Saturday, November 5, 2011

M&SU Workbench - Malifaux Counters

The scratch build and homemade alternatives in the wargaming hobby is what originally got me into table top gaming in the first place. Last year I was running a fairly successful and popular Youtube Channel that shared some of my homemade cheaper solutions to things as well as my painting and battle reports. In the end the channel just became more of a second job for me and the fun of it was lost somewhere along the way. The wargaming community itself has always been great to me and I am hoping I can still feel a part of that community with this blog, but without the stress and demand that I had with my video channel.

My personal goal for this channel and my other D&D channel is to attempt to post at least once per week on each. This week I am actually posting two with a third very possible as I am working on several things. Last weekend I created some Corpse and Scrap counters for me and my friend Keith for our Malifaux game. I thought I would post an entry here explaining how I made those counters. This will be the first post in my M&SU Workbench series which will feature scratch builds, homemade solutions and terrain building.

Ratty Counter Print Page
I started by printing out duplicates of the Ratty Counters. For this example I am going to create a counter that will have a Blood on one side and a Power on the flip. I needed the smaller counters to print out into 1 inch size which I will explain in a later step. It took me a few test pages before I got the size I was looking for. I started by shrinking the page to fit printed area and then had to manually shrink the page to 94% of that. You may have to mess with your print settings to get the desired size you want. I printed my test pages on regular paper. Once I got the size right I then printed my counters onto photo paper which gives a crisp and clean look to the finished product.
Glue Stick, Washers, Scissors & Hole Punch
The only other things I used was a Glue Stick (UHU Stic), 1 inch Outer Diameter metal washer, scissors and a 1 inch hole puncher.

  • Glue Stick is easy to control and does not over saturate the paper token to cause warping or wrinkles.
  • Scissors are used to get at the tokens on the printed sheets easier. Only used for rough cutting.
  • I chose the metal washers because they just seem very durable. I have used plastic ones for D&D tokens and they work well too but I never have to transport them like I plan to with these.
  • 1 inch hole punch is used to cut the counters out of the printed sheets. Just make sure you get the same size washers to match the hole punch.
Glue Stick, 2 punched out Counters and washer.
Once I cut out a couple of strips of counters from the printed sheets for ease to get at, I punched a Power and Blood counter for each side. Now all I have to do is glue the counters to either side of the washer and wait for it to dry.

Power Counter Side (and a closer look at the hole puncher)

Blood Counter Side
I hope this tutorial helps someone else either in making their own this way or simply inspiring someone to do something differently on their own.

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