Custom Action Tokens

Unlike some solo gamers out there, I cannot simply pick up my favorite set of multi-player rules and play, unmodified, a game against myself.  Perhaps I lack imagination but to me that feels too artificial with a dearth of surprises.  So I prefer games designed or highly modified for solo play, especially rules with intense randomization.  For me, an enjoyable solo experience is playing the part of each side's commander trying to force some order into an otherwise chaotic situation.  One of the best ways I've found to facilitate solo play like this is through the use of action tokens.  I'm playtesting a new platoon level skirmish game I made called Our Space Age Army, so I decided to construct some easy stack-able custom action tokens.

First I made the master token shapes using plumber's epoxy putty.  I smoothed out the putty and used tools to press in the symbols for attack, defense and move actions: cross-hairs, castellated line and arrow respectively.  I used a punch made from a scrap plastic tube to make the tokens round.  The putty cured and then I glued a nail to the back of each, making a master press.

Next I rolled out and flattened a strip of Sculpey polymer clay and pressed the shapes into it to an appropriate depth (about that of a penny).

Finally I poured water-putty into the depressions in the Sculpey strip and waited 100 to 200 minutes.  I removed the cured tokens without destroying the strip of clay; it's ready for more putty.  As the picture below shows, I still need to take some sandpaper to the edges, but the tokens are ready for paint.  I think they'll be plenty durable, but if not I'll add another mold-making step and cast them in resin instead.