Woodworking is a great way to create works of art. So why not use it to make a giant meeple?
Total Project Time: 2 hours active time, 24 hours passive time
My love of Root (a game of woodland might and right) continues to grow and now I’m working my way through all the factions to create a collection of giant meeples! The Eyrie gets to take center stage this time! Same process, different pictures. This meeple is made entirely of wood and holds to the 8-inch standard that I’ve apparently set for myself. I’m not going to lie, the Eyrie meeple was one of the easier meeples to make as it didn’t have too many sharp turns or narrow spaces.
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Supplies
For this project, it feels like there shouldn’t be that many supplies, but projects can often surprise me. The list of what I needed was:
- Cardstock / Sticker Paper
- Wood
- Wood Glue
- Jigsaw with Wood Cutting Blade
- Wood filler
- Sanding Machine (I used an Orbital Sander)
- Primer Paint
- Blue and Black Paint
Process
Let’s get to cutting! The first thing that I cut out was a template for the meeple. I used my Cricut but you can also print out the template and cut it the old fashioned way. Check out the end of this post for the Eyrie Meeple template. With the template, we can then draw guiding lines on the wood. I just used the lumber that I had lying around in my garage so really any type of material can work. My tool of choice is the jigsaw with a wood cutting blade to cut out the space around the guiding lines. I did this three times to get the right meeple thickness for the corresponding size.
I like to keep the base of the meeple flat to one of the edges of the wood. This keeps one line perfectly straight and minimizes the amount of cutting. This edge is also imperative for aligning the three pieces. The wood glue should hold the project together – it’s good to let everything sit for several hours to avoid any unwanted movement. At this point, if there are any obvious missing chunks from the meeple, it’s good to add some wood filler to fill up the space before sanding the project. You can also add wood filler after sanding the project. I tend to do the sanding step twice anyway.
Sanding the project is really where the meeple is going to come together. The Eyrie meeple did not have many areas to sand, no small sanded areas (so no special tools!), and most of the required sanding was straight lines. This made the Eyrie meeple much, much easier that the Marquis’s ears or the Lizards Cults spine. I always feel like sanding is the most intensive part of the process and it’s good to take breaks because the vibrations of the machine can have a negative effect on your hands (they weren’t meant to take the constant vibration). But, at the end, we have a beautiful base for the Eyrie meeple!
Which leads us to our last step: paint! No Root meeple is complete without it’s distinct color and unique eyes. However, before we can add color, we need to prime the meeple to be able to take paint. Once the primer has dried, the color can be added. I had an Eyrie meeple on hand for this part of the project to do my best for color matching. I used a combination of cerulean blue and ultramarine paint but I still wasn’t able to get the match to be exact. Still looks good even if the color was slightly off.
The benefit of having a cricut is I can cut out the template on a sticker sheet with extreme ease. I have found the sticker to be very beneficial for getting the eye shape just right. After aligning the sticker to the meeple, the parts that are visible should be painted black. While it can be easy to just quickly brush the black over the template, there is a potential for the black to bleed under the sticker. I like to trace an outline with the black paint and color it in carefully. This helps avoid more touch up work later. The template helps keep me in the lines, but I don’t want to take it for granted.
And voila! The Eyrie have arrived to retake the forest! The new Kallax is getting filled!
Quick Recipe
Eyrie Meeple
Instructions
- Cut out the template on a piece of cardstock
- Trace template onto the wood that will be used for the project. This step should be repeated three times
- Cut out all three wood pieces with the jigsaw.
- Glue together pieces. Wood fill any gaps as required.
- Sand project to smooth edges. Wood fill any gaps as required.
- Paint meeple with primer.
- Paint meeple with desire color.
- Place on stencil/template sticker or sketch eyes in desire location. Use black paint to fill area.
