My new project "National Battle Boxes" -updated 1/7

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    Don’t laugh, but I like “Battle Box”… sounds kinda funny, makes me smile lol.

    All the boxes are made with exception to the lids, as I need to find medals I like to fit a 2" radius. I was able to do Germany, as I already have an Iron Cross first class. I had some mold/resin left over from my Airbase/Naval base thread, so I made a copy of it.

    Ill update this thread as im able to when new lids are done, I have US/France/Russia/and ANZAC on the way to me, hopefully they will work…. with luck, US will be here today!!

    SO… why on earth would I put this much into trays? Well, i made a portable gaming table made 100% for this game. I used to host at my house, but with the loss of players ive ventured out and play at game stores, and let me tell ya, my table/painted units really draws in the crowds. Its a great way to meet new potential players. Only thing i thought was missing was cool piece trays, er i mean “National Battle Boxes” :P

    Pay no mind to my game aid cards, those are old now and im currently designing new ones to go with my new setup chart look.

    Speaking of the setup chart, youll notice it has setup for Europe 1940/ Global 1940 / Global 1942… America/UK have set ups for Pacific as well… let me tell you, what a pain in the a$$ it was to design this, i went though many designs to find the space to fit all the data i wanted, this was the hold up on posting this topic.

    The piece segments have different elevations for the units to work best with each county, this way your not digging around. The center is designed to not only hold my game cards, but also fit the money, sometimes we will continue a game a week later, so being able to store cash was a must. During game play, there is a slot to hold the cards/cash… UK has duel sides to keep the money separated.

    Hope you like the pics, ill be making my first vid this week for the painted piece setup, hopefully my phone pans out haha.







  • Very impressive work!  And don’t worry about people wondering why you’d put so much effort into creating customized trays, given how many customizers are members of this forum and how much work some folks have devoted to upgrading their A&A materials – in some cases, even going as far as setting up an entire war room for their game.  Looking forward to seeing the other trays as they’re completed.

  • '17 '16

    lol… that’s awesome… you even have DAK painted units for Africa?

    Yours are way better than my national bins… just a closeable screw bin with a flag sticker on it! lolz

    Well done!

    NationTrays1.jpg


  • Very cool - it’s amazing what can be done for this game with skill, creativity and today’s available resources…

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    Thanks for the compliments guys!

    My US badge arrived, im finishing up the lid tonight, to ill be able to post that box tomorrow!

    All my countries have more pieces then it came with, in this case, ya, they went DAK :)


  • Awesome … just, simply, awesome!

    And I like the sound of National Battle Boxes too. :)

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    @IWillNeverGrowUp:

    Awesome … just, simply, awesome!

    And I like the sound of National Battle Boxes too. :)

    Thanks! I don’t know, something about it, make me smile lol.

    I almost finished America, the lid is done, I still need to make the ribbon tab and setup chart, France is about ready, the medal should arrive today, AND Russia medal should arrive today as well, im super stoked!

    I hoped to post America today, but it’ll have to wait till tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the kind words!

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    Wow these boxes are unreal. Your, quite the artist. Man, I’m so jealous of your talent. Congrats, man, really awesome. :-D

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    @John:

    Wow these boxes are unreal. Your, quite the artist. Man, I’m so jealous of your talent. Congrats, man, really awesome. :-D

    Thanks John! Im lucky that my dad owns a cabinet shop, so I have access to the wood shop :) …. better yet, all the scraps of wood!

  • '17 '16

    Random thought… painting the wood boxes the color of the nation’s default units in-game?  Black box for Germany, Tan box for UK, Green box for US, Orange box for Japan, Maroon box for USSR?  Just a thought.


  • @Wolfshanze:

    Random thought… painting the wood boxes the color of the nation’s default units in-game?  Black box for Germany, Tan box for UK, Green box for US, Orange box for Japan, Maroon box for USSR?  Just a thought.

    I think staining and antiquing them would be better myself. The cloth tab and the medallion are distinguishing enough and making them look antiqued would be very classy.

  • '17 '16

    @IWillNeverGrowUp:

    @Wolfshanze:

    Random thought… painting the wood boxes the color of the nation’s default units in-game?  Black box for Germany, Tan box for UK, Green box for US, Orange box for Japan, Maroon box for USSR?  Just a thought.

    I think staining and antiquing them would be better myself. The cloth tab and the medallion are distinguishing enough and making them look antiqued would be very classy.

    Either/or… nothing wrong with staining either… not a huge fan of raw wood with no paint or stain.  The medals are very nice though.


  • @Wolfshanze:

    @IWillNeverGrowUp:

    @Wolfshanze:

    Random thought… painting the wood boxes the color of the nation’s default units in-game?�  Black box for Germany, Tan box for UK, Green box for US, Orange box for Japan, Maroon box for USSR?�  Just a thought.

    I think staining and antiquing them would be better myself. The cloth tab and the medallion are distinguishing enough and making them look antiqued would be very classy.

    Either/or… nothing wrong with staining either… not a huge fan of raw wood with no paint or stain.  The medals are very nice though.

    Agreed. I just feel for something this nice, stain would be classy. Japan Orange is so … garish on something like this, lol.

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    @Wolfshanze:

    Random thought… painting the wood boxes the color of the nation’s default units in-game?  Black box for Germany, Tan box for UK, Green box for US, Orange box for Japan, Maroon box for USSR?  Just a thought.

    When I started the project (not this, but my game table/board thing) I went though color choices, the 2 I liked best were this, and green… just imagine a dark green, distressed and aged.

    The deciding factor was the game board colors next to the paint color. So the boxed followed in theme, as I want the wood work to have the same theme.

    I wasn’t interested for me to have them all different colors, but if I was contracted to do so, im sure it would be epic.

    As for the medals, I went though designing options for the lids, my alt was painting the entire lid, example, imagine the rising sun for Japan running across the entire lid, which I like. But the idea of having medals and using its ribbon as the pull tab won for me.

    I still think painted lids would be pretty damn cool too!

    Unfortunately I had a busy week, and failed to post/do much I planned :( Oh well there is the weekend, well Sunday, I have a game Sat, im Japan :P

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    im kinda stuck on America ribbon, what do you guys think? The red/white/blue, but that’s france as well :(

    Maybe in the style of the silver star?


  • @siredblood:

    im kinda stuck on America ribbon, what do you guys think? The red/white/blue, but that’s france as well :(

    Maybe in the style of the silver star?

    If you can get one with a star, I would do that. Make it distinct and obvious and leave the red/white/blue stripes for France.

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    I tried 3 times to paint a proper star, and im so OCD, that my stars were not acceptable lol, SO, I went with solid blue.

    United States, France, and Soviet Union are done! I have British, ANZAC (still waiting shipment from Australia), and China medals bought and should be here soon. I had a bid on Italy, but was outbid lol. Japan is still looking grim, I do have a bid out, but I feel it will fail.

    I did a few edits to my setup chart layout, added the turn sequence for both 1940 and 42, and figured out what I wanted to do to cover the ribbon tab (see Germany, was old way).

    France requiring less space, got the honor of housing all the facilities :)

    Last is a pic of all 9 cases, China houses mostly game components, chips, dice, money etc, will provide pic when lid is done. Now while im awaiting medals, ill be designing the leather travel case for these. BUT not today, today im working on my map, which I hope to start a topic on soon.

    Thanks everyone for the feedback, ill keep updating this thread as the lids are completed!




  • '17 '16 Customizer

    BAM, found a WW2 US lapel star pin, ill pin it to the ribbon!

  • '17 '16

    Maybe you could get/find a small cloth US Flag and fold/cut it into ribbon size, so you could either get the stripes and or the blue star field to show?

  • '17 '16 Customizer

    @Wolfshanze:

    Maybe you could get/find a small cloth US Flag and fold/cut it into ribbon size, so you could either get the stripes and or the blue star field to show?

    well, I have a pin on the way, lets hope it pans out. Still waiting for my over seas shipments to continue this project. ANZAC was the first one I ordered, damn, still not here :(

Suggested Topics

Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

23

Online

17.0k

Users

39.2k

Topics

1.7m

Posts