"Abstract representations of African treasures" Topic

I'm playing one of those "explore the dark continent games", that is weighted fairly heavily on grabbing the typical stuff like ivory, gold, silver, diamonds, rubber, etc.

This particular set of rules is fairly abstract. Rather than worrying about hiring porters, they are just kind of part of the background. When one of the characters grabs a "treasure", the piece is removed from the board, and simply replaced with a porter figure.

Anyway, the porters I have, and also representations for uncut gems (transparent acrylic aquarium gravel) and precious metals (Eagle Games Conquest of the Empire gold, silver and bronze coins), but how to represent ivory and rubber?

I was thinking that -for ivory- there "primitive style" are necklaces that have white claw pieces in them. If I had something like that, I could pull the necklace apart and use it to resemble tusks.

What about rubber? Are there tiny potted rubber tree plants out there?

Thanks for any help with either of these.

124 rubber plants on e-bay auction in the dolls house section :-)

Could you cast a simple tusk from plaster?
Andrew

I wouldn't worry about it. Rubber trees aren't native to Africa

Rubber isn't, but palm is. Palm oil was one of the exploited products of central Africa.

Sugarcraft palms? Miniature barrels?

Allen

Foundry has a couple of casted tusks.
Old crow has a plinth with tusks and another with animal [lion] skins.

rubber trees was introduced in Africa (Belgian Congo) as was coffee trees (Kenya)

Don't forget sacred artifacts.

I ran a similar game set in Egypt and used WarGods of AEgyptus items from their Icons and Artifacts section.

link

Nothing gets the locals angrier than taking some of their sacred stuff.

go straight to the source.
hobby lobby or Michaels has jewelry sections that will have your tusk beads.
no sense buying a necklace just to dissassemble it.

There are lots of beads that look like pots, baskets, and small idols made of ivory, stone, or gold.

Tusks, use Miliput or some other self hardening epoxy putty. Roll into a ball, then roll out into a long snake (like when you were a kid) then cut to the appropriate length, flatten one end and make a point on the other. Carefully curve the tusk, wait, dry, prime, and paint. It took longer to type this than the time to make some. Mine came out great and cheap.

Cheers,

JB

thanks guys

Well rubber is pretty easy. If I understand correctly, raw rubber (dried sap of the rubber vines which ARE native to Africa) is a sticky grey substance, which was collected, bundled up and shipped to Europe. You could grab grey sculpy or fimo and make package-sized cubes by hand, then tie thread around 'em and you are fine. Alternately, one manufacturer of resin products in 28mm (can't remember the name, but I will) sells bundles which I believe are supposed to represent raw rubber. I'll get back to you here.

On second thought, since King Leopold's boys were SO unbelieveably cruel and murderous in collecting rubber, perhaps you should use something other than rubber as your 'treasure'.

Imaginary part of Africa. We haven't told the Belgians about it.

Well, I can't remember the name of the manufacturer. Somebody help me here. Resin stuff, very nice, 28mm, offers a wharf, several launches, and half a dozen various seedy buildings for an upriver trading town, as well as cargo, buoys, etc. Their approximately 1" packages look like they should be raw rubber.

chicklewis:

this sounds to be Old Crow / Ainsty
link

Is this what you want?

natural rubber/latex used to be shipped in bales. It is very simple to make them by some putty since they seem like flat sacks or thick sheets. See a picture here:
link

Just to know latex is made in such bales and then is smoked in order to preserve it. remember latex/rubber is a natural organic product and is subject to decay

Thanks much for all the help guys.

Connard Sage "I wouldn't worry about it. Rubber trees aren't native to Africa"

Huh. On of those things you assume you know that in fact you don't, I guess. Thanks man.

Yep, rubber is/was obtained from many different plants, the 'rubber tree' which is used today is I believe not the same as the tree originally used by the South American natives. The main export from the Congo was rubber from a native vine there, but it was not a very good producer, hence the exploitation of the locals to produce enough, and it is no longer harvested commercially.

And I also recommend the Old Crow (ex Ainsty) resin pieces – they make some 'ivory' and 'stack o' skins' tile type markers as well as an amazing variety of boxes, bales & bundles.

Craft shops often sell bone or plastic beads shaped like tusks. They are 1 to 2 cm long.

They also sell small sheets of foam in various colours – you could buy one (about £1) and cut it into little squares to represent rubber.

(sp?) cahoutec – isn't that the original rubber plant, from South America? Refer Jules Verne's Mysterious Island, I think that's where I first encountered it.

Yep, Ainsty, thanks argsilverson. The four bales in the back of this photo are the ones I would use for raw rubber.

picture

Further to the above I did some research and found the following:

1.- rubber tree "hevea brasiliensis" is indigenous in south america. It was transplanted to Malaysia etc SE Asia, where it flourishes.
2.- the congo production at the years of Leopold II was harvested by indigenous in africa plants, which had low production.

Sorry if I misinform you at the earlier posts.