Swamp Table Project: Objective Markers

The miniature game I play most by far is Infinity.  In most Infinity missions, there are objectives scattered around the table that you have to interact with to score points.  The objective could be a computer console or satellite dish or supply crate or small-arms-vending machine (seriously).  You can just use cardboard tokens to represent these things, but that was going to look out of place given the work I'm putting into the rest of the terrain, so I decided to make some objectives.

I went with a concept that I thought could viably represent any type of Infinity objective.

Here we have the constructed and freshly primed pieces. 

I used clay poker chips as the bases to provide some weight and a solid round base.  The sides of the body is a cardboard tube that I cut up to suit.  This cut was not as clean as I wanted so I used masking take to smooth off the edges.  This wasn't the best plan as the tape was still visible after priming and painting.

I then cut a piece of foamcore to cap the tube.  Both the flat top part and the angled flat part are 1 piece of foamcore that I cut half through and then folded.  I placed pieces of metal hangers in those gaps. 

On top are plastic tubes from dog-poop bag rolls that I cut on an angle and then glued lego satellite dishes to.

Here are a couple pieces after painting with a model for scale.  I left most of each piece the metalic color I primed with although I tried to add a hint of blue to the main bodies. 

Each of the 6 objectives got a different computer readout on the angled flat part.  These were modified from some images that Infinity publishes as the official computer screens for the main factions in the game.  I then highlighted each piece with a different color so I can tell them apart more easily.

Next I wanted a nice way to keep these and (someday) travel with them. 

So I cannibalized a box from a recent purchase of Infinity miniatures.  I cut off the box lid and cut circles in the foam insert that kept the minis sage during shipping.  Next I glued the foam into the box. 

The wholes are slightly smaller than the bases of my new objectives so they fit snugly.

Finally, I wanted a way to track information about objectives during the game.  Some missions care who touched an objective last or who touched it any time during a missions and some missions use more than one kind of objective.

The bottom piece of chipboard has a space for each objective identified both by color and with the same computer screen image.  I also have some arrow markers that can show possession or something else like that.  Finally I have a handful of markers that represent the various types of objectives that I can place near the bottom part to show what it what on the table.

The rest of the set.

Higher resolution images here.

After this side project I built trees.