Castle Pawns for Condottiere

This page contains instructions on how to use mold #371 to build castle pawns for the Condottiere board game.

You will need 10 castings of mold #371 to build this set. Click the photo for a larger view.

An Introduction to Condottiere

Condottiere is a game for 2-6 players and is one that our gaming group really enjoys. If you have not heard of it, I strongly suggest you watch the SU&SD video on the right which explains the rules in detail.

This game combines bluffing, strategy and area control in a way that keeps most players interested the whole time. At the writing of this article, the game is still in print by Z-Man Games and you can find it on their web site here.

You may notice that the card artwork of the Z-Man Games version is a little different than what is in the video, but it's still the exact same game. Making these castle pawns won't do you any good unless you buy the game first, so be sure to pick up a copy from Z-Man Games.

Making a Large Version of Condottiere
Click on the video to watch it on YouTube.

This video demonstrates how I built a large version of the Condottiere board game. It also includes a look at the current game boards available and how my gaming group enjoys playing the game.

Casting Tips for Mold #371

For this project, you will need less than 5 pounds of casting material because you will only be casting this mold 10 times. Please refer to the Casting Instructions page on how to mix and pour the dental stone, as well as where you can purchase it. For the best casting results, follow the Advanced Casting Instructions page as well.

The casting you see here was done without any surfactant and without washing the mold before using it the first time.

Before your first casting, wash the pockets of the mold out by putting the mold under a faucet at full blast. This texture is not very deep but there are still many tiny bumps that the plaster must flow into to get a good casting.

Also before your first casting, fill a sink with a couple inches of water and put one small squirt of Jet Dry into the water afterwards.

Jet Dry is a rinse agent used in an automatic dish washer to help get rid of spots on your drinking glasses. It breaks the surface tension of the water so that water and dental stone can flow into all the cracks.

Do not use ordinary dish soap! It will cause more bubbles than it gets rid of.

Next, submerge the mold in the water. Then use a small stiff bristled brush to work the air bubbles out of all corners of each block. I would have used a toothbrush for this but a toothbrush is just too large to fit down into the pockets of the mold.

For the best casting results, follow the Advanced Casting Instructions page.

Building Instructions

You will need 10 castings of mold #371 to build this set. Be sure to also print out the building plans.

Building the Castle Pawns
Click on the video to watch it on YouTube.

This video demonstrates how every block is stacked together to make each of the castle pawns. This will give you the exact same instructions that are found on the building plans.

Start by printing out the building plans. The second page of this plan assigns a number to each of the 24 building blocks on the mold.

You will need this as a reference to tell which blocks the numbers are referring to.

Sort all of the blocks into piles using the building plans as a guide. I have these organized in numerical order exactly as shown on the pdf file.

This will make it much easier to find the blocks you need when assembling the pawns.

My favorite glue is Aleene's Tacky glue. The advantage of Aleene's is that it will set up in about 2 minutes, but you can still shove the blocks around if you need to adjust things.

Also, if you messed up and glued some blocks in the wrong place, you can spray water on them (really soak them) which will soften the glue so you can fix the problem. However, the glue will also soften up slightly when you paint the model, so it's best to paint the bottom half, let it dry, then paint the top half of the model.

You can also use Elmer's wood glue which dries waterproof and will not soften up when you paint. Once the glue dries you won't be able to fix wrongly placed blocks as easily. Don't use Elmer's white glue. It's too thin and takes forever to dry.

There are a lot of other glues you can use as well. Any glue that works on porous material will work on the blocks.

Sometimes block #1 will need to have other blocks stacked on top of it.

When needed, trim off the top tips with a hobby knife or you can also sand these off with sandpaper. However, only do this to the blocks shown in red below.

Painting the Castle Pawns

Click on the video to watch it on YouTube.

This video is a very basic painting tutorial, mostly for people who play board games but do not do many craft projects.

For step by step printed instructions, be sure to visit the Painting Game Pawns instructions page. This is grouped together with all of the other painting instructions.

Printing a Large Game Board

I have drawn a large Condottiere map from scratch using Photoshop and a tablet on my computer. I give permission for anyone to print and use this map for their own personal game.

You can print this map from your own printer if you use this map PDF file.

You will need to cut the excess white off of the edges and tape the sheets together for the full map.

If you want a better looking map, you'll have to take it somewhere and get a large format print of it.

Many times office supply stores such as Office Depot or Staples can do this for you.

This map measures 20 inches by 30 inches when printed and the file has a resolution of 300 dpi.

You can download this map JPG file here.