Ishoo Wun-Oh-Six: Portheim Tile

Hello again and welcome to the first real instalment in the Portheim Project! This ishoo will tackle the main building block of the whole project - the basic Portheim Terrain Tile, which can be customised, adjusted and messed about with the build all sort of more exciting versions of itself! Yes - a modular terrain tile and it's only taken us seven years to get round to making one!

But how hard is the making of a modular terrain tile? Let us consult the mystical oracle of Grot...

A tablesaw is very handy for making sure all the lines are exact, and, by using the built in fence, you can make sure all pieces have the same dimensions. I started this over the holidays, so I had to use my Dad's old Triton Work Center, which is kinda small. During term I have access to a huge industrial saw table at school which makes these things much easier.  Sigh. 

Unlike the blade on a knife, the blade on a circular saw is actually very thick - about 3mm usually. This means that for every cut you make, you lose 3mm of material. Since the sheets are exaclty 600mm wide, you get one 300mm and one 297mm wide tile across. Since all the tiles must be the same size for a modular table, this obviously does not work. I cut the slightly narrower tiles down to 150mm wide half-tiles, and use the rest of the left overs for other things. As you shall see. Eventually.

And there you have it Hippo Fans! I've got quite a bit more of Portheim in various places - this is just what I had in the modelling room at the time, and painted. Come back next time - we'll either be making a launching ramp/boat slip or a boat. One of those.