I came across this crafting wool in Spotlight stores (a large art and craft store in Australia) and immediately thought of Bolt Action Pin Markers, and markers for destroyed building, objectives or vehicles. I still prefer casualty markers is you can afford them or they are available, but this is a simple and cheap alternative if not.
The total lot of six packets cost me AU$18.00 on special, with the only failing that there was not any black left.
The packets with a 20mm 1/72nd scale Pz III German tank for size comparison.
I then stuck some 12mm dice holders from Pendraken to 40mm round bases. These will provide the number of pins, suppression or whatever for your game systems.
various pieces of the coloured craft wool were then twisted together and stuck on the base with supa-glue.
As I could not obtain any black wool I sprayed them very lightly, from about 18 inches away, with a cheap matt black spray can. This provided that oily black smoke look that I wanted. This step is not necessary if you like the bright look or have been lucky enough to find the black wool.
Now all you need to do is to add your die when your unit requires marking.
These French Partizans are moving through the ruins with one pin marker.
Different coloured dice could be used to differentiate both sides.
I have put two dice holders on some markers for that rare occasion where a unit has suffered badly. Just use one holder if not.
The markers can be used for destroyed or damaged vehicles with using the die.
I have only put together 12 markers at this stage and there is enough “wool” left over for at least another one hundred bases or other uses.
Hope this idea is a useful one for you.
Clever idea Dave, they look very effective
Thanks Dave’ Always scouring craft and toy shops for ideas!
What a brilliant idea!
Thanks Eric.
I like the look of those Dave! 🙂
Thanks John. A light bulb moment………it does happen some times!
Looks great. I definitely plan to loot this idea.
That’s the whole idea of these posts. Share, steal, modify and then make it your own!
Vey nice! Great job scoring the colored wool. While I’m not usually using wool for rpgs, we did end up using a die today to mark something. Usually I avoid that because dice easily top over, but the “dice holder” on a base idea is pretty sweet. Where’d you get those or what did you make them from? I guess matchsticks might work?
Thanks Faust. Pendraken have dice and dice frames in all sizes. I have found that 10mm is about right for this purpose, although you can get them larger or smaller. Url below:
https://www.pendraken.co.uk/dice-and-frames-877-c.asp
Nice work! They look very effective. I’ve been thinking lately that I need to do something similar for burned tanks for my 15mm stuff, so good to see that it works in practice. 👍
Thanks Az. It does work quite well, even without the bases. It’s just that with the bases it makes them good casualty counters as well.
Those are really effective. I’ve made dice holders and smoke markers but have not combined the two yet. I’ll have to copy some of yours.
FWIW- another source of dice frames is War Bases.
Cheers,
Pete.
War bases are a great site. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks Pete. I will put War bases in my favourites.