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Post by thedenofsin on Sept 13, 2017 14:48:35 GMT
All,
First time poster here. I'm looking into building some rock pillars/pedestals (~5" high) for my game. I reviewed some of the techniques on DM Scotty's youtube, but then thought about buying one of those cardboard mailers and using that as the basis.
Has anyone tried using a cardboard mailing tube for this purpose? If so, what were your results?
Any thoughts/concerns with this approach? Once that comes to mind is that perhaps the mailer will be too rigid to make it look roughly hewn.
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Post by Sam on Sept 13, 2017 16:04:49 GMT
Mail tubes probably have a lot of potential for crafting pillars. They are essentially heavy duty paper tubes. Paper towel and toilet tissue rolls are just more readily available. They are more rigid and not easily cut length wise. Small paper tubes from printing calculators and tape rollers can also be used.
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Post by margaret on Sept 13, 2017 16:32:37 GMT
You can certainly use the mailing tubes, although they won't work for anything that requires you to crumple the tube a bit. Or bend it. It's just that the tubes from paper towels and toilet tissue rolls are free, as well as easily come by. The tubes from plastic wrap and aluminum foil are usually thicker and stiffer than paper towel tubes - probably about the same weight as the mailing tubes.
The mailing tube advantage is that you can get larger diameter constructions from them.
If you want to provide some texture to the stiffer tubes, use hot glue. Or you can make fluted columns by peeling one side off of single-layer corrugated cardboard and wrapping the remaining cardboard around the tube with the corrugations out. You can also coat them with spackle. Or print out sheets of stone walls from the free downloads available and glue them onto the tubes. I made a bunch of quick towers for my grandsons that way using Pringles cans.
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Sept 13, 2017 16:45:03 GMT
Not for pillars or similar to that.
Shipping tubes tend to be a bit to large to be useful for that, and without major, internal reinforcement they tend to be bigger than you can use easily for a platform.
Now, there are a LOT of things that they are useful for. For example, they make great huts and are easily put together there. I've also used them for towers and similar things where the height of it works well. They also work well for structural work in larger constructions.
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Post by willc453 on Sept 16, 2017 22:47:31 GMT
Go to Ben Franklin's or some other craft chain wedding supplies area. They have a lot of different sized (diameter and length)columns that figures go on a wedding cake for example. As far as I know, they probably still sell these. Just checked their web site using wedding, column & tubes for my search....nothing, so it may be under a different wording. Still have mine, but no idea where they're at, but they are hollow, made of plastic. For damaged columns, cut it to length desired, fill with plaster of paris and sand to you hearts delight.
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Sept 17, 2017 16:23:59 GMT
Another rather easy version of a "fancy" column is to go to the wood shapes.
Get spools of a size you like with a slightly larger diameter round that fits ontop of it along with the wooden dowels that would fit into the center of the spools.
Use enough of the spools to build the height up enough for what you want with the dowel (I tend to just use two), then mount it on one of the larger rounds as a base.
Black bomb it, then give it a layer of a red-brown, then coat the end sections of the spools and the base with gold (Of you could do both layers with sprays if you have them available in which case just hit the whole thing). The larger flat areas should be kept as smooth as you can.
Find and print a marble texture, cut that into strips that match the width of the spools and glue it flat over the flat areas, trim it to length and let it dry completely before giving the entire piece a layer of gloss varnish.
You can then, optionally, take some adhesive backed felt and cover the bottom of the bases if you want to
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Post by skunkape on Sept 18, 2017 16:01:03 GMT
There is also a wedding section at Michaels that should have wedding decorations that will include the columns for cakes.
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Post by willc453 on Sept 19, 2017 21:58:29 GMT
sotf: good idea for columns, but how about cutting off one of the bases and instant table for your tavern? Come to think of it, you could maybe use them as telephone, wire, etc. spools either as empty spools or wrap some wire/ soldering wire to simulate a full/partial spool.
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sotf
Advice Guru
Posts: 1,084
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Post by sotf on Sept 20, 2017 14:28:23 GMT
sotf: good idea for columns, but how about cutting off one of the bases and instant table for your tavern? Come to think of it, you could maybe use them as telephone, wire, etc. spools either as empty spools or wrap some wire/ soldering wire to simulate a full/partial spool. It might work with some of the larger ones. Most of the large wire spools end up looking very different though, and you might want to consider asking at the craft store if they have any empty ribbon spools in the cloth section because those tend to look more like them
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Post by lordmorbius on Sept 27, 2017 15:07:18 GMT
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