Better looking than an opaque cup

Inspired by a post on the Toy Soldiers for Old Gits blog here is my homage to his Dice Shako ... err shaker.

Where as TSOG made his out of PVC pipe, I went for more accessible and easier to work with components.

Needed:
Cardboard Mailing tube 2 1/2" diameter 2 feet long
Black Construction paper
Red Construction paper
White Glue
1 piece of Yellow Card stock
Thick card board (for the plug)
Cereal box card

Cut a 3" section of your mailing tube. I used a table saw.


Plug one end with cardboard or a circular base if you have one that fits and hot glue it in place.

Then glue, using PVA, a piece of cardboard from a cereal box or whatever over the top of your plug.

Hold it in place while the glue dries either a heavy book or clamps.

When dries trim it flush with the sides. Then glue black construction paper on the top trimming it flush with sides, then glue more black construction paper to the side of the Shako

Cut 10mm wide strips of red construction paper.

 Glue one red strip to the top and another to the bottom of the Shako.

 Now to make the Shako plate. I found a line drawing of one in a book, scanned it and printed it onto yellow card stock.

I then made a gold wash (didn't have a brass or copper paint) and painted over the printout of the Shako plate.

Which I then cut out and filled in the some of the spots with a Sharpie (i didn't want to try and cut out them).

Glue the Shako plate on (with white glue).

Then glued 4 more red construction paper strips, over where a wearers ears would be, in a slight V-shape.

Tutorial Blind Boxes

There have been a few people asking how I made my concealing boxes so rather than type a long post to each person individually I'll put all the information here and refer them likewise.

Materials needed:
Bristol board (card stock)
Ruler
Pencil
Hobby knife
Scissors
PVA Glue (aka White glue or Elmer's Glue)
Clothespins (4-6 per box) or Paperclips


I got some coloured Bristol board from a convenience store, each sheet is 18"x 22"  and cost about 1.50 each (2 for $1 from a dollar store). Bristol board is a kind of crappy card stock.

The sides of the box are 1" high (enough for my tallest figure to sit beneath safely), and the box top covers an area 1.5" x 2.75".

After marking out your lines, LIGHTLY score all your lines then cut the lines where your front and side overlap. Scoring the lines helps in making sure the fold is nice and sharp.
Then fold all your score lines in the same direction.
Apply glue to outsides of Tabs A and affix them to the back of Tabs B
Apply clothespin to hold Tabs A & B together while the glue dries.

Fold tabs A & B inwards along the score lines, then glue Tabs A to the inside of Tabs B

DIY Blucher unit Labels

I already have figures therefore I didn't buy the units cards, instead I made unit labels to go with my sabots. I started with a piece of paper with Corps affiliation, a box with Elan (for a die to sit on) and special abilities. It worked fine until I started moving units with dice on the labels, and got worse if the unit was on terrain.

 

First draft, I placed a die on the Elan Box.

For my second attempt I immediately decided on an Elan Track, which I would use wet or dry erase markers on, and coloured differently for each nationality.

2nd draft I went to Elan track on different coloured card stock for each Nationality.

Here are the latest (and Probably last) labels I make for my Blucher sabots. I replaced the symbols for Steady, Shock and Firepower (replaced the musket with a gun shot/explosion) because I didn't like the look of the originals. I got rid of the different colours for different nationalities, I didn't like the way the table looked with them attached. Print them on card stock, cover the front in Packing tape, so I can use wet or dry erase markers on them, also cover the back of the label in more tape, so I can re-use the labels longer, When adding the label to the sabot I just use masking tape to adhere it.

Latest draft. I fill in Corps Id and black out the attached artillery with wet erase marker and use dry erase for damage, the wet erase is difficult to erase with dry erase erasers.

For those interested and don't want to go through all the trouble I did, here is the JPG I use when I make new ones.