Making some dice trays to track unit strengths

I am currently playing around with some hex-based rules for my Sengoku period samurai armies, and one of the things I needed to do is keep track of each Sonae-sized unit's strength. I do this using three dice, with each die representing one of the three elements of the Sonae: arquebuses, Ashigaru armed with Yari and pikes and Samurai.

I have been using 12mm dice in different colours to track these strengths, and I soon found they were quite fiddly and easily knocked out of position when moving units around the tabletop.

Messing around with some Sendoku period rules.

There was definitely a need for some sort of dice tray. My initial thought was to make them from MDF, but I felt that they might end up being a little too bulky as well as fiddly to make. In the end I opted to make them from cardboard, the type you get from cereal packets, which proved to be to be a neat and tidy option.

The dice trays in use.

The base of each tray is cut from cardboard, measuring one and a half inches by half an inch, with an additional quarter of an inch on each side to form the walls. These dimensions work well for 12mm dice. Once cut out, the sides are bent upwards and strips of masking tape are used to hold the corners together.

The tray measurements are drawn on the cardboard and cut out.

The sides are bent upwards and strips of masking tape are used to hold the corners together. Masking tape proved to be easier than sticky tape as it can be repositioned if you attach it crooked.

All the trays prepared and tested with the dice.

Once all the trays have been assembled, they are glued to another piece of cardboard. This adds some strength to the tray base and also makes the remaining painting and flocking stages easier.

The trays are then given a coat of PVA glue. This does cause the cardboard sides to warp slightly, but once the glue has dried it is easy enough to bend them back into shape.

Once the glue is dry, the trays are painted green to match the bases of my armies, then a second coat of PVA glue is applied.

The trays are glued to another sheet of cardboard and given and overall coat of PVA glue.

The trays are given a coat of paint and once dry a second coat of PVA glue.

The final step is to glue flock to the sides of the trays. This serves two purposes. It ties the look of the trays in with the unit bases, while also adding some additional strength to the sides. Once the flock is in place and the glue dry, another coat of PVA glue is applied to seal it and hold everything securely in place.

After all the glue has dried, the individual trays can be carefully cut away from the cardboard they were mounted on.

Flock is added to the tray sides and sealed with a final coat of PVA glue.

The trays are cut away from the cardboard they are mounded on.

Having now used the trays in a couple of games, they have turned out to be a simple and cheap solution. The dice fit quite snugly inside the trays, but can still be easily lifted out, rotated to show a different face and placed back in position. On the occasions a tray gets knocked over, which has happened once, the dice remained in the tray.

The next post will likely be about one of the recent Samurai games.

The trays in action. It can get quite congested in a hex when two units melee.

Scratch building some mountains for my Samurai games

I am always impressed by the screen paintings of Samurai battles. Many of them depict armies fighting in mountainous terrain. So I thought it was time to have a go at making some mountains for the tabletop.

A scene from one of the screens I always enjoy looking at again and again.

I decided to use upholstery foam to make the mountains. It is a firm foam that can be shaped with a large, sharp knife, and for this job I used my sharpest carving knife. I cut out two identical pieces of foam, or as close to identical as possible, then placed them back to back and began carving them into shape.

The foam is carved using a large sharp knife.

Once I was happy with the shape, it was time to start painting. I use a household acrylic paint. I have a tin of green paint which I use for my basing and other terrain pieces so I have a consistent colour tone to my tabletop. When painting the foam I occasionally dipped my brush in water just to help make the paint flow better when using a scrubbing motion with my old brush.

Before the paint was dry, and it does take a long time to dry when applied to the foam, I added some brown paint which I blended in with the green. Finally, I used a sand coloured paint to lighten up areas, again blending it in with the brown and green.

A completed mountain.

Once the paint has dried, you can dry-brush a lighter sand colour over the surface to highlight any raised areas if you wish. I decided not to do this, as I was happy with the overall effect as it stood.

The mountain can be used as a single large feature, or the two pieces can be separated and positioned along the edge of the tabletop.

The two halves of the mountain.

The mountain was looking a little barren, so I decided some vegetation was needed. The simplest approach was to take some cocktail sticks, push them into the foam and hang pieces of lichen from them to represent vegetation.

Cocktail sticks are pushed into the foam at different angles.

Lichen is hung off the sticks.

A game in progress using the mountain along the table edge.

This is not the first time I have used upholstery foam for terrain. I have previously used it to make English Civil War fortifications and hills for my Sci-Fi games. As I still have some foam left over, I plan to make another two mountains.

One of the benefits of using foam for terrain features is it is light weight, pretty much unbreakable, and easy to store away (generally thrown on top of cupboards or shelving units).

A little bit a painting

The past few weeks of posts have been mostly about gaming, but I have not neglected the painting side of the hobby. I have been adding a few more models to my Star Wars collection and also making steady progress on the Anglo-Zulu War project.

My Star Wars collection generally only grows these days when I spot something in a sale and can pick it up at a reduced price, or when there is a particular character I want to add to the collection.

A rebel squad.

The Mandalorian (Din Djarin), Grogu, and Boba Fett. The Grugu figure was converted so he sits in a hovering saucer, the figure just looked too small on the base without the saucer.

A WLO-5 Speeder Tank as used by pirates.

Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and their friendly K-250 robot.

Moff Gideon. A useful villain figure.

The Anglo-Zulu War project began at the end of March this year and is now into its seventh month. There are still a few more British units, wagons and pieces of terrain to complete. I reckon I am now about 75 percent of the way through the project and hopefully in the next two to three months will get the figures onto the tabletop for a game.

2 British infantry units added, along with a mounted rifle unit and some lancers.

I had great fun with the lancer unit, which were converted from some spare mounted infantry.