Ok, I'l contribute my thoughts as well.
I've been considering how to make Giant Martian Coasters. The normal ones are 4" square, so a "correctly" scaled up one should be 32" on a side. I imagine 30" would be good enough.
Material
--------
Cardboard would be cheap and light.
Foamcore would also be light AND it provides a nice surface. But as has been noted, it ain't cheap.
Some type of cloth would be very portable but, IMHO, would be SO flimsy that moving a "coaster" would cause too long an interruption to the game.
How about real wood? A 4'x8' sheet of 1/8" (or was it 1/4"?) plywood is less than $10 at my local Home Depot. It would provide enough material for three full coasters OR nine half coasters (32x16"). If you're looking for four hinged coasters, a single sheet would be sufficient. This is the way I've been leaning. Four folded and stacked coasters wold be eight layers of plywood for a total thickness of 2", worst case. Wait, even better... each coaster could be made of four 16x16" sections, possibly hinged togehter like a Trivial Pursuit board. That way the boards could be stacked 32x32x1, 32x16x2 or 16x16x4 -- sweet. Ahhh... but what about sliding the coasters around on the floor? I think snading the edges and spraying the bottoms with a light coat of polyeurathane should do nicely.
How to hinge the two pieces
---------------------------
Real hinges. Expensive. Besides, putting the hinges on the top side would leave a ridge down the middle, while putting them on the underside would probably lead to floor scratches.
Duct tape. Sturdy enough, but it doesn't provide a good paiting surface unless it's primed first. Then again, priming isn't such a bad idea after all. Iknow... maybe after laying down a layer of duck tape to hinge the boards togehter you could use glue on a layer of paper (butcher's paper?) over the tape. This would provide a nice drawing/painting surface.
Don't connect the two pieces of a single "coaster". So you have to move two separate 16x32" pieces of this plywood when you want to move a coaster, so what?
Color schemes
-------------
IF one were to make only four "coasters", which color out of each Treehouse color scheme should be left out? On the one hand, ever since the discussion of playing Binary Homeworlds with a Xeno 3House set, I've come to think of Orange as the odd Xeno color out, because people who spent big bucks on the IceTowers boxed set didn't get any Orange pieces (similar to how Black, out of Rainbow Treehouse, wasn't in the Zendo set). This would make the IceTowers colors, Cyan, Purple, Clear, and White, the four "standard" Xeno colors. On the other hand, A) there's an existing Martian Coasters color scheme, B) it's really hard to show the difference between white and clear when coloring coasters and C) if you make a five-coaster set, you'll have all five colors anyhow.
Even though there is already a pattern set by the regular sized coasters, I'm sure there are other (dare I say "better") ways to make a coaster the home for two possible colors. Maybe the eight squares around the periphery of the coaster alternate between, say, blue and cyan, while the center square is left as is. That way the Xeno consumers aren't treated like an afterthought: "This is the blue home coaster, but we added cyan arrows for those _other_ people."
When/if this project bubbles to the top of my list, I think I'm going to go with...
- four 16x16 pieces of plywood per coaster...
- hinged together with duct tapem which is then covered with paper...
- painted/markered just like the smaller coasters.
Ryan
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Carol Townsend" <carol.townsend@xxxxxxxxx>
> On 1/9/07, Jay Forbes <jay8828@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > You could also use foamcore like the stuff that Craig
> > used to make the Giant Rambots shields. As for the
> > triangles, at my school we have a die-cutter with a
> > triangle shape that is 2" on a side. Some
> > construction paper and spray adhesive could work. Or,
> > how about a stencil and some spray paint.
> >
> > Jay
> >
>
> I can't find *affordable* foam core that large. Most foam core I find is
> 20-24" by whatever - which just isn't large enough (3x8 = 24, but you need
> space between the squares, etc..) I've been told I can order 30" wide
> board, but it's spendy.
>
> I also am looking at easy transportation. Folded to 24", it's just that
> much easier to toss in the car.
>
> However, I'm totally open to options! This is not the first time that
> having eyes and ears (and crafty thinkers) looking for other options may
> turn up a better solution. If so, I'm all for it!
>
> Carol
--- Begin Message ---
- From"Carol Townsend" <carol.townsend@xxxxxxxxx>
- DateTue, 9 Jan 2007 13:16:05 +0000
On 1/9/07, Jay Forbes <jay8828@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You could also use foamcore like the stuff that Craig
used to make the Giant Rambots shields. As for the
triangles, at my school we have a die-cutter with a
triangle shape that is 2" on a side. Some
construction paper and spray adhesive could work. Or,
how about a stencil and some spray paint.
Jay
I can't find *affordable* foam core that large. Most foam core I find is 20-24" by whatever - which just isn't large enough (3x8 = 24, but you need space between the squares, etc..) I've been told I can order 30" wide board, but it's spendy.
I also am looking at easy transportation. Folded to 24", it's just that much easier to toss in the car.
However, I'm totally open to options! This is not the first time that having eyes and ears (and crafty thinkers) looking for other options may turn up a better solution. If so, I'm all for it!
Carol
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