WOOD CATAN BOARD TRIAL

We used sharpies for the numbers, although writing on paint did ruin the nib of the pen and make it a bit difficult, so if you have the patience and steady hand to paint the numbers with a very tiny brush, you may find they turn out better. We tried painting the discs white, only to find they looked very stark compared to the natural tones on the board, so eventually we settled on copying the original game with cream number tokens.

WOOD CATAN BOARD TRIAL

We debated over various options for the numbers do we go for a rustic look and leave them as bare wood? Or paint them? After a few trial runs we realised that our pen's ink bleeds into the wood, leaving the number fuzzy and unclear. The sea hexes were made later, and apart from two tubes of blue paint, we also used a tube of silver, as mixing the two creates a metallic blue which makes the waves of the sea shimmer slightly in the light. We bought tiny plaster bricks from eBay to add to the hills, and painted them with lots of shades of red-brown, to improve their texture and add light and shade.

The hills and mountain hexes were made using plaster of paris, which we mixed to a thick consistency and dabbed on, poking holes in it to create texture. We considered making and/or buying actual trees with branches but decided they would be too tall and might obscure the view of the board. The sheep were a bit tricky to stick down as their feet were so tiny, but we managed, albeit carefully! The forest hexes were made with some foliage texture which was again pretty hard to stick down. The yellow grass was a little 'dead' looking so we brightened it up by dry-brushing some ochre paint through it. We used two types of model grass from the model railway shop yellow for fields and green for the pasture hexes.

Wood catan board