I thought I'd share some pics of the cool objective markers I've made for my IG, as well as some fun ideas for objective markers that you could make yourself.
It doesn't take much to mark an objective in a 40K game. Poker chips, washers, dice, and GF9/GW store-bought markers all work great for showing where you have to go. But every once in a while, you'll run across someone who goes to the extra trouble of making their markers themed to their army. I'd always wanted to do this myself, but when half of your army is unpainted, it's hard to find the time to make custom markers.
Once my IG got to the point of being mostly finished though, I started thinking about making some themed markers. The final kick in the pants that got me going on them was Adepticon. Since the rules packet stipulated that you had to bring 3 of your own to the tourney. As a result of this last minute discovery, I ended up throwing together 3 markers the day before I left. The people I played all love them, so I've been working on 2 more to finish out the set.
Here it is:
I'll go through each of them in detail.
The Moonshine Barrels
This was the laziest one. The stack of barrels came from a Pegasus Hobbies terrain kit that I originally bought at Hobbytown USA. Wash, base, and paint XXX on them and you get moonshine barrels. Don't tell the Company Commissar! Oh wait, we don't have one! :)
"What's in the Box?!?!"
Best Answer: "Your [Avatar/Emperor/Etherial]'s pretty head."
The box is from another Pegasus hobbies kit. Repainted and washed with Blood Red before being based.
The Assault Cannon
Rummaging through my bits box, I came across a painted metal assault cannon that used to go on one of my old 2nd Edition Sentinels. The Guard want their assault cannons back!
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Sure, there's lots of old 2nd Edition metal IG casualty figures out there that you can buy off of eBay (or in this case trade GeekProtem for). But I've always wondered... Why would a huge, uncaring organization like the Imperial Guard give a rat's arse about a lone, wounded guardsman?
So I got the idea of painting this wounded Mordian like a naval officer or maybe converting him into a wounded Titan Pilot. But then it hit me: Why not paint him up like Grand Admiral Thrawn from the Star Wars comics and novels?
"Filthy Xenos scum! It's well worth risking an entire company of Guard to bring such a vile heretic to justice!"
After painting him, I also think that the (mid-90's) sculpt looks quite a bit like Barack Obama. I knew he was in league with daemons! ;)
The Sheep
Ah... so thematic. So... "Um, what do you lonely desert folk use them for again?".
(According to Chambers, their safe word is "Ice Cream".)
The models came off the back of a kid's farm truck toy that I found for sale at a pumpkin farm.
As For Other ideas...
Here's some more ideas for objective markers that you could make:
- A Pile of Cash/Comics
- The Tardis
- K-9
- A Dead Dr. Who (Baker of Course)
- Spock’s Torpedo Coffin from ST:III
- Genesis Device from ST:II
- Big Screen TV
- Easy Chair
- The Emperor’s [pick a body part]
- R2-D2
- Homeless Man’s Shopping Cart
- Bars of Gold
- The Loknar Orb from Heavy Metal
- The Monolith from 2001
- A Stargate DHD (With a ruined gate nearby)
- Excalibur (sword in the stone)
- A Metroid in a Jar
- Marvin the Paranoid Android
- A Rubic's Cube
- A Piggy Bank
- The Servo-Skull of Madonna (or Elvis, or Michael Jackson).
I think that your intro picture has a good idea for IG objectives - columns of colored smoke! "OK boys, the targets have been marked - go get 'em!"
ReplyDeleteI'm going to make companion cubes and red buttons from Portal.
ReplyDeleteI love it when people make effort for objective markers - for my own version of "deathwing" I have a bunch of ghostly fallen, I want to make marble statues for my GK's (legends of the GK's or something).
ReplyDeleteLove the Grand Admiral though - might have to steal that lol
For my Eldar army, I have lost Spirit Stones as my objective markers.
ReplyDeleteWhen my Dark Eldar are finished, I plan on using 5 objective markers featuring the mutilated bodies of a Guardsmen, a Space Wolf, a Blood Angel, a Grey Knight, and an Ultramarine.
My Dark Eldar will make those 5th ed Imperials bleed.
Here's my question while we are on objectives. In the BRB it states that you measure from the center of objectives. However many TOs have been stating that you measure from the corners.
ReplyDeleteOf course the easy solution is ask. However I ask whats the big difference and the issue with following the BRB? Maybe using poker chips and only making it 2" would be a better way of doing it?
Chaos/Tyranids:
ReplyDeleteA group of civilians or enemies of some sort. When captured, replace with shredded corpses.
Dark Eldar:
As above, but when captured some sort of tables, structures, etc., will have been built, and the people are hanging from the raised parts, strapped to the tables, etc.
Tau:
Not a clue. I don't really know much about them.
Eldar:
Pre-Slaaneshi books, possibly in an ancient library (the library, of course, is terrain).
Necrons:
A graveyard.
I made signs that say "Phase Line !, 2, 3 etc..." surrounded by mud and barbed wire.
ReplyDeleteMy thinking was "what could be more important to IG high command than arbitrary lines on a map!"
I do like the more goofy references though, a cluster of powerup mushrooms or a triforce would be sweet.
@Rionnay
ReplyDeleteThe BRB only states (page 91) that:
"As different objectives vary in shape and size, it is important to agree at the beginning of the game exactly where this distance will be measured from."
The competitive community has pretty much standardized on 40mm based objectives, the distance to which is measured from the edge.
Never understood where people even got the idea that objectives should be measured from the center; I've heard multiple people SAY the rulebook says so, but it absolutely doesn't.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't even make any sense. The rulebook lays out the possibility of ANYTHING being used as an objective, including terrain pieces. It would be insane trying to measure from the "center" of a piece of terrain.
Local groups tend to have their own common interpretations of the rules that nobody questions. Just ask Chambers. The guys in his area are convinced that vehicles touching a piece of area terrain get cover.
ReplyDeleteWe had some issues a few years ago between the Game Preserve players and the G2D4 players. The two groups hadn't mixed much yet, so there were local interpretations. These have since resolved themselves as the groups have mixed.
I have a set of 5 objectives I made for my Tyranids. They are 5 stages of a tyranid invasion. They turned out pretty well in my opinion.
ReplyDelete"As different objectives vary in shape and size, it is important to agree at the beginning of the game exactly where this distance will be measured from."
ReplyDeleteWow, a useful answer? Jokes aside I appreciate it.
@Rionnay
ReplyDelete???
I'm not sure how to take that.
I'd go with face value, since humor is the tone of the other posts. :)
ReplyDeleteMy objectives are still wounded Tallarn Guardsmen on 40mm bases. I have been distracted by World of Tanks too much lately...
I used to use my Combat Nurse from Hasslefree as my "Objective" since the model objectifies nurses... but she's my commissar now!
I asked him in person last night and he said he was comparing my good advice with what he usually gets in Kokomo.
ReplyDeleteContext matters bud!
The real question is why do your sheep have a safe word?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite objective markers are my five brightly painted squigs from the collectors range. The image of the the op4s fighting over what amounts to bacon makes me smile.
@SandWyrm: Folks don't seem to realize you are all Internet Famous and stuff now! Gotta post within the context of Teh Internetz!
ReplyDelete