DIY Tokens for Infinity

Sadly, painting isn't going as fast as I'd hoped due to lots of other, more pressing matters, but here's a short DIY post:

German tabletop wargaming news site Brückenkopf reviewed the USAriadna Army Box today, and mentioned that the cardboard tokens might be a little hard to pick up off the table due to how thin they are, and might also not last forever. I had the same thought when I got the tokens out of the Icestorm and USAriadna boxes and decided to share how I deal with it.

Inspired by a post on I-don't-remember-which-message-board, I went and looked for "Bottle Cap Epoxy Dots", small, self-adhesive, circular, well, dots which come in a convenient 1-inch diameter. I feared they might be hard to find in Germany, but it turns out Amazon is my friend and I was able to order them there.
Now mind you that they're sent from the US, so plan about 2-4 weeks of delivery time, but hey, no postage cost or customs fees. Awesome! Also, don't be scared when you see only 25 of them in the packaging, there's two layers for 50 per pack.



Now you go grab a bunch of those cardboard tokens, and glue the Epoxy Dots on them!



Of course, this also works with the tokens you find on the Infinity miniatures' boxes and with printed tokens, such as the free token PDF from the official Infinity website (scroll down to "Markers"), or this wonderful generator that lets you pick and choose exactly what tokens you need and how many. I believe there might be more than just this one generator, but that's the one I used.
I use thick 160 g/m² paper, the same I use for my papercraft terrain (more on that in another post).



Now, I don't yet own any of the MicroArtStudio tokens, but from pictures and videos I believe that they are a good deal thicker than my epoxy dots, and are also flat cylinders, not the little "bubbles" I get. I do like how my custom tokens feel and handle, though, but I do believe the MAS ones might handle even better, in addition to being prettier.



My tokens are cheaper, though, as you're paying between € 8 and € 10 for 50 of the dots, depending on the exchange rate at the time (€ 0.16 - € 0.2 per token), whereas the MAS ones will cost you € 12.30 for the biggest set (€ 0.34 per token) to € 3.69 for the smallest sets (€ 0.74 per token)

I did order a Cutter TAG and matching 55mm TO-Camo marker from the wonderful people at Laughingjack today, though, so I'll soon be able to compare the MAS token to mine firsthand and will be sure to share my findings here.

Another option, of course, would be to simply glue your cardboard or paper tokens to the backs of 25mm round bases. I prefer more shiny options.

Operation:Icestorm - PanOceania Fusilier

This is my first painted Infinity miniature, a PanOceania Fusilier from the Operation:Icestorm box.
The base is from the Antenocitis "Hex" bases set, which I'll be using for all my PanOs.

I always do a test model first, to try out what colors I want, before painting a larger batch in one go. This lucky Fusilier got to be my guinea pig:



I'm pretty happy with him. Still, there's a few things I'd like to do differently:

• The eyes. Seriously, I used to know how to do that!
• The white highlights at the edges. I can't be asked to redo the whole thing, but I'm wondering whether a very bright blue wouldn't look better than the white. It's kinda... snowy... this way, and they're not supposed to be on a snow world (as the base should demonstrate)
• The gun. That is definitely getting changed. I'll try another way of painting it on the next few models, then redo them in the style I like best.
• The lips. I just don't like how they turned out.

All in all, it's nowhere near the masterpieces you see on many of the blogs and forums, but it's decent tabletop standard and the exaggerated highlights make the model POP like crazy at a tabletop gaming distance.

Next up: The rest of the O:I PanOs, along with gorgeous Jeanne d'Arc from the Giraldez Painting book. Let's see how long this takes.