Many years ago, I saw a custom Blood Bowl pitch case online. Since then, I've always wanted to build one. I looked at others for inspiration, and decided upon this design. Here's how I designed and built the whole thing!
I wanted the case to consist of two halves which sit flush against each other when closed. I decided the dugouts would be below the level of the pitch itself.
A Blood Bowl pitch is made up of two halves, 16 squares wide by 13 squares long (including end zone). Each square is 34mm. This means each half of the pitch is 51cm by 44.2cm. I wanted the dugouts to be 2 squares wide, so the final size of each half of the pitch is 45.4cm by 66.2cm. This is to allow for the border around the edge of the case, which is made using 1/2 inch plywood.
With all this in mind, I made each half using the following shapes of 1/2 inch plywood. I robbed my dad's electric circular saw for this (be very careful if you use one!), but I'm sure a jigsaw or even hand saw could work if you focus on getting accurate cuts.
1x 66.2cm by 44.2cm rectangle - this is the "base" of each half - referred to as A
1x 66.2cm by 4.5cm rectangle. Referred to as B. This piece makes up the back border of each half of the case.
1x 66.2cm by 3.3cm - referred to as C. This piece will go under the Line of Scrimmage.
4x 44.2cm by 3.3cm rectangles. These create the border on the left and right of the case, as well as the edge of the pitch. Referred to as D
Piece B is attached to the edge of A, forming the border of the case. This means it rises up 3.3cm over A.
Piece C is attached on top of A. This will form the Line of Scrimmage for the case, and grass will go over it. It's very important not to mix up pieces B and C!
The D pieces are all attached on top of A. Each pair is 68mm apart. The inner D pieces will go under the pitch.
Phew, that was complicated! Once two halves were made in this way, I had this.
At this point I decided to install the hardware. I recommend bolting a handle through part B at this point, as the hollow inside will soon be filled. I put latches between the two Bs. I added hinges between the two C pieces.
This is the right time to fill any gaps between the parts. It is almost inevitable that there will be some errors in the cuts. I sanded away any imperfections.
The next step is to build up the pitch itself. For this I used a scrap sheet of Kingspan foam (aka XPS, extruded polystyrene, blue foam, pink foam or whatever it's called!). This was glued to the A pieces using Gorilla Glue. The stuff I used was the wrong thickness, so I had to do a lot of cutting, sanding and cursing to get it down to 3.3cm in height.
So that's it for the first part of the case! This is by far the most technical section of the build, and I hope my descriptions of all the different parts were OK. The next section is much more fun, as it involves furnishing the whole stadium!
