"Adding color to AH ship counters" Topic

I bought a series of AH Jutland ship counters. I'd like to add light brown decking to the counters. Has anyone added color to their counters? Hobby acrylic paint? Fine point marker? Artist colored pencil?
Mark

Diluted artists acrylic ink. Very smooth colour and, when diluted 4 or 5 parts water to 1 ink, nicely transparent. should go with the pale counters quite well. Test dilution on paper to get it correct.

It's also very useful for doing base coat on sand and grit bases (diluted). Burnt umber is probably your baby.

I will try this! Thank you!

I'd be careful trying this. The counters surface is only semi porous, so anything you apply is going to "float" and be likely to rub off. If you apply too much it will penetrate to the fibrous counter material and may cause it to swell/waffle.

If it were up to me, I'd get someone with a laser cutter to burn the requisite number of counters out of hard plastic. Then I'd photocopy the existing counters onto regular (porous) paper and affix them to the bases. I'd be more inclined to affix with tape than glue. THEN, use thinned ink, or colored markers to shade the decks, carefully, as the ink will now want to bleed.

Of course, this still leaves you dealing with the German turret roof issues.

Thank you for the caution Exeter. I spent the evening experimenting on old counters. As you said, too much destroys the counter and often the new color just rubs off. However, I found that a THIN coat of golden brown "craft smart" acrylic paint from Michael's does the trick. It acts like a wash allowing the detail to show through and is stable when dry—all I asked. I'm thinking I will forgo the dull coat finish though which might dog the counters.
Mark

Firstly, you are not squirting the ink on, you are painting it on like paint, in a thin layer.

Secondly, if you find that the surface isn't taking the ink, add a small amount of liquid detergent (shampoo / dish wash) to break the surface tension of the diluted ink.

I imagine there our semi-transparent markers out there that can 'colorize' the counters. A pen-like object is much easier to draw with than a brush. An art fixative sealer or dull coat spray is a must to preserve your work as well as the original. Since this is a rare out of print game, there is
no going back. Best of luck.

Personally, I'd scan them and just do it in photoshop or some other free image editor and then reprint them.

But I realize that's a bit of work and if you aren't used to image editors, might be a learning curve.

I think you should buy my painted 1/6000 scale fleets….

Extra crispy—you have Hallmark 1/6000 Jutland fleets?

Yes, I have both sides, painted. Been thinking about selling them. You can see pictures of a few here:

link

We ended up basing destroyers in flotillas rather than individually….

Looks good. What are you asking?

Well, looks as though that problem's been averted. Just in case, though:
I would not recommend colored pencil on any surface not marked "colored pencil" or "multi-media" and especially not on the somewhat glossy surface of most board game counters. Colored pencils work by depositing pigment in the irregularities of the surface, so the smoother the surface, the more trouble you make for yourself.

Thank you Piepenbrink. I was, in fact, just at Michael's looking at both pencils and markers.