Project Log: Demon Ship, Part 2

This week, I built the most important element of the Demon Ship board– The floor!

 

Last time, I had measured out the 1-inch floor grid on 1mm thick styrene.

 

All of the elements will be magnetized so they stay in place during play. To ensure the magnets are properly centered in each square, I traced diagonal lines through each square...

 

 

...and drilled holes at the intersections. I started with a small drill bit to make sure the hole was on point, and then widened the hole with successively larger drill bits, up to 1/8-inch, which is the size of the magnets.

 

 

To add thickness and rigidity to the floor, I added a piece of 1.5mm styrene below it. (I could have simply started with a thicker sheet of styrene, but two sheets glued together will flex less.) I traced the locations of the holes onto the bottom sheet and drilled them out.

 

 

I used a thicker drill bit and a power drill to go through them quickly, and then widened the holes a bit with a knife. This sheet is on the bottom, so it doesn't need to be pretty; it just needs to allow access to the holes in the sheet above when adding the magnets. 

 

 

Next, I cut a piece of 0.5mm styrene for the floor itself, and marked out the grid. This top floor layer will cover the magnets to provide a clean surface, and it is thin enough that the magnets will stick through it.

 

 

To make this layer look like metal plates riveted in place, I marked out a small square between each one. That white bit is a piece of 5/16-inch styrene rod that I used as a template, and then I cut some 1/8-inch squares out of a scrap of 0.5mm styrene.

 

 

I used the plastic scriber to etch grooves between each floor tile, and then carefully cut out the squares from the floor.

 

 

Next, I drew out a grid marking where each bolt hole would go (each line is lined up with the corner of the cut-out squares). Then I used a pointer tool to make an indent as a starting point for the drill bit.

 

 

As with the magnet holes, I used successively larger drill bits to gradually widen the holes, up to 3/32-inch. 

 

 

After drilling the holes, I cleaned up the edges with a round file and a sharp knife. 

 

 

Here are the layers of the floor: The 1.5mm bottom, the 1mm magnet layer, and the 0.5mm flooring layer.

 

 

Once those layers were all glued together, I began adding the details that I had prepared earlier. First, the small squares between each tile. I picked up each one with the tip of a sharp hobby knife, dipped it in some super glue, and then pressed it in place.

 

 

Next, I added the caution strips that I made in part 1. Each one was trimmed to fit with a small open square left at each corner.

 

 

I trimmed away the excess styrene around the perimeter and sanded the outer edges smooth. Then I added a small square of 1.5mm styrene into the space at each corner.

 

 

Finally, I added all the rivets and bolts. The rivets for the floor tiles were cut from 1.2mm round styrene rod. Each bit was sliced as close to 0.5mm (the thickness of the floor tiles) as I could get it, and they were also placed with the tip of my knife and some super glue.

 

 

To endure that the rivets were flush, I sanded them down to the level of the surface with an 800 grit sanding stick to ensure that the tiles didn't get scuffed up from the sanding. The last touch was to add large bolts in the corners with a slice of 4.8mm round styrene rod and a piece of 2mm hex rod.

 

 

On the underside, I inserted the magnets into their holes, and added a drop of extra fine super glue to fix them in place.

 

 

I drilled out spots for the magnets on the bottom of the small 2" x 2" platform, and everything worked like a charm!

 

 

The magnets are strong enough to hold the platform in place and it's perfectly centered over the squares it occupies.

 

 

One final adjustment needed to be made, however– The large pipe on each side of the platform was intended to simply terminate and look like it's connecting into and through the floor. But the position of the pipe ended up being right over the intersection with the rivets. If it had been perfectly centered over the small diamond square, it would have looked fine, but it's off-center, going through half of a rivet. 

 

 

My solution was to carve away the bottom of the pipe so now it looks like the pipe curves under and into the platform.

 

 

It's not perfect, but I'm not as annoyed by it as I was with the original position. I'll need to pay attention to details like the positioning of pipes and hatches as I build the walls for the rest of the ship to make sure the construction visually maintains a sense of verisimilitude.

 

 

'Til next time!