However, we, as wargamers, by throwing away or recycling these containers, are missing out on a valuable and effectively free commodity, namely injection-moulded multi-coloured polyethylene. Or to put it another way - plastic bottles.
The advantages of this material are that it comes in a variety of colours, shapes and translucency, is fairly robust and easily cut with a sharp hobby knife. However, it's not keen on water-based hobby paints and doesn't like glue very much, so whilst it's readily available, it seems that it may not be that useful...
Another thing that had been bothering me recently was Area of Effect templates. These are usually supplied in big-box games and are, essentially, coloured circles of cardboard. Which may perform their task admirably, but are a little boring. Whilst certain manufacturers will sell you lovingly-crafted, fancy templates for their particular game, these tend to be quite expensive.
So, utilising the specific properties of the humble plastic bottle, this is how you can make some more three-dimensional and interesting Area of Effect templates.
For this project you will need: a plastic bottle, a sharp hobby knife, a sheet of sand-paper and a self-sealing cutting mat or similar. And that's it. I personally have a Swordfish self-sealing cutting mat, which prevents me from scoring lines in my dining table and incurring the wrath of my other half. However, a recent trip to Ikea revealed that you can buy a chopping board of similar size for 45p, so when my mat gives up the ghost, this is what will replace it.
I decided to use the red bottle above, which contained a well-known brand of shampoo, to create a ring of flames. Our first task is to cut a ring from the bottle, of the requisite height. As I had decided that I wanted a standard 28mm figure to be seen through the flames, my ring was cut approximately 30mm high and looked like this:
Now, the problem with cutting a ring out of a plastic bottle is that no matter how steady you think your hand is or how carefully you've marked out the bottle, you won't cut it in a straight line. Whilst this has no real impact on the top of your scenery item, as we will see in the next step, if the bottom's not flat, it looks wrong. This is where your sandpaper comes in. Holding your ring of plastic, rub the base of the ring across the sandpaper, until it's as flat as your happy with. Due to the nature of the material, you may have to run your craft knife around the rim afterwards, to remove any errant shavings, as they have a tendency to hang on, giving the edge a 'hairy' look.
Now comes the fun part. Place your ring down on your mat and begin to cut the relevant shapes along the top of the ring. Make sure you're cutting on the inside of the ring, as trying to cut on the outside can result in the ring shooting across the table and craft knifes embedding themselves places where they really shouldn't be.
As we're creating a ring of flames, wiggly lines of various heights and complexity were cut from the top of the ring, resulting in the following;
A little cartoony looking, but suitable for superheroic skirmishes as is. I then attempted to scribe flame shapes in the exterior of the ring, which looked okay, with the intention of running a wash of either yellow or orange of the outside, which would hopefully highlight the flame effects, making the ring even better. Unfortunately, this didn't work out the way I envisaged and looked, not to put too finer point on it, shit. Evidence of this can be seen on the interior of the ring in the next picture, as I worked out that I could turn the ring inside out with a little twisting, meaning that I could hide my attempts without having to bin the finished article. The purpose of the next picture is to illustrate how you would use it in play, with Flashpoint having encircled the Wraith in a burning ring of fire...
No more arguments about whether a figure is affected by the area of effect - if they're in the ring, they take the damage, etc. Obviously, if the game you play has specific area of effect templates of a uniform size, you may find your self measuring the diameter of plastic bottles to find one the right size, but don't blame me for any funny looks you get in the supermarket.
And this was just the start. Here's a smokescreen template created from an anti-bacterial wipe container, made in exactly the same way.
Now you see the Wraith...
And now he is obscured by the smokescreen and can no longer be seen by his foes from outside.
It took me about 30 minutes to make both of the above items, so quick and simple to make, look better than cardboard circles and the materials to make them are free! Always a bonus.
Now, I just need to decide what to make with the translucent purple one and the black one...
Hope this inspires you to have a go yourself.
