3d-printable terrain for all your samurai wargaming needs
A new token cup (or dice cup!) is available today, themed for our samurai collection - the Wooden Sake Cup!
▲ A wooden sake cup that can be used for game tokens or as a dice cup, for use in games such as Test of Honour. The cup measures 90mm x 90mm and 70mm in height. It features a curved bottom inside to allow easy withdrawal of tokens.
▲ The cup comes in 3 designs, all with realistic woodgrain patterns - a blank version, a version with the kanji character for 'bushido' engraved on one side, and a version with space for a 30mm symbol to be placed at the front of the cup.
▲ The 30mm crest symbol for the Yamato Clan (also known as the Imperial symbol) is included in this set.You can also personalise your cup with your choice of clan symbol from this Samurai Clan Symbols Set.
This cup makes a great gift, as you can also emboss your own club logo or name on the front, using free software in only a few minutes. See the blog article on how to emboss your club logo >>.
▲ The new Wooden Sake Cup is available for download from today!
I've printed two versions of the new Wooden Sake Cup, and I've decided to paint one as a brand-new fresh wooden box, and the second as an older wooden box in darker colours.
▲ Here's a great example of how nice the cup looks in fresh wood. Note the slightly darker tones on the dovetail joints at the corners, which I'm going to try and replicate with paint. Also note the kanji characters branded onto the front face, in a dark brown colour.
▲ Here's the second reference photo, which I'll be using to paint the darker age-stained wood colours of my second box. Those lovely warm reddy browns might be hard to replicate, so fingers crossed!
▲ One other example photo for you - this has silver foil on the front, and you could try that (or gold) for the embossed kanji characters or the clan crests? The silver looks very eye-catching on fresh wood.
▲ NEW: I undercoated the new box in white, and used a base colour of this creamy Sand.
OLD: This box was undercoated in black, and base coated with Autumn Brown.
▲ NEW: I basecoated the dovetail joints and the base strip on each side with a richer Camel colour.
OLD: I went very dark for the crosscut wood pieces with Rhinox Brown.
▲ NEW: Next it was time for washes. I covered the whole box in a Sepia wash.
OLD: The box was given a dark brown wash to fill the woodgrain crevices.
▲ NEW: The dovetail joints were given a thin wash in brown, to darken the wood there a little more.
OLD: I decided to give the whole box another wash, this time in Reikland Fleshshade, just to redden the wood a little.
▲ NEW: Time to drybrush! The whole box was carefully drybrushed in the original creamy Sand colour once more, until it lightened up to match the fresh cut wood of my reference photo.
OLD: The box was drybrushed heavily in the same Autumn Brown as the basecoat, but this did make it lose some of the reddish tones a little too much.
▲ NEW: The finishing touch for this box was to carefully paint in the embossed text in Rhinox Hide.
OLD: To bring the wood back to its earlier redder tones, I gave it a light wash in Fuegan Orange, which brightened it up considerably. Then I just needed to (slightly messily) basecoat the clan crest in a Retributor Armour rich gold, and then highlight edges with a more silvery Shining Gold.
And with that, both boxes were finished! So it's off to the photo table to take some nice pics, and the new Wooden Sake Cup should be ready for release later today!
The new Wooden Sake Cup comes in a few different versions, but perhaps the most interesting is the option to emboss your own design on the front?!
▲ Want to emboss your own logo or name on the front, so it looks like it's been engraved or branded on (like on the version on the right)? Read on.....
▲ The only things you'll need (apart from the STL file for the cup itself) are a black and white version of your logo, and some free 3D modelling software.
* For this example, I used the logo of the Shrewsbury Wargames Society, as it's a nice simple design and looks cool. Apologies guys, for borrowing your logo :)
Some handy 3d modelling software comes included free with Windows10, called 3D Builder, and that's what we're going to be using today! The instructions below show the step-by-step process, and although the blog might look a bit long, it's very easy and can be done in as little 3 minutes. Yes, really! If you don't believe me, check out the 3-minute video at the end!
▲ 1. Open Windows 3D Builder, click on New Scene.
▲ 2. Select Insert from the menu at the top, and then the Cube button.
▲ 3. Click on the cube, and then the Scale button at the bottom.
4. Change the X to 90mm, and the Z to 70mm. This is the same size as the front of the box, which makes it easier to position your logo.
▲ 5. Select Edit > Emboss from the menu at the top.
▲ 6. Click on the Pattern button, and select Load to load your black and white logo file. A simple logo design works best for this, as some of the embossed lines will only be 1-2mm wide.
▲ 7. Unclick the Bevel button.
▲ 8. Click on the Scale button at the bottom, and drag an arrow until you have the logo at the right size (about 50mm x 50mm works best).
▲ 9. Click on the Move button, and drag the logo to the centre.
▲ 10. Click the Emboss button at the top to produce the embossed block.
▲ 11. Here's the finished, embossed block. But we have one more step, which is to reverse the shape because we'll be using the negative of this logo to cut out the box...
▲ 12. Click on the green block, and select Object > Mirror to reverse it.
▲ 13. We've completed the first part of the process, so save the file as a 3MF or STL file (e.g. 'embossedlogo.stl').
▲ Part 2
1. Open the blank version of the box in Windows 3D Builder (or maybe a copy of that file, just to be safe?).
▲ 2. Click on Insert > Add.
▲ 3. Select your embossed logo (e.g. 'embossedlogo.stl') from the thumbnail list or use the Load Object button to find and load it.
▲ 4. Click on the Import Model button at the top.
▲ 5. Drag your logo block next to the wooden box.
▲ 6. Place it against the side of the box, until it just touches. It will sort of magnetise itself to the box when it's aligned. You'll be able to see the logo in between the two boxes, from the side.
▲ 7. Click on the Y value, and add 0.5mm in the text box. In the example above, I changed it from -384.33mm to -384.83mm to move it closer. Push the Accept button.
▲ 8. Click on the embossed block, and select Edit > Subtract from the menu at the top. This cuts the logo block out of the front of the wooden box.
▲ 9. Save your wooden embossed box. You're done!
10. Get printing!
And just to show that the whole process in this really looooong blog can actually be completed in only 3 minutes, here's the video:
Something a little unexpected for you today, as this was a quick and easy design I thought might enhance our gaming tables - a wooden sake cup!
▲ This is what the genuine article looks like, and although they are found everywhere in Japan, they are probably much harder for you to come by in the rest of the world! And I thought that was unfair, as they make brilliant cups for randomly drawing game tokens or even as a dice cup. So I decided to try and make as accurate a replica as possible...
▲ So I did some print tests with various woodgrain patterns, and this is the end result!
The cup is a 90mm square wooden box, with an open top. I modelled curved surfaces inside, so it's easy to grab tokens, and the 60mm depth inside (70mm total height) is enough to prevent players from seeing inside when drawing.
Three patterns are included; a blank wooden version, a version with a 30mm circle inset on the front (for inserting your favourite clan crests), and a version with the kanji characters for bushido (samurai warrior code) engraved on the front.
▲ The 30mm crest symbol for the Yamato Clan (also known as the Imperial symbol) is included in this set, but you might like to match your cup to your army's crest?
But here's another interesting option for you..... this cup makes a great gift, as it's ideal for embossing your own club/shop logo or name on the front, using free 3D modelling software. Tomorrow's blog will show exactly how to do that in just a few minutes! Honestly, it's much, much easier than you might think.
▲ Just one final pic to show you... the box on the left was printed at 0.2mm layers, but I printed the box on the right at 0.1mm layers, curious to see the difference. The kanji engravings might perhaps be slightly neater for the higher resolution print, but to be honest the rest of the wood-grain pattern is almost identical! That was a surprise.
The new design currently printing in the studio is the Samurai Lord's House, and it covers a massive 4'x4' (120cm²) area! So it looks like I'll need to build some extra tables to give it enough space to be assembled.
* I need YOUR suggestions as to what to carve into the tabletop!!! Help!
▲ I already have a couple of 3'x4' tables ideal for Test of Honour, which can be placed together to make a larger 6'x4' table suitable for Warhammer. But this time I wanted to make two smaller 3'x2' tables, which can be placed separately around the studio as display tables, too!
So I started with some cheap 1x4 pieces of pine, laid on top of the existing larger table to make sure the dimensions matched. This produced 2 tabletop 'frames'.
▲ Two thicker 2x4 beams were screwed inside the frames, lifted up enough to fit more 1x4s later.
▲ Next it's time to create some simple legs. I decided to make these simple box shapes from 2x4s, so that the tables would match the shape of the existing tables. Perhaps overkill in terms of wood, but never mind!
▲ Two leg squares were connected for each table, with a thick 2x4 beam on each side.
▲ The tabletop frames were then screwed down onto the leg structure, to make sturdy tables.
▲ The last phase of construction was to cut 1x4s to make the table tops. I just glued these down inside the frames, because they won't be taking much weight.
▲ And there we have it - two completed mini tables!
.... but now I need your suggestions!
I'd like to make the tables a little fancier by carving a couple of small designs into the table surfaces. Any suggestions?
▲ This is a large twin-tailed comet motif I carved into a full-sized gaming table a few years back, when I was making a Warhammer-themed gaming room. It looked pretty nice when finished and wood-stained, so that's why I'm keen to try again on these smaller tables.
If you have any suggestions, please drop them in the comments below? Thanks!
Samurai Wooden Sake Cup 
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