Zelda: Breath of the Wild table

Why Zelda?

During the early “lockdown” parts of pandemic, I was both playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Zoom streaming the digital adventure with friends. While it lacked the pass the controller around the couch vibe that I most often associate with puzzle platform console games, given where the world was it was an excellent next-best social option. The idea of turning the topographical map from the game into the workspace where I would map out future projects seemed as good as any. Especially when I decided to do the first portion of build through a KJP Select Hardwoods river table class and I found a great big piece of walnut that had a grain pattern which kind of matched the landscape lines of the game.

How was it made?

This one felt so ambitious, and I took so many photos during the build, that I decided to make a making of video about it which also includes the sizzle real photos from as many angles as I could manage.

The highlight timestamps are:

• 0:10 – The plan to cut a very large/expensive piece of wood into pieces
• 0:30 – Using a CNC was the only way that would be viable.
• 0:45 – Beginning to cut the lakes, cities and landscape landmarks
• 1:05 – Pouring many colours of epoxy at once was high risk/reward.
• 1:20 – More CNC – lateral support bar and relief cuts for LED lighting
• 1:30 – Hot glue dams to make islands and touch up where the epoxy pour wasn’t full height on first pour.
• 1:50 – Clear coat top coverage (i.e. oooooh shiny!)
• 2:10 – Sizzle real shots incl. some laser cut acrylic landmarks
• 2:20 – Building an oak frame to encase it all…just in case.
• 2:50 – Lights in action
• 3:10 – Video walkthrough and paying the cat tax