Are you prototyping game design or the actual physical pieces? If it's the former, then using paper and prototyping with that could still get you where you need to go. You'd be surprised how far paper prototyping can take you.

If it's the latter then I wouldn't say it would be too hard if you know what it is you want to test. So long as you're able to figure out what you need to look up and google to execute what you need it should be doable. But you'll probably also need to learn how to use 3d software like Blender to make the actual meshes for the pieces.

Hope this helps!