The name is a bit misleading. As you might expect - I mean, how are you supposed to “make” a tracking spell, right, are you going to put a Tile into your DnD game?
Actually… kinda.
Specifically, we’re going to turn some Walmart remote-controlled LED lights into a fancy game of hot/cold.
Also found in today’s post: first aid for burns! Content warning for blisters in the First Aid section.
Tracking Spell
Materials needed:
Remote-controlled LED lights like these
Decorative bits to match your setting
Plastic lollipop sticks like these
Copper sheeting
Tiny screws
Paints, washes & varnish
Mod Podge or similar
Cyanoacrylate glue (Super Glue or similar - thin, not gel)
Heat gun or boiling water
Razor saw
Step 1: Assess.
Since we’re working with a pre-made piece, determine how much or how little of the original you want to keep. For me, since the housing was pretty much the size and shape of what I wanted to end up with, and because I’m a fairly novice crafter/ doing this in my free time, I decided to make only superficial modifications.
What are we looking for here? Aside from what we do/don’t want to keep, we’re also looking at how well it works (very bright blue!), how it’s assembled, and any other functional pieces we need to keep in mind as we make modifications. In the bottom right picture I’m pointing at the button switch, which is the master on/off for the electronics. The remote works only if the switch is in the “on” position, so I’ll need to keep track of that. One thing I didn’t consider here was how the battery cover went on/off, which came back to bite me riiiiight at the end.
Step 2: Modify the plastics.
We want to make these changes early for two reasons: 1, if you fukc it up, better to do it early in the game, and 2, if you do this later you risk messing up your paint job. So I decided to make some major modifications to the dome “button,” and smaller modifications to the case.
I didn’t want to leave the dome light boring white plastic, so I found a mostly-complete watch plate among my pile of bits, thought it looked cool, and marked the cut. I left the dome in the case as I used the razor saw to chop off the top of the dome, because it gave me a little more to hold onto. The key here is to keep the saw level, especially at the beginning. If I were making several of these, I’d probably make a jig to keep everything still and level, but for a one-off, it’s good to limit the number of “extra things I’m just going to make real quick, it’ll be helpful I promise.”
Once I had the dome cut, I cleaned it up with a bit of 200 grit sandpaper. Then I used a pin vise to drill a small hole in the side, just above the actual button-pusher, to fit a winding cap and give it a “push here” vibe. I didn’t want folks pushing on the center of the watch itself, because I planned to add some additional gearing that’s both delicate and pointy!
Using the same pin vise from earlier, I drilled another hole in the case, which will hold the “receptor” piece, which you see dry-fit here.
Originally, I had planned to make several more holes to receive the “pipes” I made in Step 3, but the battery pack and light chip took up more space than I expected. I could have continued with that plan and made different modifications, but I didn’t. So it goes.
Step 3. Have Fun with your Heat Gun!
Using a heat gun or boiling water, heat up your lollipop straws to make pipe shapes. *SAFETY NOTE* if you’re using a heat gun, don’t touch the mouth of it! It will burn you immediately! Don’t touch the boiling water, either, but it won’t burn you nearly as badly, as quickly. See below for some firsthand first aid tips for burns!
If you’re using the boiling water method, submerge your lollipop straw in the water until it softens, and then bend it into shape. I’d suggest you start forming from the top of the straw, nearest your hand, and work away. You could also work from the middle out, and just heat alternate ends, I suppose. If you’ve got a heat gun, evenly heat the area you want to bend by rolling the stick between your fingers - try not to let it get too melty, though, or your curves will get goopy. This will take some practice to get really right, I say as I don’t practice at all but just take the first piece I made.
This section I wanted to look like three pipes running parallel to one another, so I taped them together before heating, in an attempt to get the same curve across all three. It worked great.
Chop off any extra plastic you don’t need, sand ‘em up, and get ready for…!
Step 4. Details!
I used heat-shrink tubing for mine. You could use bits of rubber bands, other straws, small hex nuts, whatever you have lying around.
Step 5. Test everything out.
How is it looking, how does it fit, how do the pieces relate to each other? I don’t have a great image for this because I was using both of my hands to hold things together. So it goes.
Step 6. Sand & Prime.
Since we’re painting on plastic, priming is a very important step. Many paints will just slip right off the smooth surface. I use gesso, slightly thinned with water and mixed with some Mod Podge. This adds texture which the acrylic paints will stick nicely to, and the glue ensures the gesso will stick to the plastic. If you made any major modifications, sand those clean before you prime.
Step 7. PAINT!
I decided to have my base be made of “wood.” Craft paints used cleverly actually give you really good wood texture - since wood grain is uneven, the variations caused by your brush strokes give a good vibe.
I took a second pass at the wood grain with some better quality paints, adding more light and dark tones, and trying to make any obvious brush strokes look less like obvious brush strokes.
Meanwhile, I did a light brown undercoat on the pipes, and followed that up with a nice coat of copper. I used a steel color for the fittings.
Then it was time for the washes. A wash (paint wash) is a very thin coat of color - usually mixed liberally with water - that settles into cracks and crevasses. It gives a sense of dimensionality, as well as age, to a piece. Left is pre-wash; right is post.
Step 7b. Protect.
Give the whole thing several coats of thinned-down Mod Podge or varnish to protect the finish. Don’t skip this step, or your paints will get scratched off in no time!
Step 8: Final details.
I went through my pile of watch parts to decide which funky bits & bobs might get added to the sides of the piece to liven those up. I also attached several gears to the dome switch to give it more depth and visual interest. This is where your individual creativity will really come into play.
Step 9. Final Assembly.
What it sounds like! Hopefully, this will be an exciting and successful time for you. For me, there were moments of frustration when I realized that the battery cover could no longer be secured to the base, thanks to the interference of the things I had attached to the side. Bummer. But - so it goes. I’m not about to trash the whole thing just because it won’t attach - nope, I’m going to get creative and figure out another solution!
Step 9a. Fix your screw-ups.
The fix I decided on ended up having enough pictures to fill another short tutorial, and I’m already getting the notification that this one is too long. Luckily it’s most of thes same steps as above. I have some copper sheeting, which I cut into brackets. Then I drilled some holes in the casing to receive some tiny screws. I superglued the screws to the top of the case, but left them removable on the battery cover. Then some paint and a bit of wash, and voila!
The Tracking Spell: Evaluation
Immersion: 8/10 - Players can really see the effect of the spell as it relates to their in-game movement.
Interaction: 6/10 - Given the relatively static “utility” - watch for changes in the light - the long-term interactiveness of the piece itself is limited.
Entertainment: 7/10 - Nothing like handing your players a light-up thing with spinny bits!
Overall Impact: 7/10
Durability: Some of the fiddlier watch parts on top might come off on an impact, but overall it’s pretty solid!
Repeatability: Could be reused as a compass (designate certain colors for NSEW), an alarm, a communicator, a translator, a teleporter, a spell holder… the possibilities are limitless.
Cost: $12 and change for three lights, $7 for 100 plastic lollipop sticks, and $17 for the heat gun. So, about $10 each.
Final thoughts
This was a bit of a stretch, in terms of familiarity and problem-solving. I really hadn’t worked with this type of plastic before, so I spent a lot of time just kinda… staring at it, at first, trying to figure out how to make the thing in front of me look like what was in my head. And I was F R U S T R A T E D when I thought I was done but instead had to figure out how to close the dang thing. But I’m extremely pleased with the overall result, and the brackets actually help fill what would otherwise be empty space. I’m excited to see my players’ excitement when this comes into play!
First Aid - CW Blister
If you do burn yourself on the heat gun, immediately (not in a few minutes after you just finish this bit. now, friend.) go run it under cool (not cold) water. Keep it there, under cool, running water, until you get bored, and then stay there until you get bored again. For the next while, any time you realize you’re feeling that burning sensation again, go run it under cool water til you’re bored twice over. The point of this is to stop your skin from literally cooking. Cool running water will keep the heat moving out of your skin: a compress will quickly warm up to the point of no longer helping, and can damage the skin.
Do NOT put ANYTHING on the burn until it is absolutely no longer still burning - no lotion, no honey, no burn cream, NOTHING. When the skin is no longer hot to the touch and you’re not having the sensation “ow hot,” you haven’t had that for maybe an hour, and the blister is intact, then you may consider putting aloe, vitamin E cream, petroleum jelly or burn cream. If the blister broke at any point during this process, use an antibacterial or silver nitrate gel to protect the wound, and cover it loosely with a nonstick bandaid (important!). In both cases you should keep a close eye on it: burns get infected easily.
Do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES pop the blister on purpose. I have many, many burn scars (courtesy glassblowing) and the worst scar I have is from a blister I broke open, before I knew better.