Upgrading your cardboard tokens, Part 2

Once you have bought or collected all your equipment, you’re ready to begin! Please follow these steps carefully. Unless the text states otherwise, you need to wait until the substance has dried or cured thoroughly before continuing. Also, please be responsible when disposing of any spilled resin or tissue paper you used to clean any equipment.

We described all the steps you need to follow beforehand in Part 1, which you can read over here.

Step 1: Decide which tokens to use

One batch of resin (around 10 ml total) usually covers around 30-50 smallish tokens, so you could do several games at once. By “smallish”, I mean tokens that are around 2-3 cm across. The larger your tokens, the fewer the resin will cover.

Step 2: Prepare the tokens

This is the most tedious part of the entire process. As a sub-step, find some good music to bop to while doing this. I recommend Queen’s Greatest Hits, but you find whatever suits you. Otherwise, find a good podcast. (We recommend Nerdverse Unshuffled. –Ed.)

First, lay out your silicone mat on the work surface and ensure it’s as flat as you can make it.

Find the tokens with the most egregious sprues and use the craft knife to gently cut these off and make their edges cleaner. It doesn’t have to be perfect, so only the worst offenders need to get the knife.

Once most of your tokens are clean, you need to apply two (2) coats of podge to everything you plan to ‘resinate’ this session. The reason you need to do this is to protect the integrity of the cardboard coating and the inkwork. Podge is water-based, but it doesn’t seem to affect the token much beyond improving some of the colour depth.

For the sake of showing you what I mean, I’ve prepared and applied resin to two otherwise identical tokens. The only difference in the end product is that one had podge applied to it, and one didn’t. For the sake of contrast, I’ve also included a picture of a pre-resin token as well. (In case you were wondering, the original is at top, the unpodged token is lower left, and the podged token is lower right. Note the discoloration in the unpodged token.)

Pour about 2 to 3 ml of podge into the shallow container; a jar lid, or you could do what I do and use an old sushi soy sauce dish. Then, using the paintbrush, apply long, even strokes to the token. Don’t dab the podge on. Podge dries clear, but try not to dollop either. You want a fairly smooth finish by the end. A little podge goes a long way. Try to ensure everyone gets a nice, even coat.

Going through about 40 to 50 tokens is usually enough time for the first lot to have dried by the time you reach the end. If not, give it a good 15 minutes or so more to dry. Once dry, apply a second coat of podge at right-angles to the first coat, and let that dry.

Then you flip the tokens over and do the same with the other side.

It is very important (read: imperative) that you also apply two, even three coats to the rim of the token where the exposed cardboard is. If you don’t, the resin will seep into the edge of the token and cause discolorations. Then you leave it all for about an hour to dry. Go make a sandwich or something, or play a short solo game. Or watch an episode of something on TV. (Or listen to a podcast episode!) Either way, once you’ve eaten, or beaten, or watched, the tokens will be ready for the next step.

Step 3: Mix the resin

Don the gloves and mask. Getting polymer resin on your hands or in your lungs is not fun. Ensure you use your PPEs*, folks! (*Personal Protective Equipment.) Safety lesson over.

I specified a silicone mat for this project because resin is a fantastic substance; it sticks to just about any surface you can think of. One of the very few exceptions is silicone. Trust me, I ruined a batch of early test tokens by using a sheet of styrofoam instead. So don’t cheap out here and think a sheet of cardboard or whatever you have lying around the house is going to work — unless that happens to be a silicone mat.

Two parts resin is usually mixed in a 1:1 ratio of resin to hardener, but brands may differ so check the instructions. Syringes ensure the amounts of resin to hardener are roughly the same. Resin can take some tolerance here and there, but try to be as even as you can. Before I used three individual syringes, I tried eyeballing the amounts. This led to tacky, sticky tokens that didn’t quite set and remained sticky for months. Use the syringes.

Mark which syringe you use for the resin and which for the hardener. You do not want to get the two mixed up.

Squirt the contents of both syringes into a cup, grab a stirring stick and start mixing. You will get some air into the mix as you stir. Make sure you mix thoroughly because an uneven mix will once again result in tacky and sticky messes that don’t harden properly. A good two to three minutes of mixing should do the trick, and ensure you scrape down the sides every so often.

Step 4: Apply the resin

Grab the third syringe and suck in all that good resin from the mixing cup. (I use a 10 ml one but I also have a 20 ml one for larger projects.) You now have around 45-60 minutes to get all that resin onto the tokens. This is plenty of time: I usually finish this step in around 20 minutes or so.

Squeeze a blob of resin onto each token. Be careful to ensure that similar tokens receive similar amounts of resin. The syringe has a measure on the side, but I seldom use it because I can never watch the gauge and the tip of the syringe at the same time. You’ll want far less than the entire width of the token, because resin spreads as it settles. This is one of those things that practise will teach you. I was a little overzealous with the amount of resin I used for my first few sets of tokens. One of the horrible side effects of too much resin on a token is that you can break the surface tension along the side and then the resin spills down. If this happens, use the toothpick to push the token out of the way of the spill to a clean section and continue to work.

Once you’ve applied resin to every token, judge for yourself which ones can use a little more, or whether you have enough for another set of tokens. Try not to avoud this. Rather make too little resin and then judge how much more you’ll need than make too much and waste the extra. Oh, and importantly, don’t mix the syringes used for the resin bottle and the hardener bottle and don’t even let them touch! If you make a bit extra, try to note how much you made in total because you’ll need that number for when we do the other side.

Use the toothpick to help push the resin into corners and to the edges of the tokens. Try not to break the surface tension because then you get a spill-over. As you spread the resin out, also try to push out or pop any bubbles, but don’t worry too much about these because we’re about to deal with them.

Once you are happy with the coverage, grab the lighter. You’re literally going to lick a flame over the resin for a second to pop any large, stubborn bubbles. Don’t worry about burning your token — the podge will keep it protected. Remember, it’s a quick flit and move onto the next token. Too much heat and — you guessed it, spill-over.

Step 5: Wait while the resin cures

Cover the now-resined tokens with the box. This protects the tokens from dust, cat hair, human hair, detritus, small fascist states, etc. Removing such detritus from the resin once it’s curing is the devil’s own work and you’re more likely to ruin the token than remove the dirt. If anything has fallen in now, it’s still safe to remove with the toothpick while the mixture is still fairly liquid.

Give the resin about 20 minutes to half an hour, and then go check on it. This is the crucial period: if there’s going to be an unforeseen spill-over, it will happen now while the resin is still spreading and settling on the token. If that has happened, move the token out the way now rather than later on, when the resin has cured to a point. Leave any spilled resin on the mat. We’ll deal with it in the next step.

Now would be a very good time to clean off the syringes, stirrers, cups, etc., with paper towel or toilet tissue. Use separate pieces of paper for each smaller syringe. You don’t want to accidentally mix some hardener into the resin or vice versa. Ensure you clean out the nozzle of the larger syringe because once that hardens, the syringe is more or less useless. Once that’s done, peel off the gloves (you can reuse these as well as the syringes, etc.) and dispose of the tissue.

After an hour, check the tokens one last time. You still have a window to burn off any last bubbles and remove any last dust motes now. Then do not touch it for the next 24 to 48 hours. Most polymer resin is touch-dry by the 24-hour mark, and cured by 48 hours. You can move onto the next step after 24 hours if you are impatient.

Step 6: Flip the tokens

It’s been 48 hours (or 24 if you’re impatient), so now it’s time to start the second side. Take the box off and flip the tokens. Peel any spilled resin off the silicone mat and dispose of it.

Steps 7 to 9: Repeat steps 3 to 5

Step 10: Finish the tokens

It’s been roughly 96 hours (or 48 if you’re not the waiting kind), and your tokens are almost ready. It’s time to grab those felt-tipped pens (or permanent marker), and colour the edges. The best thing is to match the colours of the token as closely as possible. However, a black trim always looks professional. Give the ink about 10 minutes to dry, and you’re done! Do this step at the end because if you apply the ink before applying the resin, you get bleeding. This ruins the artwork on the token. (Yes, this bleeding occurs even if you add podge over the ink. Yes, I’m speaking from personal experience.)

Enjoy playing with your new, funky resin tokens!