I got the new 40K counters when my rulebook (and craters) came, and finally got around to removing them from the sprue. I tried my cutters on a piece of sprue before I started in on the counters and am glad that I did.
The plastic they are made from is very brittle (it is however a real cool color) and I didn't want to risk chip out on each piece. I used a bone saw (a very fine jewler's saw) to cut them from the sprues, and have 1 entire "sheet" done so far with no chipping. A little tedious and time consuming, but it is a 'hobby' after all.
Anyone else find this to be true?
Passing along the info in case it helps.
TW

ive not got mine yet (picking them up from Ben at the meet-up). one thing that struck me when i saw them on the racks at the GW was how big they are - much bigger than the WD article made them look.

as to cutting them off the sprue, i have a nice heavy duty blade that might do the trick, failing that, i have a saw (thanks to Culven for both of those!).

one thing i have heard helps with the counters is filling in the symbols with paint so they stand out more from a distance.

hope that helps

~ Tim

I'll be painting them to some extent (the symbols are really hard to see, even with my glasses on!) and will post some pics when I get them started. Just have to figure out how much of the counter I want to put paint on. As I said, they are cast from a really stand out color plastic and I wouldn't want to cover all of it.
Now I also have a few ideas rolling around in my head on how best to use the sprues and cut offs (thinking little lights and batteries, hmmmmm )

I'd heard it was a stupidly fiddly thing (and matt talked about it) all around here ish
http://www.ageofstrife.com/modules.php? ... 3522#13522
I'll carry on using the ones I've got off here though

timewizard wrote:Just have to figure out how much of the counter I want to put paint on.

how about just putting a wash/thinned down paint just into the recesses, and wiping the rest clean?

timewizard wrote:Now I also have a few ideas rolling around in my head on how best to use the sprues and cut offs (thinking little lights and batteries, hmmmmm )

ive got a paper cup half-full of all the offcuts from when i bought a bag of clear plastic flying bases. im thinking maybe using it to make broken glass on the floor next to windows...

ive also still got all my green Necron rod offcuts too. i did try melting them down, but the fumes were too overpowering.

~ Tim

timewizard wrote:Now I also have a few ideas rolling around in my head on how best to use the sprues and cut offs (thinking little lights and batteries, hmmmmm )

Nice, like that.

I have been thinking about how to make "christmas tree" style string lights for my mine table...

I had originally thought, cable (yellow telephone) would be the element, but flourescent green...hmmm.

Cheers!

ruffian4 wrote:I have been thinking about how to make "christmas tree" style string lights for my mine table...

I had originally thought, cable (yellow telephone) would be the element, but flourescent green...hmmm.

Cheers!

Maybe the remains of a 'cheap' fiber optic kit, a small hole drilled in a little green plastic 'plug' set into the wall?

EDIT:found this fellow's "experiments" on Dakka Dakka;
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/po ... 14889.page
Interesting ideas.

A guy on Warseer broke his sprue cutters on those.

Ben wrote:A guy on Warseer broke his sprue cutters on those.

ouch. i better be careful then, as mine have sentimental value. although they are more substantial (and were cheaper) than the GW ones. i saw a pair of those snap cutting a part off a metal model at a GW store once (what, you mean they are just supposed to be used on plastic? ).

cheers for the heads up, Ben.

~ Tim

Ben wrote:A guy on Warseer broke his sprue cutters on those.

I broke my first pair trying to cut through some thick plastic. Have't had that happen with my new cutter. But that's because if the plastic is too thick, I get out the jewlers saw. Live and learn!

I dislike the counters immensely. I’m about halfway through trying to cut the first sprue out and couple of counters splintered on me. I’m looking at the whole set and wondering if I can use the plastic for Necron terrain...

I just blasted mine out with the citadel cutters. Some small damage to some but on the whole they came out ok. Now it was a real pain to do, I've not used the counters yet or even considered using them.

Been a waste of time so far.

Will anybody be using the counters after a few games?
I've had counters from the battle magic, magic, dark millennium, etc supplements and never used any of them!
They sound like a good idea, but for some reason seemed to get ignored.

IMF2000 wrote:I've not used the counters yet or even considered using them.

I'm going to give some of them a try. Might help a little (like the wound markers, have been using a D4 (left over from D&D days)

IMF2000 wrote:Been a waste of time so far.

The biggest waste I think will be the turn marker, I have a 36mm die on order to use as a turn marker

Kate and I use counters already (Pinned, Markerlight, Bladestorm), so i think we will keep using these too (although we havent started using them yet, but you get what i mean). quite often we stop halfway through a game to see to Seth, or have something to eat, or watch a TV program - or even finish our game the next day - so anything that helps us keep track of whats going on is a benefit. they will even help us to just be able to concentrate on the action when we are playing, i hope.

has anyone tried using a dremmel or something to cut these off the sprue?

~ Tim

I'm one lucky beggar, didn't get one breakage on my 2 sprue's when I cut them off.

However they were a real pain to do and took me far too long to remove :/

Every time I've used my Dremmel on something, it has ended up smoking or melting!

IMF2000 wrote:Every time I've used my Dremmel on something, it has ended up smoking or melting!

Do you have a variable speed model? The default speed on the dremel is too fast for plastic.
If you have just one speed, you can pick up a variable speed controller (aka rheostat) that will slow the speed of the cutting tool down to where you need it. Takes a little trial and error, but well worth the effort and modest expense.

Perhaps a recent posting in another thread can help here?
"When your only tool is a hammer, everything else is just a nail".

Has anyone tried using a hammer?

timewizard wrote:Do you have a variable speed model? The default speed on the dremel is too fast for plastic.
If you have just one speed, you can pick up a variable speed controller (aka rheostat) that will slow the speed of the cutting tool down to where you need it. Takes a little trial and error, but well worth the effort and modest expense.

I'll try it on a lower setting next time..

To be fair, I got the job done nicely in both cases, the power of the tool was just a little unexpected.

mattjgilbert wrote:Perhaps a recent posting in another thread can help here?
"When your only tool is a hammer, everything else is just a nail".

Has anyone tried using a hammer?

All I can say is...

Found the photo. It was Plastic Rat.

see if that was me, i would be emailing that straight to GW for a replacement...

(thats the same way the pair i saw broke when someone (yeah, lets stick with "someone") used a pair of yellow handled GW ones to cut metal in a store)

~ Tim

I wonder if GW considers that "normal" use.

(whoops didn't see the second page this might be a bit disjointed ) Counters are vital especially with multi units in games of 1500 and over where some peoples (mine) guns aren't magnetised and don't come off, you have several multi wounders (dice just get moved)
My pack I always carry and nearly always use (to help myself and my opponent) contains:
1x 3 wounds
2x 2 wounds
3x 1 wounds Kept in pile to the right for easy sorting
A few teleport homer ones (because I'm fairly lazy wyswig)
3x shaken (EA means theres more of them) and its vital to remember it in CC battles too
2x stunned
2xWeapon destroyed
1xImmobilised (probably should have 2)
kept in a pile slighty to the left of the dice pile with the scatter dice.
these little OCD rituals free up your brain so you can dedicate more time to crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and to hearing the lamentation of the women.( )
Einstein had loads of the same suit so he didn't have to waste time thinking about what he was going to wear- same principle.
They also free up the dice to being used to play the game, (I still when using more than 15 units use dice to show who has shot and who is yet to shoot)