Coffee stir-straws to hold flags for unit battle figures
Mar 22, 2021 16:28:41 GMT
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Post by sgtslag on Mar 22, 2021 16:28:41 GMT
Ran a 2e BattleSystem game Saturday: Hobgoblins inside a wooden fort, defending; attacked by joint Human and Dwarf armies. The Hobgoblins had adapted the idea of Tiger Pits, to create Dwarven Pits. Not in the rulebook, but we experimented with creating our own rules to address them in play.
I recently (Friday) added some flags I had made around 20 years ago, to decorate mercenary units within my campaign world. I originally wanted to be able to change the flags, as needed, for each unit, but I decided to make them permanent: while it limits my ability to reconfigure them, as necessary, it does speed up putting together units -- they are color coded, and each unit is relatively similar in strength, with a few being much larger in numbers.
First, a couple of images of the finished products: XXVIII Crossbowmen, XXXII Halberdiers, LXIII Halberdiers, a view of the mechanism for holding the flags.
I hit upon the idea of using a thin section of small diameter coffee stir straws, glued to the base, behind the figure, as a receptacle for the flag shaft. But first, I will share how I made the flags.
I used MS Publisher 98 to create the artwork, but any graphic editor should work to create the artwork. Publisher allowed me to super-impose the Roman Numerals (letters) where I wanted them, as well. I printed them off on regular paper, in a color laser printer. I cut them out (front and back were mirrored on the colored rectangles, with small, black rectangles to appear as openings in the fabric around the pole), then I wrapped and PVA Glue'd them around green floral wire.
The small, plastic tubule is E600 Glue'd on the base of each figure within the Unit, so as to keep track of which figures belong to which Unit. The fact that I had colored plastic tubules which matched the flag colors, was a happy circumstance/accident!
I decided that the unit designations would be permanent, so matching tubules were chosen to aid in conformity. Now when similar units fight side by side on the tabletop, I can tell which figure belongs to which unit, by noting the colored plastic tubule on each figure base -- no more mix-up's in the heat of battle!
Here is a photo showing the parts and tools used to make the flag holding tubes, which were glued to the figure bases with E6000 Glue. I just used a black Sharpie Pen to color the red straw piece. Black acrylic paint would work, as well. I measured out 1" of straw, cut it, then I colored it. After the ink dried, I applied Glue to the end of the straw, and I applied it to the finished base, holding it in place until the Glue dried enough to hold. I waited 24 hours before I inserted the flags.
Here is a photo of multiple flags in use, during a game I ran with them, Saturday. There are six flags deployed, and in use in the battle: blue, white, yellow, pink, turquoise, and orange. Each flag denotes a separate mercenary unit. They worked really well, to mark out the different units, and they were a lot of visual fun to game with.
Note that I need to go over the white flag edges with the Sharpie black marker: it will make the edges virtually disappear, as they are thin enough for the optical illusion to work. Cheers!
I recently (Friday) added some flags I had made around 20 years ago, to decorate mercenary units within my campaign world. I originally wanted to be able to change the flags, as needed, for each unit, but I decided to make them permanent: while it limits my ability to reconfigure them, as necessary, it does speed up putting together units -- they are color coded, and each unit is relatively similar in strength, with a few being much larger in numbers.
First, a couple of images of the finished products: XXVIII Crossbowmen, XXXII Halberdiers, LXIII Halberdiers, a view of the mechanism for holding the flags.
I hit upon the idea of using a thin section of small diameter coffee stir straws, glued to the base, behind the figure, as a receptacle for the flag shaft. But first, I will share how I made the flags.
I used MS Publisher 98 to create the artwork, but any graphic editor should work to create the artwork. Publisher allowed me to super-impose the Roman Numerals (letters) where I wanted them, as well. I printed them off on regular paper, in a color laser printer. I cut them out (front and back were mirrored on the colored rectangles, with small, black rectangles to appear as openings in the fabric around the pole), then I wrapped and PVA Glue'd them around green floral wire.
The small, plastic tubule is E600 Glue'd on the base of each figure within the Unit, so as to keep track of which figures belong to which Unit. The fact that I had colored plastic tubules which matched the flag colors, was a happy circumstance/accident!
I decided that the unit designations would be permanent, so matching tubules were chosen to aid in conformity. Now when similar units fight side by side on the tabletop, I can tell which figure belongs to which unit, by noting the colored plastic tubule on each figure base -- no more mix-up's in the heat of battle!
Here is a photo showing the parts and tools used to make the flag holding tubes, which were glued to the figure bases with E6000 Glue. I just used a black Sharpie Pen to color the red straw piece. Black acrylic paint would work, as well. I measured out 1" of straw, cut it, then I colored it. After the ink dried, I applied Glue to the end of the straw, and I applied it to the finished base, holding it in place until the Glue dried enough to hold. I waited 24 hours before I inserted the flags.
Here is a photo of multiple flags in use, during a game I ran with them, Saturday. There are six flags deployed, and in use in the battle: blue, white, yellow, pink, turquoise, and orange. Each flag denotes a separate mercenary unit. They worked really well, to mark out the different units, and they were a lot of visual fun to game with.
Note that I need to go over the white flag edges with the Sharpie black marker: it will make the edges virtually disappear, as they are thin enough for the optical illusion to work. Cheers!