Upon first gaze of JAWong’s amazing original Catan tiles I knew I had to build a set of my own. This post serves as a build guide for those wishing to fabricate their own custom 3D version of the uber famous board game. Since JAWong’s contribution in 2012, many other talented designers have submitted stunning models to enhance and expand upon the 3D Catan collection.

The first thing to consider is what size game do you want to build? I often play six player setups consisting of “The Settlers of Catan” “Cities & Knights” and “Seafarers” expansions. When you add the 5-6 player expansions for each of these you end up with 6 retail boxes! Building the set shown here will allow you to play all of the smaller board variations as well, should you decide to play a more basic Settler’s game.

Designers have also developed the models for the “Traders & Barbarians” and “Explorers & Pirates” which won’t be covered here.

If you’re crazy enough about Catan to build a 3D set, you probably have some retail sets already. The Catan Shop does sell replacement cards if you are looking to purchase just the cards and print the rest. You still will need to account for the longest road and largest army cards, as well as the city development calendars which I have not seen sold separately.

All of the parts in this build are linked to the original Thingaverse “thing” but please comment if any links are found broken.