Pirate Scenery

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Static Board	Lighthouse	Single Islands

Static Pirate Board
Description: The static pirates board was designed for demos or for gaming on an inadequate playing surface.

Size: 36" x 36"

Materials: 36" square plywood base, 1" x 2" wood rails, plaster, 2 bottles of woodland scenics realistic water.

Method: The 1" x 2" maple rails were cut to length and a 1/2" grove was cut with a dato saw. A 1/2" thick, 36" square piece of plywood was used for the base. After the parts were sanded the base was securily glued in place between the rails. Plaster was used to build up the islands, and styrofoam was used to create the rocks. The islands were painted and finished with flock, and the water was painted light blue in the shallows near the islands out to a dark navy for the deep water. Woodland scenics realistic water was then poured over the whole surface of the water and sprayed around with an air compressor.

My mistake! One bottle of realistic water wasn't enough to cover the whole surface of the board. Two bottles poured together would have been enough. What I did was pour one and let it dry then pour the second later when I had the second bottle. Of course the second bottle didnt cover either, guess some pirates plundered my brain that day! The result was high and low spots spread over the whole board. If you use your imagination the ripple kind of looks like waves or a tide or something, and most people don't realise that it wasn't on purpose thankfully.

Gameplay: Some would say that a static setup would be the same every time and get repetitive. This is not true for several reasons, look closely at the layout and recall your last game of pirates using the cardboard islands. 90% of the time you will be able to pick out 6 islands that are close to the exact placment that normally gets used.

There can be several variations on the rules when using this board, that will help it be even more like the game, or different all together. One is to take turns placing your 3 treasure pieces instead of placing islands, if you think about it what is the difference? This will leave 8 home islands to choose from, and turn out being much the same as a regular game.

Another variation is to chose home islands first, then take turns placing treasure one at a time on the islands (up to the regular limit of 3). This may also lengthen the game and sometimes it become a race to the last island for the one remaining treasure piece!

Yet another variation is to randomly place 2 treasures on each island, and pick no home islands. Each player would start their boats in one corner of the board and then be required to sail all their boats to one island to designate it as their home island. The 2 treasure pieces on that island would flip over and become theirs (beware of the plague!). This island would now work like a normal home island for the remainder of the game.

There you have 3 different ways to play, and thats just talking a 2 player version. Playing with 4 would also be no problem.

Lighthouse Island ~ this piece is available in our online store!
Description: 3D lighthouse island.

Size: the standard bean shape.

Materials: RTV mold rubber & Alumilite casting resin. Alumilite is a super light liquid casting plastic with high durability and a tensile strength of 6000 psi!

Method: To sculpt this piece I actually used a cheap lighthouse tower I found in a dollar store. I carved aditional rocks and stairs out of casting wax and plaster then textured and based it on masonite like my other islands. A mold was made with RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) rubber and then it was cast with Alumilite.

Gameplay: No specific game rules have been developed for this piece as of yet.

Single Islands
Description: 3D islands for pirate games.

Size: the standard sizes used in Wizkids pirtares card game.

Materials: Sheetrock compound (not plaster), 1/4 inch masonite board, bark wood chips, static grass, balast.

Method: Masonite board was cut with a scroll saw to desired shapes. Bark wood chips (for landscaping) were broken down and flattened on one side with a hacksaw. Rather than use sand for the bases I wanted a little more texture so I used sheetrock compound, also known as drywall putty. This is much different from plaster. It doesn't dry properly when poured into large containers or even hirst arts molds. When used thinly it works rather well to fill gaps (kinda like it was designed for, haha) and when let dry for a few minutes you can use a stiff brush to give it stipple texture. After that was dry it was painted flocked with a mixture of static grass and balast.

Gameplay: Each island is scaled to standard Potsm islands. These islands may be used in tournament play provided that they are approved by the privateer and opponents agree to their use.