FREEBIE: Wound markers v 3.0

It's my birthday and you know I like to give presents away [although this may not be the most exciting of gifts ;) ]

 

You should all know by now I'm on record as disliking the common practice of using dice for recording wounds - they can be accidentally and 'accidentally' picked up. Of course I looked into it and ended up producing my own counters because they practically cost me nothing and if I leave them behind at a tournament I can make some more.

However this level of crafting can seem a bit amateurish so you can go next level like Warhammer 39,999 did with his Status effect markers but there's still a cost involved in that and the smallest sized badge will be about 25mm in diameter so it's not great for wounds.

However, I saw a tutorial by NafNaf on Objective Secured recently to achieve the same status effect but using adhesive plastic bottle caps. Now, a couple of things, I didn't even know these plastic caps existed, but they do and they come in different sizes and shapes! In addition because they're manufactured in China [mostly] you can get them in bulk.

So with this in mind I kept thinking about my current markers. I started off with triangular ones, so they took up less space and you could point them at the specific model that was wounded. They're perfectly serviceable but over time those points fray just a little bit. By time I'm talking four years here so they're really not that shabby. But for ease of construction for the many I give out to my opponents at tournaments I created the square format as the 90° angles are slightly more robust and so easy to cut them into strips with a scalpel and then snip the individual markers with some super-sharp scissors.

One thing I never considered was circular markers as cutting many of those would just be insane, but then I saw the bottle caps and in NafNaf's tutorial they used a 25mm hole punch. So I started looking and found 10mm diameter caps and a 10mm leather/card punch. So now we have a device that can be accurately positioned on a marker and removed from it's surround with a quick tap of the hammer.

All we need is a new wound marker template...

Cereal box card

The great thing is you can use the bottle cap to help position the punch, additionally you can leave them on the paper, or stick them onto cereal card for added durability or even mounting card for super thick counters [possibly overkill I think].

Mounting card

On top of that I've also ordered some 9mm square ones from China, which conveniently is exactly the same size as my v2.0 markers! so I'll see what they're like sometime in March. Ultimately though I think this is an ideal solution for those who want something that look more 'professional' without breaking the bank although the punch cost me £3 and 50 10mm bottle caps cost me another £3.50 so £6.50 for 50 wound markers... make your own mind up about value. Personally I can stick to my MK I's for the time being. I only really entered into this as following a tutorial and expanding on it. Although as I ordered 230 of both 9mm square and 10mm round from China I may well have an idea to sell some should there be a demand, although I think I've proved that this is such an easy task there shouldn't be.

Anyway here's the circular wound template, just download and print at 300dpi:

Oh, and another use of these, back before Maelstrom missions you may well have created your own custom objective that did not have numbers on. These are discrete yet big enough to be tagged beside those strategic points to differentiate the numbered objectives.

UPDATE: So you can see at the top of the page I made some and I have to admit the whole process is a bit of a faff, the punch is not particularly durable and getting through the mounting card was a nightmare. So much so that I actually only took one out and instead stuck with the cereal card ones.

These would be OK for your own purposes but certainly not as a production line [and I'll have 230 of these domes coming soon!]. That being said the adhesive domes are fantastic so hopefully the square ones will be cool and a much easier process that may result in production.

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day

Just a heads up March 2nd is Old Stuff Day A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don't forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems.

'nids part 163 - Malanthrope

The three 'nids - Malanthrope, carnifex and Deathleaperhave all been progressing. Sadly I haven't taken too many WiPs as I'm a little down on that at the moment

Anywat, the Malanthrope and Carnifex have come on leaps and bounds as I'd hoped to use them in my game tomorrow. They aren't finished but they may be enough for them to not look unpainted. Deathleaper has been put on hold so I could progrees further with these two and also because the freehand banner is a bit of a challendge and I don't really need him until Blog Wars.

All the usual Hive Fleet Gorgon effects are in place here, although I started doing all the green and red bits before I've done the second set of bone highlights. That may come back to haunt me but we'll see.

I have actually got to the point with the tendrils and sacs that there is just so much detail I actually don't care. There's going to be Tamiya Clear Red X-27 going on too so any highlights I do will be covered in places and as it will have a gloss varnish there will be areas of reflection that will obscure it as well.

I just want him done and although it won't be perfect I'm happy with the result.

Possibly need some more glow effect highlights on the vents.

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - TO DONE!

Well, that's it, I finally got my Realm of Battle Board done, in time for 'Dave's 40k @ 40' tournament. This weekend me and my gaming crew will be having a mini tournament much like our 'Game of Throne of Skulls' this time it's to celebrate my birthday, it was the wife's idea and as there was only five of us, Ben offered his house as a venue. PeteB will be there in the afternoon so hopefully we can get the competition out of the way and have some X-Wing later. Given my mixed emotions about my birthday it was thought a day spent in the world of fictional superhumans fighting in space might help me through it. So I can't thank the guys and the wife enough for letting me play toy soldiers, so look forward to some battle reports.

Anyway, the board got two coats of matt varnish. I had a squeaky bum moment with the second coat where some of the varnish looked a bit milky...

Lucky it all dried transparent and felt durable, although I did catch a nail on the edge while I was putting it away and stripped a bit of paint off!

As you can see I added some yellow flock too, just in some crevices for a little more detail and visual fun.

I'm really chuffed with it even if some is not quite as realistic as I'd imagined but that flock is a nightmare to work with so I'm happy.

Fingers crossed it stays stuck to the board.

So my 500ml bottle of varnish used about 100ml for the first coat and another 100ml for the second so you could probably get the 250ml for all six board. I could have done a third coat but I didn't want to risk it. Still I can use it on other stuff.

These are higher resolution images but I'm not sure if they're any better but there's plenty of pics to feast your eyes.

Just note on the edge of the stones there are some touch ups on paint chips that I forgot to blend in with some Pumpkin/Vermilion shading. I'll probably touch it up again at some point maybe set up a day were I fix any chips once a year.

I decided to put some terrain on the board, just to give it a bit of variety, hopefully there'll be some proper in game shots that will make it more exciting.

Just look how much of that hand gel has evaporated from my Plasma Generator!

And here's the Red Stamp of Approval! After so long and so many 'snafus' I'm really glad to get this off my list, not that I've really got anywhere to store/play with it ;) Apparently I'll be getting a shed later in the year and move all my hobby stuff out there, until then it's in the bag in the garage.