As expected, rather than churing out more Napoleonic infantry as required, I decided to spend this weekend knocking up the Mk III dice tower.
My previous efforts were based on balsa wood which proved easy to work with but a bit flimsy.
Therefore I've created the latest version in 6mm MDF and acrylic.
The dimensions are much bigger - the tower is over a foot high and is exactly a foot long. The tray is lined with FabFoam from Hobbycraft (to give the dice a nice soft landing).
The tumblers inside the tower are made up from 2.5mm MDF (bases I'd bought for the Napoleonic Polemos ruleset but now are defunct (as I'm a Grand Armee convert). These were created by using a 6cm squatre as the base and creating a triangle using 6cm x 3cm bases (held together with a glue and matchbox combo).
The tumblers are offset so the dice bounce from one to the other as they fall down the tower and then roll out from the ramp at the bottom. I found one design flaw - that small dice could fall to the side of the ramp - but this was easily cured by widening the ramp inside the tower.
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| The tumblers - the white strips are metal paper. The smaller strips are glued in place and I use a matchstick as a 'keystone' to keep them together. Once glued it forms a solid whole which is glued inside the tower. |
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The tray - lined with FunFoam. Simply 6mm MDF cut to size and glued / nailed together.
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| The exit ramp which ejects the dice into the tray. This had to be widened to stop dice falling between the sides. |
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| Side on view showing how the tumbler and ramp work. |
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| The inside of the tower once the sides have been stuck together, You can see how the tumblers will bounce the dice a few times before reaching the exit. |
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| The Mark III fully assembled. The acylic sides allow you to see the dice coming down! |
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| Trial run. Hold on - those should all be 6's!!! |
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Another view
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