Display case for minis build

[phoenixcinder]

Found this lovely beat up wall unit at a thrift store, going to dismantle the piece and rebuild it to be a lovely miniature display case



fully dismantled


The wood used in the 3 shelves were much thicker than will be needed for this purpose. Originally I was thinking I would just completely replace them with much thinner pieces. but they would be prone to drooping over time due to the units width. So I'm deciding to cut some pieces either 1/2in or 3/4in thick to make 3 vertical sections in the case where I will be putting in 3/16in thick shelves.

I can comfortably split each column into 6 levels. Each level can go up to 3 minis deep but I will most likely only go 2 deep. Will depend how it looks once assembled. For easy math if I do 2 rows of 5 minis in each level of each column I am looking at a capacity of 180 minis.



Will have to continue this later . Too late to cut wood now lol

[phoenixcinder]

sanded, filled nicks/holes/scratches with woodfill then stained it all darker.




Did a final test and decided on 9cm high segments. I did a test for depth and made all the slits. Allows me to fit 6 segments in each colomn. I didn't do slits on the outside as I was using a small table saw to make the slits and I didn't want to go all the way through.



Reassembly first glue then screws. and tested out the minis. Seems best with 4 wide I can either go 2 deep or 3 deep. If 2 deep I am looking at a 144 mini capacity

[phoenixcinder]

glue wasn't working that well so was force to use small screws . Will have to cover those up later



Testing out etching the slats . A couple failed first attempts


I decided the middle colomn to be shorter slats of wood as well as the top row due to the arches that will be attached back at some point. So for the remaining I had to cut out a small indentation to allow the slat to move up flush . I can use these deeper shelves for minis I have a lot of like the 12 skeletons.




Might attempt staining a piece before I etch it to see if an inverse looking slat will look cool

[lestodante]

love the carverd tile fllor!

[phoenixcinder]

Still prototyping the floors. Think I got it now. I didn't like how you had to be at the right angle to see the etchings. Painting them came to mind but some of the etches are razor thin which would make is too easy to make an irreversable mistake. So deciding to stain the wood before I carve it so the etching machine can make all the lines pop up automatically.


First couple attempts were ok but found the lines too thin. Especially while looking at it from an eye level. I reprepped the vectors and thickened everything up to exaggerate things and cooperate better with the etching machine.


Will be waiting till I get them all etched before cutting and placing
2 down, 13 more to go

[phoenixcinder]

Etches coming along. Still have 7 more to make. Trying to base each etch on a different room from the board

[Thor-in]

I love that, I was planning on building something similar.

[phoenixcinder]

I am thinking I may add some lights as well, seeing I have all the parts kicking around

[phoenixcinder]

Got a bunch more etched
Have to redo a few to work with the new layout plan. I want each column to have all different room styles. While each row will share the same room style. So like the bottom row where they are all cracked tiles. Or the row third from the top which are all squares. Sadly there are only 2 rooms on the game board with an "X" theme so I will have to throw in another cracked tile in its place while keeping the X row as far from the cracked row as possible.

[phoenixcinder]

Testing out the idea of installing lights into the case.



Diagram of how all 3 columns will be lit from one power source while having individual switches



Doing a test run on some scrap wood of how I would wire each section from the back to have minimal wires showing.



First did a smaller pilot hole then drilled the first part of the path for the wires from the back