[NOTE: I AM ACCEPTING DIY PROJECT SUBMISSIONS! CONTACT ME. MORE INFO AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.]

I was scrolling through the feed for The Tabletop Crafters Guild on Facebook a couple weeks ago and my eyes fell in love with a GORGEOUS castle. I immediately shot Max (of Max DM Crafting over in Italy) a message to see if I could feature his creation for this series. FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS THING OF BEAUTY! (Click on photos to see them bigger – there is so much detail!) I would love to see this on my game table!



To Play Is Human: What kind of DIY project are you sharing with us?
Max: Today I want to share with you my “Whiterock Castle” project. It is a recycling of old terrain pieces that I bought 15 years ago from Games Workshop: after many years of inactivity and dust I decided to give new life to the “Fortified Manor”, combining it with some parts of the “Warhammer Fortress”, all held together by kilos of foam.


TPIH: What game is the upgrade for?
Max: This is an upgrade for my DIY tabletop game: a combination between Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Dungeons & Dragons, and the old, immortal HeroQuest.

TPIH: Why did you decide to do this project?
Max: Besides the normal tiles and dungeon stuff, I always want to “wow” my friends with some spectacular piece that gives the terrain a “touch of wonder” – so time by time I create some “major piece” and Whiterock Castle is one of them. Usually I make all my terrain openable, but not this time. It came from some prebuilt parts, so I decided to build it in one single piece. In my adventure I will use it as a map: players can walk and explore it on the exterior, while every room inside will be created as part of a dungeon, built step by step. I estimate around 10 levels inside.

TPIH: How long did the project take and what kinds of materials did you use?
Max: This “monster” occupied my nights for about a month: calculating in numerical terms, I would say an average of two hours a day for about 30 days. Apart from the preassembled pieces of the Games Workshop, I mainly used xps foam. The difficult thing was to recreate with the foam the same lines and textures of the already existing pieces without it bothering the look … a real challenge!

TPIH: What is your favorite thing about crafting for games?
Max: The world of crafting for games is a unique and unmissable possibility to see our most incredible fantasies realized: you have the possibility to create with your own hands those places and atmosphere that you read as a child in fantasy books. Today I can create those worlds to allow my family and friends to spend some good time together… Do you need anything else?


TPIH: What game have you played recently that you loved?
Max: I loved Zombicide: Black Plague. It combines my passion for The Walking Dead with the medieval setting… fun!
TPIH: What game is a longtime favorite of yours?
Max: My heart was stuck in 1989, when the first edition of HeroQuest came out: I still have the first two complete and perfectly preserved editions of that game. Let’s say that it was the game that first brought me to love fantasy miniatures, then 3D table games. To this day my crafting is an upgrade for HeroQuest and D&D combined.
TPIH: Readers, make sure you check out Max’s other projects over on his Facebook page!
And now…
A slideshow of photos of the final construction… So many beautiful details! Do you love this build? Let Max know in the comments!

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Do you have a tabletop gaming project that you’ve created? Contact me with some information and photos. No project is too big/small — as long as you made it yourself and you use it when you game, it is eligible for submission! I would love to see projects for board game upgrades and accessories, RPGs, miniatures (I would love to see mini paint jobs!), terrain, dice towers, custom playmats, custom dice, or anything else you have made.

11 Thoughts on “DIY Crafty Gamer, Issue 3”

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