So I decided that since my game is rather serious, I should kick things up a notch and scratchbuild a dice tower and gm screen for it. It was originally just going to be the turbolaser tower and dice catching tray, but then feature creep reared its ugly head, and that plus my acute case of Advanced Modeler's Syndrome compelled me to make it a screen that resembled a section out of an Imperial garrison.
I've seen turbolaser dice towers before, and all the ones available just failed to impress me. They often are too simplified, not accurate, or worst of all, the top is completely empty for the hole to drop dice into. Others may be satisfied with that, and hey, if that's your bag, I dig it. But it's not for me. I look at something like this as both form AND function, and so I decided my tower would have a dice dropper in the back of the main structure in order to give it a more "complete" look from the front. Also, I wanted it as big as I could get it without being unable to see over it to view the table and players, so it ended up being about 15 inches in height. But as the tower neared completion, I realized I wanted more out of it and that since this was going to be the only one I'd likely ever build, why not make it as impressive as possible? So I not only expanded my plans, drawing up some diagrams to include walls where I could put copies of the GM screen FFG puts out, but also designed a simple lighting system for the base. The system would not only look cool, but have a function as well, since the tower and garrison block the lights in the apartment the game is hosted in, so I bought some O scale streetlights and used them to illuminate the dice catching tray (which is designed to look like a landing pad.
The night I presented it to the group, I took a white sheet and draped it over the whole diorama, and there was an audible rush of air as they gasped at the sheer lunacy of what I'd created. They stood up and clapped, and then broke out their phones to take pics. I'm sure there are images floating on the internet somewhere that they've shared with others. They told me after the first session was over that the tower looming over the map and miniatures added to the feeling of doom that the mission had, and the guy who is hosting my games offered to let me store the tower at his house in order that I didn't have to lug the 30 pound behemoth up and down the stairs every other weekend.
Overall, the screen and tower were a raging success, and I'm glad I worked nonstop to get it done. Oh, and I should mention one last thing that I'm super proud of. This entire thing is built primarily out of cardstock and cardboard. Yep, it's all posterboard, 110lb card, and some 10mm chipboard, with some wood, wire, and model railroading grass in there as well. And obviously, the electronics.
So, now that I've bored you to death, here are the pics I took of it after completion:
