Monday, January 12, 2009

C4 Unleashed!

This is a pretty empty Plano tackle box. In the past few days I've been putting the C4 Corner Cutter through its paces to fill up a Plano or two. Now I should have gone to my Beyond Valor's 14 counter sheets but I decided on the slighty easier to approach counters in The Devil's Cauldron (TDC being the first in the Grand Tactical Series from MMP -- it's a huge monster game with a bajillion counters but some very approachable rules). TDC has all 5/8" counters (or larger) and I felt a little more comfortable with this size just to start.

Here's a sample of a counter sheet to C4 to clipped counter stack. First start with a few rows of related counters like the EVENT ones from TDC.

Grab yer trusty Xacto hobby knife and separate your counters by rows. (You don't actually "punch" them out do you?!)

Here's a few rows getting stacked and prepped for their trip into the C4.


Note the switch from sharp pointy Xacto blade to flat, chisel-tip!


Above is a stack of counters in the C4 with the "snugger" on the opposite side of the cutting end. The snugger helps you keep the whole stack even when your blade zips through them.


Voila! The stack is transformed into a clipped stack of counters and a small pile of very neat triangular bits suitable for kindling!

Here's what the contraption with blade looks like in action. Thanks to wifey for taking the action pics. Note the awesome cutting skillz. That's right, skills with a Z. The blade makes a super cool and very very satisfying "zzzzzzzippppppp" sound as you chunk the counters.

Here's a side view of the action. Again, note the mad skillz. Mad, yo!

And here's a close-up of my cuticles and semi-awesome manicure. Wow! You thought the Prawn had nice hands...


Not content to just clip a couple of stacks, here's the 82nd Airborne lining up for a C4 crew cut. How long would this take a regular non-C4 clip? Probably longer than the actual Operation Market Garden. However, with the C4 I was done in about 15 minutes and I was pretty sure 95% of the clips were exactly the same and even.

Here's the 82nd Airborne hanging out with the 1st Airborne. Note the COOOL clippings.

Here's another Plano full of information marker counters (and the large activation chits this game is famous for).

All that's left is the clean up. I use a slighty tacky sticky paper thingy to quickly sweep up the bits and then chuck it into the trash.

Counter clipping, surely the hobby of the damned! Next up? Beyond Valor's 50 hojillion 1/2" counters!!!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

A thing of beauty. I love the smell of counter clippings in the morning.

scrub said...

I went on a massive binge today and finished all the counters for The Devil's Cauldron. I wish I took a picture of the frickin' pile of corner bits. It was ridiculous.

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

I found this blog while googling the C4 counter clipper following a recommendation from Kai Jensen over at the BGG. I've decided to follow it - the blog that is, although I was impressed by your review of the C4 counter clipper.

BTW, I think you need to do something with your title, its colour at least. As it is right it gets lost in the detail of your otherwise excellent background pic. Hope this helps.

cheers,
John ;)

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

That should've been "as it is right NOW" in my previous comment. ;)

scrub said...

Hi John,

Thanks for the comments. Yeah, I was actually pondering a change to the stupid masthead last night but didn't have the mental energy to figure it out.

Funny thing about CCP and CCE. I have NOT clipped those counters because I found that they were die cut either really really well or the stubs were in the middle of the counters and I didn't need to touch the corners at all.

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

CC: to clip or not to clip?
I'd noticed that some CC counters were going to need clipping (it was the larger ones IIRC, whose burrs in particular were going to snag in a way that would irritatingly negate the satisfaction of the larger hexes), and I ended up clipping the whole lot for the sake of uniformity. Then I realised that I actually prefer the look of neatly clipped counters. So I think I'll be investing in that C4 quite soon! ;)

scrub said...

Counter-clipping is not a crime! I am not an animal!!!

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

Scrub? I'm holding you personally responsible, and I'm telling the world! ;)

scrub said...

Eggscellent!!!

Anonymous said...

How often do you need to replace the blades on the Exacto knife?

Thanks!

Mark

scrub said...

I don't believe I've ever changed the chisel blade -- and I've gone through LOTS of counters with no appreciable loss in cutting power.

Anonymous said...

You don't need to use an x-acto to cut your counters out. A heavy pair of scissors is much faster and gives just as clean a result.

scrub said...

Well.... to be honest, you don't need a C4 either but heck it's fun.