Marking Miniatures

[Arenium]

I use these:

Avery See Thru Color Dots Removable 14 Assorted Colors Pack Of 860 by Office Depot

they're small enough to fit on top of the base of most minis. with a fine tipped marker you can even label these. they're removable, they don't leave a film or gunk behind and are pretty reusable as well, i have a group of 5 numbered that i've moved amongst a group of minis all evening during a gaming session.

 

[Dausuul]

I want to try a sharpie silver pen and just mark them with numbers.

This is what I use, and it works beautifully. I put the numbers on the base, so they stand out and are easy to read. For minis with no room on the flat surface of the base, I mark them on the edge of the base with Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, et cetera). Be sure to make the diagonals of the Vs and Xs really diagonal--about 60 degrees off the vertical--so you can tell the difference between II and V.

You should be able to find a silver sharpie in your local Wal-Mart, Target, etc. I suggest picking up a black sharpie at the same time; that way, if your hand slips and you mess up a number, you can go back and fix it once it dries.

Do note that this will drastically reduce resale value. If that's a concern, you might want to go with Shidaku's sticky tabs instead.

 

[True_Blue]

I used to use stickers with numbers on the bottom of the miniatures, but I hated having to pick up the miniature to see the number and sometimes they would fall off.

I dont like marking on my miniatures for some reason, so i dont like to put any kind of mark where I can see it. I ended up buying a bunch of rings that fit around the bottom of the miniature from DapperDevil. I'm sure most people would rather have something less expensive, but overall I am very happy with these and they work great.

 

[vonmolkew]

I went to Litko Game Accessories (LITKO Game Accessories) and bought some thin wood bases (3mm) in both 1" squares and 2" squares. Got some high-quality white spray-paint at Home Depot and gave them a couple good coats. Then I got a permanent marker and wrote numbers on them. Being white, they hide pretty well on the white 1" graph paper I use to make my maps......then all you have to do is lift them up and see what number is underneath. All info is kept on 3x5 cards. Combat moves pretty quickly. Whole thing cost me about $20

BTW, Litko has all kinds of outstanding things to use for just about any game type. I highly recommend checking them out. Anywhere you can get custom markers made is way up there in my book!

 

[pjrake]

That's cool, thanks. We're currently using Alea markers for conditions. But will look into Litko.

-PJ

 

[Siberys]

I use alea tools, but I run out of those clay bases real fast. I've started using flatheaded pushpins instead, for plastic minis - make sure the head is REAL flat, push it through the bottom, and then trim with some pliers if necessary. They're cheaper and faster to get than the adhesive disks.

For marking which is which, I use sewing pins - the kind with the colored plastic balls at the end. Just stick 'em in the base.

Obviously, though, because of the holes in the base, this is not ideal if you don't want to damage your minis.

Of course, this is when I use minis. I absolutely love the numbered colored pogs that came with DDE - stick the alea tools adhesive base on the bloodied side and they're ready to go.

 

[karlindel]

I usually keep track of them by using different miniatures, or numbering them from left to right (and moving the hit point damage if the creatures move into a different configuration. I rarely have more than 2 or 3 of the same monster unless they are minions, in which case the hit points don't matter.

I have considered using something like these:
Micro Number Marker Set (blue): LITKO Game Accessories
Micro Number Marker Set (red): LITKO Game Accessories

I had a friend who had some metal number markers that worked fairly well, although there were problems with some miniatures where the figure took up too much of the base for the numbers to fit well.

 

[demetri0us]

Was just at Neoncon and picked up a buncha these super slick recessed bases for miniatures from dapperdevil.com

I bought several different colors for like 90 cents each in a 10 pack. A heck of a deal. They were also selling bases for tiny, small and large. I coulda dropped a ton of money there!

 

[Siberys]

I've been wondering about those dapper devil bases. Do they snap on? Adhere? Loose fit?

 

[demetri0us]

Loose fit?

Yah. That. With a little bit of variation (some minis fit tighter than others). But since the minis themselves are so light, you kind of instinctively grab the "whole thing" and move it around without putting any thought into it. It so far hasn't been noticeable to me. I suppose you could, like, glue, tape or stick something between the base and the mini to make it more "permanent", but I can't see doing that personally.