Creating and Mounting Counters (Tutorial)

[PanzersEast]

I recently reworked the Counters for Hunters over Korea so I was looking for a way to print and mount them.  I ran across Derek's video on YouTube (SingleHandedWarfare) about using a peel and stick Tile from Home Depot so I decided to try it out and here are the results.

I purhcased all you see here for about $30... that is x10 Peel and Stick Tiles for around 39 cents per tile.  I decided if I were starting from scratch what would I need and how much would it cost.  I bought a pretty heavy duty ruler and Precision Knife kit and a Utility knife.

The tile should be 1mm thick and is flexible but stiff enough that it will not bend.




Now I grabbed an extra Hard Tile I had to use as a back so I would not scare the surface underneath.




Place the Tile down stick side up onto your surface to prep for cutting.



Next I place my printed counter sheet on the tile.  I used heavy duty Card Stock to print my counters on.  Now take your Exacto knife and lightly cut around the edges of the Counter Sheet.  We are just going to remove the section that we need for the Counters to Stick.



After we outline and remove the Peel we should have a pretty good outline on our Tile.



Place the Printed Counter Sheet evenly on the Tile and press firmly allover to make sure you get good contact.



Now I will cut off the top section of the Counters. I plan to do this Row by Row.  Line up the Ruler to the top section of the Counters.



Now, the trick to cutting the Counters out is not to press hard, just Lightly to Firmly make a couple of stokes down the line. What we are tying to do is cut enough to separate the Section we want from the Tile and then trim off the rest which is demonstrated below.



As you can see I, I have scared the Tile enough to have the Dangling Row from the Tile.  Now I run my Exacto knife down the Middle to separate the section from the Tile.  This makes sure we have a good straight line.



After separation we have our first Row.



As you can see, these have turned out great so far as the 1mm thick tile works very well and is clean.



I have out out the first Counter using the same technique above.... do not press too HARD!  Light but firm strokes and then bend the Counter in the crease created and cut.  As you can see below, first one is cut and very nice thickness and it is firmly attached.



This is a time consuming process, however it is relatively cheap and does not cause a lot of mess.  I am impressed at how well the Card Stock sticks to the Tile and the thickness.  This is a relatively cheap method to Printing and attaching your own Counters.  Cheers!

[bbmike]

That's really cool! What kind of printer did you print with?

[GJK]

So the backs of the counters is tile laminate?

There wouldn't be any way to do double-sided counters with this method either I don't think but I like this idea and will definitely keep it in mind for future projects.  Thanks for sharing!

[Nefaro]

So the backs of the counters is tile laminate?

There wouldn't be any way to do double-sided counters with this method either I don't think but I like this idea and will definitely keep it in mind for future projects.  Thanks for sharing!

Do a set of back sides with another tile, then glue the tile sides together on each matching pair with super glue or something?

May end up being too thick though.



PE -

I picked up one of those "self-healing" cutting mats awhile back.  Since I've had to trim and/or cut minis off sprues since taking up painting, it has come in extremely handy.  Not only does it save me from cutting the desk I use, it also doesn't dull my Xacto blades as quickly since they're semi-soft on the outer layer. 

I got a 36x24 one of the following, but there are all sizes.  You don't really need them that large, but I also wanted to make it double as a paint splash guard.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0025189VE