A Tile making How to?

[Jetpac]

Hello folks, im new here, we have just started playing Carcassonne A LOT.

I want to make some of my own tiles from those that are listed on the site in the fan made section, particularly:

Wells
Mathguys 3 expansions
Cleric & Serf
and the Grim Reaple.

Is there a how to guide anywhere on how to make them well? Im a little OCD with things like this and want the tiles to look and feel as identical as possible to the originals. Ive looked over the forums and couldnt find anything structured, just loads of different bits with nothing definative step by step.

I've found the tile blanks from http://www.cundco.de. How do i go about getting the images on there:

Printing:

• Quality/type of paper
• What type of printer/ink to get the colours OK

Making:

• How to actually get the pictures onto the tiles

Finishing:

• How do get a gloss finish
• How to make them durable

I had some ideas like laser colour printing onto a linen finish paper, but that is as far as i got when constructing the tiles themselves!

[Scott]

There are multiple threads for this because there are multiple techniques and to each his/her own.

The method I prefer, which I used recently to make a Winter Edition tile set, is to buy full-sheet label paper. I bought it at my local office supply store (Staples) and went with 8.5" x 11" Avery TrueBlock Mailing Labels. I found it tricky to find because I was expecting the package to say something about full-sheet.

I've never had success with inkjet printers, even the high-end ones with 7 colors. I prefer color laser printers. This also takes care of the gloss finish automatically because toner is naturally shiny.

After printing the artwork out, I use a hobby knife (not a box cutter) and a ruler to trim out each tile. You could also use a big blade paper cutter, but I find there is too much room for error. Once the tiles are cut out from the sheet, you just peel the backing off and carefully stick to the tile so that it fully covers the face. To make the label stick really good, I flip the tile upsidedown and press on it. Then I tilt the face towards me four times, rotating the tile 90 degrees each time. What this does is wrap any excess around the sides of the tile, otherwise something could get underneath there and tiles could stick to each other.

I haven't seen another method that looked any better, and to me they feel exactly the same as official tiles.

[iszole]

I'm interested in tile making also and trying to collect related info. Here are the results of my first try and searching on the net.
As a first attempt I collected some tile pictures from the net and edited them in GIMP (perspective correction, color correction, size correction). Printed by a color laser printer to photopaper and the result was quite good. I have 2 mm thick cardboard which can be used as a tile body. The problematic issue is cutting properly the tiles and the printed pictures. All the three tiles I made are different. I think the best solution is get blank tiles. To cut the printed pictures properly we need a tool like this one: http://www.uchida.com/p-20-clever-lever-mega-craft-punch.aspx

This glue is perfect to get pictures onto tiles: http://www.prittworld.com/hu/products/adhesives/pritt-stick.html. I used this to make my foldable scoreboard. You can find pictures in "how to store..." topic.

[neosatan]

Hi,
from my attempts to make custom tiles:
cutting cardboard into a squares is very difficult. But even when aren't exacly the same it dosent matter in actual game. Gloss effect is something that I didn't wanted to have. Why? cause I often play in night so when there is hard light from halogens and similiar light sources then on sharp angles You don't see what actual tile is. The light just reflects in that funny way that it seems to be white. I have printed some tiles on big photographic machine (it have a CMYK color scheme, so it gave me a little darker colors, but still it looks nice in real. On photos looks much darker, maybe cause the photos were taken under heavy halogen light) on normal paper and that gave me nice effect (see my topic for photos of effect). not long ago I discovered that printing on good laser printer on normal  80g paper gives even better effects.
Some nice tips:
-when gluing pictures to cardboard body place the picture in the middle of body so that there are edges that You can cut away from each side. This way Yours tiles will not be misplaced
-when gluing pictures glue the picture not body.

[Jetpac]

i knocked up a couple of trials with some picture mounting board and prints on just cheap copy paper from my uni laserjet.
They are a bit shallower than the originals, but look good, tricky to cut though..

I have some linen paper on order and some polyurethane spray as well.

However this time i am going to use a Stanley blade and ruler to cut the tiles to try and get a cleaner edge, before coating with the PU.

any more tips from people?