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.