cut from a piece of paper. We placed most of the buildings on top of 3mm yellow LEDs that were drilled through the bottom of the plastic street construction.

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The fortress on Gun Island was done from the same medieval castle plastic kit. Sides of the octogonal bastions were carefully cut using a scalpel blade. The guns were salvaged from a Revell plastic ship. To finish the job, we placed a chain at the port entrance.

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The body of all the islands was made from 2cm thick HD styrofoam. The beaches, cliffs and the rest of the features were modelled from air drying clay (DAS). The piers were done from 2mm thick balsa wood. Once the clay and PVA glue were dry, the islands were coated in watered down PVA glue. The top surfaces were sprinkled over with coarser sand while the beaches were covered with smallest grain sand we could find. In this case, it was chinchilla sand from a local pet shop.

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With this, most of the islands were done. All that was left was to do the Pirate's Cove island and make a removable volcano. We had to make the volcano removable to make it possible to fill and empty the vessel for the water that the fogger uses to make fog. If we left the board in one piece, it would have been impossible to empty the tank which would eventually cause the formation of calk or something even worse. Again, the body of the island was built by HD styrofoam. Using styrofoam boards made it possible to have a straight cut between the island and the removable volcano. Once the island part of styrofoam was dry, the tank was placed in its spot and around it another layer of styrofoam was placed and glued to the tank from the top side. Once it was dry, we made the island and volcano features following the same procedure as we did for the rest of the islands using DAS air drying clay. Once it was dry, we textured it with sand (two different sizes).

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The islands were painted using Pebeo Deco colours (Black, Brown, Ochre, Ash, White and Grey) and flocked using static grass. The trees were made from twisted wire trees bought on Ebay. When the islands were done, I painted the seas. As I wanted the blue to be really bright, I used a white undercoat that was hand painted using a large brush as I didn't want to risk botching up the rest of the work by accidental spillage by using sprey/air brush. After it was done, I mixed several shades of blue (by mixing Pebeo Deco White and Blue). Each progressive layer had more Blue in it. Before pouring in the resin, we decided to make a compass with a club sign. The painted design on a piece of paper was simply cut out and glued using watered down PVA glue. All that was needed was to mix the resin and pour it in carefully. For this, we used Gedeo Crystal Resin. A quick calculation revealed that we needed 600ml of resin in order to make the water 1,5-2mm deep. Carefully we mixed the two part resin (mixing ratio is 2:1 vol which makes it easy to work with). Once the mixture was fully mixed I added a couple of drops of Pebeo Vitrail Sky Blue colour. Be careful when mixing, because you can easily overdo it and be left with too dark a resin.

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After a drying period of about 24 hours, the board was done and we could present it to the guys from the club!

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Latest articles

  • We visited: Kontrast Miniature Painting Festival
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    This year, our member Ivan Knezović and his brothers, Petar and Filip, (popularly called the Knezović Clan) visited the Kontrast international miniature painting competition in Poland. And this is his report.

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    One of the largest miniature painting competitions in the world has been taking place in Warsaw since 2021. The Knezović clan visited Kontrast for the first time in 2023. The event was great and we enjoyed almost 1500 works, many of which were made by masters at the highest artistic level. We decided to visit Warsaw again in 2025, after completing enough works to justify the 12-hour drive one way.

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    We came to Kontrast as a kind of UMS Agram emissaries, and we handed out flyers for Black Queen 2026 and met a number of other enthusiasts, and we hope that some of them will visit Zagreb. We also brought home the Best of Show medal for the work that impressed us the most. We awarded the UMS Agram Best of Show to Dimosthenis Xylas, a miniaturist from Athens, for his dwarf. The work impressed us with its phenomenal atmosphere, smooth transitions, the play of multiple light sources, the level of quality on each individual element, and the convincing textures of the metal. Also, we simply love dwarfs.

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    The number of phenomenal works was large, because in 2025 more than 1700 works were exhibited in 2 classes - Standard for beginners and hobbyists and Master for professionals and those who have already proven themselves at international competitions (everyone who won gold in Standard will compete in Master in the future).

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    Petar won silver in the Master in 2023 and exhibited his works in the Master in 2025, while Filip and I did not have such good results and entered our works in the Standard.

    One of the works that particularly stood out was Captain Titus from the game Space Marine 2 in a huge scale, it seems to me to be 1/4. It may not be the best, but it is a work that all visitors noticed.

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    One of the works that impressed us was a truly enormous diorama of Khorne Chaos Space Marines vs. Ultramarines. The diorama is huge, but each model is painted to a very high standard and contains about 30 models in various sizes. It is an imitation of a famous painting depicting a battle in Warhammer 40k.

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    Going through every work that impressed us would make this article too long, and words convey much less than photographs. Luckily, Filip came with a very good camera, so I leave some pictures for the readers to enjoy.

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    Our results were beyond expectations. Petar did not return with a medal, because during the 2 years he worked mostly on orders. He painted more than 400 models, but almost all of them were orders. In 3 days he painted the Durgin Paint Forge Orca. The model is really excellent, but the competition was great. With a few more days of work he would definitely be in the running for a medal. I think he can be satisfied with his work and next time aim for a medal with 6 days of painting.

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    Jure Cukar, for whom we carried 3 models, won 1 silver in the Standard class.Filip won 2 silvers in the Standard class for his lizards (dioramas) and for his ambient soldier (single model up to 54 mm).

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    I came to Kontrast with 5 exhibits. I came back with results that I did not expect even in my most optimistic dreams, because this is a truly huge competition with numerous top artists. I entered all my works in the Standard class.

    For my Midori bust, I won gold in the Standard Historical and Realism category and an award from Alternity Miniatures, the company whose bust it is a product.

    For my cat Albert, I won silver in the Standard Storytelling category.

    For Dwarf Lord, I won gold in the Standard category for models larger than 54 millimeters.

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    For my dwarf adventurers, I won gold in the Standard Diorama category, a medal from Verko's Vault (miniature museum in Las Vegas) and what I really didn't expect, Best of Standard – the award for the best work of all works in the Standard category.

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    Finally, and this is perhaps the greatest recognition for my work, I won silver in the Master category for my Infinity regiment. Namely, all competitors submitted their works in only one class, either Standard or Master. However, the judges reserved the possibility of moving the model from Standard to Master.

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    All in all, Kontrast is a great experience. I hope we will visit Warsaw again, if not in 2026 then in 2027. In the meantime, I hope our Black Queen will also visit some of the new people we met in Poland.

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    Ove godine naš član Ivan Knezović je sa svojom braćom, Petrom i Filipom, (popularno nazvanima Klan Knezović) posjetio međunarodno natjecanje u bojanju minijatura Kontrast u Poljskoj. A ovo je njegov izvještaj!

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    Jedno od najvećih natjecanja u bojenju minijatura na svijetu odvija se u Varšavi od 2021. godine. Klan Knezović je posjetio Kontrast prvi puta 2023. godine. Događaj je bio sjajan te smo uživali u gotovo 1500 radova, od kojih su mnogi rađeni od strane majstora na najvišoj umjetničkoj razini. Odlučili smo i 2025., nakon što smo dovršili dovoljno radova da opravdamo vožnju od 12 sati u jednom smijeru ponovno posjetiti Varšavu.

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    Na Kontrast smo došli kao svojevrsni izaslanici UMS Agrama te smo podijelili letke za Black Queen 2026. te upoznali veći broj drugih entuzijasta te se nadamo da će neki posjetiti Zagreb. Donijeli smo i Best of Show medalju za rad koji nas se najviše dojmio. UMS Agram Best of Show dodijelili smo Dimosthenisu Xylasu, minijaturistu iz Atene za njegovog patuljka. Rad nas je dojmio fenomenalnom atmosferom, glatkim prijelazima, igrom više izvora svjetla, razinom kvalitete na svakom pojedinom elementu i uvjerljivim teksturama metala. Također, jednostavno volimo patuljke.

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    Broj fenomenalnih radova bio je velik, jer je 2025. bilo izloženo više od 1700 radova u 2 klase - Standard za početnike i hobiste te Master za profesionalce i one koji su se već iskazali na međunarodnim natjecanjima (svi koji su u Standardu osvojili zlato ubuduće se natječu u Masteru).

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    Petar je 2023. osvojio srebro u Masteru te je i 2025. izlagao radove u Masteru, a ja i Filip nismo imali tako dobre rezultate te smo svoje radove prijavili u Standard.

    Od radova koji su se posebno isticali bio je kapetan Titus iz igre Space Marine 2 u ogromnoj skali, od oka čini mi se da je 1/4. Možda nije najbolji, ali je rad koji su svi posjetitelji primijetili.

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    Jedan od radova koji nas se dojmio je i zbilja ogromna diorama Khorne Chaos Space Marinaca protiv Ultramarinaca. Diorama je ogromna, ali svaki model pobojen je na vrlo visokoj razini te sadrži oko 30 modela u različitim veličinama. Imitacija je poznatog slikarskog prikaza bitki u Warhammeru 40k.

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    Proći svaki rad koji nas se dojmio oduljilo bi ovaj članak, a riječi prenose puno manje nego fotografije. Srećom, Filip je došao s vrlo dobrim foto aparatom te ostavljam neke slike za uživanje čitateljima.

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    Naši rezultati bili su iznad očekivanja. Petar se nije vratio s medaljom, jer je kroz 2 godine radio većinom na narudžbama. Pobojio je više od 400 modela, ali gotovo sve su bile narudžbe. U 3 dana pobojio je Durgin Paint Forge orka. Model je zbilja izvrstan, ali konkurencija je bila velika. S još nekoliko dana rada zasigurno bi ušao u konkurenciju za medalju. Mislim da može biti zadovoljan samim radom i sljedeći put ciljati na medalju sa 6 dana bojenja.

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    Jure Cukar, za koga smo nosili 3 modela osvojio je 1 srebro u Standard klasi. Filip je osvojio 2 srebra u Standard klasi za svoje guštere (diorama) i za svojeg ambientalnog vojnika (single model do 54 mm).

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    Ja sam na Kontrast došao s 5 izložaka. Vratio sam s rezultatima koje nisam očekivao niti u najoptimističnijim snovima, jer se radi o zbilja ogromnom natjecanju s brojnim vrhunskim umjetnicima. Sve svoje radove prijavio sam u Standard klasu.

    Za svoju Midori bistu osvojio sam zlato u Standard Historical and Realism kategoriji te nagradu Alternity Miniaturesa, tvrtke čija je bista proizvod.

    Za svojeg mačka Alberta osvojio sam srebro u Standard Storytelling kategoriji.

    Za Dwarf Lorda osvojio sam zlato u Standard kategoriji za modele veće od 54 milimetra.

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    Za svoje patuljke avanturiste osvojio sam zlato u Standard Diorama kategoriji, medalju Verko's Vaulta (muzej minijatura u Las Vegasu) te ono što stvarno nisam očekivao, Best of Standard – nagradu za najbolji rad od svih radova u Standard kategoriji.

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    Na kraju, a ovo je možda najveće priznanje za moje radove, osvojio sam srebro u Master kategoriji za svoj Infinity regiment. Naime, svi natjecatelji svoje radove prijavljivali su samo u jednu klasu, ili Standard ili Master. No, suci su pridržali mogućnost pomicanja modela iz Stanarda u Master.

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    Sve u svemu Kontrast je sjajno iskustvo. Nadam se da ćemo ponovno posjetiti Varšavu, ako ne 2026. onda 2027. U međuvremenu, nadam se da će i naš Black Queen posjetiti i neki od novih ljudi koje smo upoznali u Poljskoj.

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    Marko Paunović, 5th June 2025
  • Dalibor's Trip Tip: Plzen and Prag
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    A quick report because I literally had 10-15 minutes to look at this model, take pictures of it and listen to some details about the city it represents. So, if your trip brings you to Plzeň in western Bohemia, I recommend you look for this beautiful model of the old city center in a scale of 1:200. The model is approximately 2x2 meters in size and is located on the ground floor of the city hall, which is located on the main square opposite the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew.

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    Regarding our hobby, and while you're here, I believe it's also worth visiting the General Patton Museum, the Puppet Museum, and the Colors of Warriors hobby shop. Unfortunately, due to work and previously scheduled obligations, I wasn't able to see them, and therefore didn't get to take any pictures. But at least, besides the excellent beer, I have an additional reason to visit this beautiful Czech city again. So here are some more photos of the model of Plzen.

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    And if you happen to be in Prague, be sure to visit the toy store Hračky u Zlatého lva. Yes, toys, I know. But you will enjoy classic wooden toys, dolls and metal model cars. Although it is not large by some general standards, the store is spread over 2 floors with a small note: if you are looking for transformers, WH 40k, minions and other modern wonders there, you will be quite disappointed. I was not.

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    Jedan brzinski izvještaj jer sam imao doslovno 10-15 minuta pogledati ovu maketu, poslikati ju i poslušati neke detalje o gradu kojeg predstavlja. Dakle, ako vas put dovede u Plzeň u zapadnoj Češkoj, preporučam da potražite ovi prekrasnu maketu stare gradske jezgre u mjerilu 1:200. Maketa je otprilike veličine 2x2 metra i nalazi se u prizemlju gradske uprave, a koja se nalazi na glavnom trgu nasuprot katedrale Sv. Bartolomeja.

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    Vezano uz naš hobi, a dok ste ovdje, vjerujem da se još isplati posjetiti Muzej generala Pattona, Muzej lutaka i hobby shop Colours of Warriors. Ja ih, nažalost, radi posla i ranije isplaniranih obaveza nisam uspio vidjeti, a samim time niti poslikati. Ali bar, osim izvrsnog piva, imam dodatni razlog opet posjetiti ovaj lijepi češki grad. Stoga još malo fotki makete Plzena.

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    A ako vas put slučajno nanese u Prag, obavezno posjetiti trgovinu igračaka Hračky u Zlatého lva. Da, hrački, I know. Ali ćete zato uživati u klasičnim drvenim igračkama, lutkama i metalnim modelima autića. Iako nije velika za neke generalne pojmove trgovina se prostire na 2 etaže uz malu napomenu: ako ćete tamo tražiti transformerse, WH 40k, minione i ostala moderna čudesa prilično ćete se razočarati. Ja nisam.

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    Dalibor Čavić, 4th June 2025
  • Miniature Painting Workshop - Kitbashing and Converting
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    U subotu i nedjelju, 17. i 18.5. održali smo novu vikend radionicu bojanja minijatura. Ovog puta tema je bilo konvertiranje i kitbashanje.

    Radionica se provodila kroz dva dana (cijeli vikend) i bila je fokusirana na izradu dvije (do tri) vlastite minijature od raznih dijelova (više različitih minijatura) uz dodatak modeliranja dijelova uz pomoć modelarskih masa (Green Stuff). Sastojala se od dva dijela, teorijskog i praktičnog dijela. Tijekom radionice polaznici su se upoznali s alatima, materijalima i tehnikama za izvođenje jednostavnih i kompleksnih konverzija, uključujući uporabu masa za modeliranje.

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    Teorijski dio uključuje savjete za planiranje, nabavu dijelova i smisleno sklapanje personaliziranih minijatura da bi polaznici naučili izbjeći početničke greške i podigli svoje vještine na viši nivo.
    U praktičnom dijelu, uz pomoć voditelja primijenila su se stečena znanja na vlastitu konverziju.

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    Praktični dio Radionice se odvijao na sljedeći način:
    Prvo, predavač sjedi za svojim stolom te objašnjava i demonstrira pojedini korak na svojem primjerku dok polaznici slušaju, gledaju, ali i postavljaju pitanja. Potom, polaznici sjedaju za svoje stolove i primjenjuju stečeno znanje. Predavač potom kruži između polaznika i provjerava kako svakom polazniku ide. Na taj način, može se prilagoditi svakom polazniku ponaosob.

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    U nedjelju od 16:00 svi polaznici su dobili profesionalni feedback na urađene radove od Ane Polanšćak iz Gardens of Hecate.

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    " ["created"]=> string(19) "2025-05-18 18:27:11" ["modified"]=> string(19) "2025-05-18 18:27:11" } ["Member"]=> array(10) { ["id"]=> string(2) "35" ["group_id"]=> string(1) "1" ["first_name"]=> string(5) "Marko" ["last_name"]=> string(9) "Paunović" ["first_name_mask"]=> string(5) "marko" ["last_name_mask"]=> string(8) "paunovic" ["username"]=> string(5) "marko" ["password"]=> string(40) "3bd37b326d19d1880d3b93a4b32e8fb3a90fa122" ["born"]=> string(19) "2033-03-07 20:35:00" ["created"]=> string(19) "2009-06-02 20:37:03" } }
    Marko Paunović, 18th May 2025
  • March to Hren28 week 7
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        string(24) "March to Hren28 tjedan 7"
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    Our team is preparing to perform at the Turnip28 tournament called H.R.E.N.28 in Slovenia in July. Ana, Mario, Domagoj, Seb and Antoni assemble their armies and paint, and we follow them on their way!

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    ANTONI: „As for my latest pair of Fodder models, one carries a flag and the other carries a nest on its shoulders. The flag is made from a thin piece of copper that is clamped around a brass rod, secured with superglue, and then bent to look like fabric in the wind.

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    The nest is made of a mixture of green stuff and milliput that I cut lines into. I put two chicken eggs from the Tamiya farm animal set inside and secured them with a drop of superglue. The other models have all sorts of new heads, from simple medieval helmets to gas cylinder caps. To make it easier to see what they are doing, most of them have candles on their caps. “

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    MARIO: „As an unexpected addition to my army, I found an old pipe in the apartment and decided to turn it into a cannon. I had the legs from some bird monsters on the sprue and they turned out great for the conversion. My other toadie (which is supposed to be for Brutes) is a small knight and I wanted to give him some creature to stand out on to compensate. I found a stork from Muller, added the head of the pterodactyl I found on the floor of the Sferakon, and redid the legs. There are more things on the bird coming soon, but I have to decide which ones.“

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    Naša ekipa se sprema za nastup na Turnip28 turniru pod nazivom H.R.E.N.28 u Sloveniji u srpnju. Ana, Mario, Domagoj, Seb i Antoni slažu svoje vojske i farbaju, a mi ih pratimo na njihovom putu!

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    ANTONI: „Što se tiče par najnovijih Fodder modela, jedan nosi zastavicu, a drugi nosi gnijezdo na ramenima. Zastavica je napravljena od tankog komada bakra koji je kliještima stisnut oko mjedenog štapića, učvršćen superljepilom te potom savijen da izgleda kao tkanina na vjetru.

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    Gnijezdo je napravljeno od mješavine green stuffa i milliputa u koju sam urezao crte. Unutra sam ubacio dva kokošja jaja iz Tamiya seta domaćih životinja i učvrstio ih kapljicom superljepila. Ostali su modeli dobili svakakve nove glave, od običnih srednjovjekovnih kaciga do poklopaca od plinskih boca. Kako bi bolje vidjeli što rade, većina ih ima svijeće na kapama. “

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    MARIO: „Kao neočekivani dodatak mojoj vojsci, našao sam staru lulu u stanu i odlučio pretvoriti ju u top. Imao sam noge od nekih ptičjih čudovišta na sprue-u i ispale su super za konverziju. Moj drugi toadie (koji bi trebao biti za Brutes) je mali vitez i želio sam mu dati neko biće na kojem će se istaknuti za kompenzaciju. Našao sam rodu iz Mullera, dodao glavu pterodaktila kojeg sam našao na podu Sferakona i prepravio noge. Uskoro dolazi još stvari na pticu, ali se moram odlučiti koje.“

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    Antoni Pastuović, 18th May 2025
  • Scratchbuilding Star Wars Crates
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        string(41) "Izrada kontejnera za diorame u SW setingu"
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    In this article I’ll explain how I scratchbuild crates for the Star Wars Universe, to use on bases or in dioramas. It’s pretty simple and fun, and the required tools and barrier to entry is really low. These are the tools and materials I have at my disposal when I start the build.

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    My materials are two polystyrene sheets of different thicknesses. I choose the 1mm and the 0.25mm for this build, as well as square tubes of polystyrene 7.9mm X 7.9mm and a ruler. These are produced by Evergreen, and are widely available in hobby stores around the world. The tools I use are plastic cement (preferably with a brush), a hobby knife and a nail file.

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    I cut off a tip of the square tube, trying to make the length as equal to the width as possible, so 7.9mm. Now I have a cube.

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    Then I cut out smaller details for panels and parts (called greeblies in Star Wars lingo) from both the thinner and the thicker polystyrene sheets. Here I cut out as many as possible, to give myself options when assembling the crates.

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    An important aesthetic detail of the Star Wars universe is notches, and so I cut notches into several of my panels, like in this illustration.

    Another stylistic factor of SW is that very few things are symmetrical. So I chose to make all sides of my crates different, varying the panelling and details, using both thick and thin polystyrene for variation in depth. Here are some examples of different sides of my crates.

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    The larger crate is created only using the polystyrene sheets, and not from the square tube. So I measured and cut out five equal sides (the bottom is open) of the 1mm thick polystyrene and glued them together to form a cube. I used the thinner polystyrene to cut out and create lids for all my crates as well. Everything is glued together using plastic cement which creates a strong bond relatively fast by melting the plastics together. Because of this I now have sturdy crates that I can then use the nail file to polish and clean up - making sure all sides of the bigger crate are flush, that all crates are flat at the bottom, and file down all the hard corners of the crates into more rounded shapes.

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    I test out the placement of the crates on my base, and make sure the scale works, before I finish the base.

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    " ["content_hrv"]=> string(4921) "

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    U ovom ću članku objasniti kako izrađujem sanduke za Star Wars svemir, za korištenje na bazama ili u dioramama. Prilično je jednostavno i zabavno, a potrebni alati i prepreka za ulazak su stvarno niski. Ovo su alati i materijali koje imam na raspolaganju kada počnem graditi.

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    Moji materijali su dvije polistirenske ploče različitih debljina. Odabrao sam 1 mm i 0,25 mm za ovu konstrukciju, kao i kvadratne cijevi od polistirena 7,9 mm X 7,9 mm i ravnalo. Njih proizvodi Evergreen i dostupni su u hobi trgovinama diljem svijeta. Alati koje koristim su plastični cement (po mogućnosti s četkom), hobi nož i turpija za nokte.

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    Odrezao sam vrh četvrtaste cijevi, pokušavajući da duljina bude što jednaka širini, dakle 7,9 mm. Sada imam kocku.

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    Zatim sam izrezao manje detalje za panele i dijelove (koji se u žargonu Ratova zvijezda nazivaju greeblies) i od tanjih i od debljih polistirenskih ploča. Ovdje sam izrezao što je više moguće, kako bih imao mogućnosti pri sastavljanju sanduka.

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    Važan estetski detalj Star Wars svemira su urezi, pa sam izrezao ureze u nekoliko svojih ploča, kao na ovoj ilustraciji.

    Još jedan stilski faktor SW-a je da je vrlo malo stvari simetrično. Stoga sam odlučio napraviti različite strane svojih sanduka, mijenjajući obloge i detalje, koristeći debeli i tanki polistiren za varijacije u dubini. Evo nekoliko primjera različitih strana mojih sanduka.

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    Veći sanduk izrađen je samo od polistirenskih ploča, a ne od četvrtaste cijevi. Tako sam izmjerio i izrezao pet jednakih stranica (dno je otvoreno) polistirena debljine 1 mm i zalijepio ih da formiraju kocku. Koristio sam tanji polistiren za izrezivanje i izradu poklopaca za sve svoje sanduke. Sve je zalijepljeno plastičnim cementom koji relativno brzo stvara čvrstu vezu topljenjem plastike. Zbog toga sada imam čvrste sanduke koje zatim mogu upotrijebiti turpiju za poliranje i čišćenje - pazeći da su sve strane većeg sanduka u ravnini, da su sve sanduke ravne na dnu i isturpijam sve tvrde kutove sanduka u zaobljenije oblike.

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    Prije nego što dovršim bazu, testiram položaj sanduka na svojoj bazi i uvjeravam se da vaga radi.

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    Sebastian Søgård, 12nd May 2025

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