Settlers of Catan board

This was a very finicky thing to make. I made all the hexagons and border out of 3/4 inch plywood. Made the “resource” pieces all identical by first creating a template. I made the template by drawing a hexagon with a compass onto some thin plywood. I then roughed it out and then sanded to the line. I made four templates and made sure they fit together just right. I took this template and taped it to blanks that I then cut on the router table with a template bit. The result was 30 identical hexagons; enough for both the 3-4 player versions and the 5-6 play expansion.

Making the border was much more complicated. Even with everything measured out, test fitted and all, I had to make further adjustments after all the painting and finishing; even a thing layer of paint adds up pretty quickly over 30 hexagon pieces. The border pieces fit together like a puzzle. I made a template for them as well.

The coloring is just spray paint. I did a base of white, then used 1” tape around the edges, folding the edge of the tape down on both sides to make a 1/8” border. I then painted them various colors. I finished them all with two coats of shellac.

It’s a super tight fit getting them all into the border. The last two pieces usually have to be whacked in. I will probably make some more adjustments to the border pieces in order to get things to fit more easily. But for now, it works. I’ve already played a few games on it.

For those of you who have not played Settlers of Catan, you should check it out. It’s a really fun game. For those of you who have, then you know it can be a little annoying getting the board to sit flat and to fit together properly. It’s also so lite weight. I decided to make a bigger and better one. This board locks together super tight, has some heft to it, and the pieces are about 25% bigger than the original, giving you more space to see what’s going on.

-- When a 'want' meets 'simplicity', it creats 'progress'.