The final prep day. Yesterday worked out well as I was able to finish up my Dropzone Commander Battle Buses.
These guys will be ready to wreck face this weekend and I’m excited to see them hit the table. Dropzone Commander seems to be picking up steam with my gaming group so it’ll be great to throw a battle bus or two out there in the field. Now I need to get those con exclusive double deckers up and ready.
Thunder Road also saw the finalization of the defense turret. I had to add an acrylic base and highlight the edges to make sure the turret didn’t get lost on the board.
Thunder Road wasn’t the only thing getting some love yesterday. Loopin’ Chewie saw some action as I finished up the winner plaque- the (soon-to-be) legendary Golden Paddle.
This took a little longer than expected as I had to finish the tournament graphic (pillaging the real Loopin’ Chewie logo) and figure out how I wanted the plaque to mount and what to use to mount the custom paddle arm with. I went with simple options for both and the Golden Paddle is actually just hanging free from a hook so that the winner can remove and play with it if they choose. It likely won’t hold up to many plays (if any) as the paint will chip but it could be a cool little set piece to throw down with occasionally.
In other Loopin’ Chewie news, Rob McFadden from One Shot Manufacturing got wind of my little Gen Con tournament and asked if I wanted to use his new 6 player adaptors for prize support and play. After checking out his work, it seemed like a great fit. I received the pieces in the mail today and did some tests.
I have to say that I’m really excited about these little guys. They are small and fit absolutely perfectly to both the main motor base and the paddle arms. You do have to glue them to the base so they will stay but Rob has a tutorial on youtube here.
Apparently Rob had to switch plastic suppliers but the switch altered the color to better match the light grey base of the game. The images shown here are all of the new color and material. Rob had both kinds available to ship and aside from the color, I haven’t noticed a difference between the two.
Later today I plan on following his youtube instructions to have a set ready to play at Gen Con. If you are interested in finding out more about his Loopin’ Chewie accessory, check out his site via the link above or his Boardgamegeek store here.
That basically finishes up my prep for Thunder Road and Loopin’ Chewie. The only thing I have left is to pack up these games and get them ready to make the flight. While this may seem trivial, I’ve had game components and game boxes completely destroyed through baggage handling. Now I take the same approach packing games as I would shipping them overseas. I try to leave the original box at home since this is the first thing that usually gets torn up. Next, I’ll use shipping boxes to create rigid structures in the bag. Finally, I like to bag small/delicate components in tight baggies as that typically works as a shock absorber when components might rattle around. Bagging as many loose items as possible is a pretty standard practice for me anyway so taking it one step further to secure delicate single pieces isn’t a big deal.
samples of the 6-player adaptors for Loopin’ Chewie were provided free by One Shot Manufacturing.