Thursday 12 February 2015

The new turn dial

Knowing the game turn seems to be a universal question most asked at any game.  "What turn are we on?".  So recording of said event is important.  I have seen various methods employed:  coins collected from pockets,  pebbles aligned in groups,  crudely scratched upon the back of the rule book, and such.  Of course dials of varying forms are most likely and I have been employing one given to me by a club mate which is basically two weak fridge magnets with card glued upon, the upside with a printed Napoleonic tri-coleur flag photocopied on the face.  Did the trick of course.

But a couple of days ago I just HAD TO go to the local game store to see what new items ( and sale items! ) they had, and to use up a gift certificate. "Dear, you want to go shopping?" Once I mentioned the area, she knew, but decided to come along away.....

Now as I buzzed around the store like a very excited and confused hamster before she got too bored, I found the '4Ground' display and came across their turn dial.

 It is simply two pieces of plywood joined together by strong mini magnets which keep the wood together but still able to turn as to expose each number.  A tab allows for positioning.

Well I liked the concept so I bought it and with my OCD kicking in, I of course had to do my thing to "blend it" into the table as not to have visual distractions.

Without spending much time on this, I painted the edges black, the tab brown, added my "earth" putty and flocking, and deciding that I wanted a bit of extra weight as not to allow the number to be changed should an accidental nudge be made, I added an existing lead Prussian casualty.  Actually the dial seemed too plain and I thought of the extra 'dead' to place on top.  I have plastic dead types but this Prussian was already painted and in hindsight the weight effect is a good by-product !
While close to the action in this photo, the dial will be no doubt placed in the corner of the table but hopefully not too eye distracting.


Quote of the day:  I have CDO.  It's exactly like OCD but all the letters are in the g*d**n correct alphabetical order !!   <grin>