BattleShots

So I made a game…

Build1

Battleshots has been born… Its a drinking game based on battleships. You get 5 ships, 1X5 test tubes, 1X4, 2X3 and 1X2 test tubes. Fill those tubes with a responsible level of the alcohol of your choice. The aim of the game is to sink all your buddies ships before they sink yours! And there’s drinking. You get hit and you take a shot… ALL the fun. Anywho… Proof of the fun can be found here:

I’ve made some changes from the above to make everything symmetrical and the board wider as the slot for the upright piece in the above photo was very close to the edge and could easily break. I’ve put the files on thingiverse for anyone wanting a go: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:561822

The design is pretty straightforward and the link covers the basics of how to put it together. In terms of assembly I thought I’d talk through some of the design. Firstly you’ll need:

  • 1* 600*400mm sheet of 3mm white acrylic
  • 2* 600*400mm sheets of 3mm laserply
  • 8* 120mm carraige bolts (M6 I think…) and 24 nuts to do the gaps (or some tubing cut to length… that would be neater)
  • A purple whiteboard marker
  • Test Tubes: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005ZR5S8W/ You need 40 to have a couple of spares so 60 may be overkill
  • A laser cutter

The whole thing cost around £30 (sans the lasercutter) but I think it could be done for 20-25 if you find a cheap supplier for the test tubes. Anywho I thought I would talk through providing contrast on lasercut acrylic. I thought the purple on white came out really well and was very simple to do.

Capture

Its very straightforward. Just engrave on the material and then highlight the crap out of it. Use a whiteboard marker rather than a permanent marker. In the third photo above you can see one pass. If you clean it off with a papertowel and do a couple of passes you will have a similar output to the final photo… Neat, eh?

I have since seen acrylic paint on solid engravings on transparent acrylic which looks lovely too and I must try out in the future!