Cyanight's Customizations

@LebaneseWarlord said in Need advice for custom dice DIY:

I’ve recently bought 96 dice because I wanted to make custom hit/miss dice for Global 40. I bought these dice from amazon and they’re plain blank and white dice.

I don’t have a lot of experience with DIY projects but I have access to a lot of good tools so I’m looking for advice regarding techniques on how to mark and repaint the dice I bought.

For the marking, I was thinking about using a rotary tool to carve a little dot.

The real challenge is the painting. I looked a lot on internet and I can’t seem to find a technique for painting on plastic that everyone agrees on, but here’s what I have so far.

Wash the dice to remove any grease that could be on the surface Use very fine sandpaper or some sort of abrasive to remove the protective finish that is on the dice right now and offer a better surface for the new paint to stick Wash the dice again the remove the dust from the paint removal Apply one or a few (I’m not sure about this one, I’ll read what is suggested on the can) of primer Apply a few thin layer of the color I want on the dice Paint a white dot in the carving I made earlier with a fine brush Apply one or a few (not sure about this one either, something will be suggested on the can) of clear finish to protect the paint

Any correction or suggestion would be very welcome!

Guys use RIT dye for color. Go to Siredblood’s custom dice you tube video. Shows how he used a jig to spot hole dice and then dye them

I plan on printing some out from Siredblood’s link.  I watched his video and you can certainly do it that way.  My only concern with adhesive backed “stickers” is that with all the handling of game pieces, I can imagine that the stickers begin to peel up after a while. If you’re going to use the adhesive backed stickers, might I recommend to apply thin CA glue around the outside edge of the sticker after you’ve burnished it down on the carrier deck.  You can get some thin CA at your local hobby shop where they sell RC planes, or just order it online.  Because it is literally as thin as water, you’ll need to apply it with some sort of makeshift precision applicator.  But after that, you won’t have to deal with annoying stickers that don’t want to stay down tight.

Also, if you use a glossy type sticker paper, after you’ve applied it and the carrier is “all done”, spray the entire piece with a light coat of Testor’s Dullcote spray laquer.  You’ll get rid of the sheen both on the plastic and from the glossy paper. All the colors will “blend” together and the piece will look much better.  :wink:

@Young:

Those look awesome wolf, I would be very interested in getting some of those.

I know you’re in Canada, so not sure how/what your limits are to shopping or ordering online, but here’s a link to the organizers from Home Depot online… if nothing else, you get “the official” name.

I use these for the nation trays
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-7-in-6-Compartment-Small-Parts-Organizer-83039N13/204536852

I use this for the accessories
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-6-in-6-Compartment-Storage-Bin-Small-Parts-Organizer-Clear-and-Black-THD2015-03/301959981

Of course, use them as you will…

As for my flags, I just used Vistaprint and made some small rectangular product labels and you upload your pictures into them… perfect for national bin flags… I made sure to use era-appropriate flags (like the 48-Star American Flag)

https://www.vistaprint.com/marketing-materials/labels-stickers/rectangular-product-labels?couponAutoload=1&GP=04%2F08%2F2018+19%3A55%3A49&GPS=4958753423&GNF=1

I’ve gotten several private messages and some responses in this thread… so just as a head’s up and a community service…

Because of the private messages, I have ALREADY made a deal to unload my custom units, and they are, in-fact, already mailed off.

I know its kinda pointless now, but if you’re still that curious as to what I did have, here’s the complete list of the custom HBG units I had purchased in the last few weeks to beef up my bins… since I later made a decision to pull them and not use them, I did eventually re-order equivalent numbers of default/original OOB A&A units from HBG to beef up my numbers (like if I didn’t like the two HBG Japanese Fuso battleships, I reordered two OOB Kongo or Yamato battleships to replace them… so-on and so-on.  Anyways, here’s the (now kinda pointless) list:

(BTW: you may notice that for the most part, planes are missing from this list… I found most custom HBG aircraft to be good enough and scaled well enough to survive my “off-scale axe”.  So there are many HBG planes like P-47s and F4F/Hellcats that survived the cut and made it into my permanent bins)

HBG Battle Pieces (custom units)

US - Olive Drab:
5x Pershing Tanks
5x M5 Stuart tanks
15x M4A3 Sherman tanks
5x P-51 fighters

5x Essex CVs
5x South Dakota BBs
2x Nevada BBs
5x Baltimore CAs

UK - Tan:
10x Churchill Tanks
10x Valentine Tanks

5x Ark Royal CVs
3x King George V BBs

Russia - Brown
2x KV-2 tanks
11x T-34 tanks
4x T-26 tanks

German - Black
2x Schleswig Holstein BBs
2x Seydlitz CVs
8x Pz-III tanks

Japan - Pumpkin Orange:
10x Type 97 tanks
5x Ki-43 fighters
2x G8N Rita bombers

2x Kaga CVs
2x Ryujo CVs
5x Nagato BBs
2x Fuso BBs
5x Mogami cruisers
5x I-400 subs

MyHBGrejects.jpg

@coachofmany:

@AlphaKappa:

@Buran:

I have just received my US units I have attached some photos.  I was just wondering if what the fifth air unit is?  It looks like an F6F Hellcat fighter.  But there is nothing on the website about it.

Nice!  They look pretty good.  How’s the color compared to the OOB stuff?

HBG Olive Drab color is very close to Global 40 2nd Edition IMHO.

I don’t know, Coach!  I just bought a few of your new Shermans from a friend and I was pleasantly surprised that they match my 1st Edition US pieces pretty well.   :wink:

These Sherman sculpts are ace.  You guys did a good job with these and now I’m looking forward to getting some of the other ones too.

EDIT:  Okay, upon closer inspection in daylight, I changed my mind.  They are definitely closer in tone to 2nd Edition US.

The best approach I’ve seen was a friend who cut his factories in half with a hacksaw. Large factories are majors, while the smaller, halved factories are minors.

I’ve got mine painted three different colors. Bought a lot of 50 for a few dollars from a vendor at Nashcon in May 2016.

Before Nashcon, I used red Monopoly hotels for the major factories and the green hotels for minor factories. I still like to use the green ones every now and again because I think they’re nifty.

Guys,

––This thread will eventually contain all of the U.K.-European Forces(London-based) that I’ve had detailed and painted by the “WARMACHINE TEAM”.

––So far the list contains:

BRITAIN

U.K. European Forces(London-based)
U.K. Infantry
––U.K. (Infantry, Rifle)…European scheme…(Starting at message #1)

–-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone,

----These fine paintjobs were completed by a very talented painter by the name of Chad Coffman, a.k.a. “Allworkandnoclay” who’s AWESOME paintwork is known to everyone here on A&A.Org. I hope you enjoy them.

“Tall Paul”

infantry-uk_europe01.jpg

Those tanks are some of the best AA pieces I’ve ever seen! I really like the extra details added and especially like the matt finish.