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Unfinished wooden meeples?

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Thu, 05/26/2005 - 14:16

Vassoul

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Joined: 12/31/1969

I am looking for unfinished wooden meeples suitable for New Earth, Inc. I have found a couple sites with prospects, but they are a little too big for my tastes. I also would like them unfinished so that I can finish the other player specific wooden pieces (cubes, etc.) at the same time and have them all look the same.

For the general idea of what I am looking for, check out:

1. Product LP-5050 at Woodworks. This is an acceptable shape and unfinished, but too large at 1-1/8" x 5/8".

2. A slightly larger meeple (1-3/16" x 5/8") is available at Bear Woods. The other problem with these is that they are prefinished in colors or clearcoated.

3. A nice sized meeple is at this German supplier under "P0001a Pöppel, Halmakegel, mittel / medium pawns." They are 12 x 24 mm. In addition to tons of colors, they have one that is "natural coloured," but I am assuming that they are clear coated. I also prefer this shape over the previous two porker meeples.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other suppliers of acceptable meeples? Am I being too picky?

Thanks!

Joe

Thu, 05/26/2005 - 16:43

#1

FastLearner

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

I don't think you're being too picky, but I have searched for such for several years now and have had no luck. I have the same requirement, that the meeples and my other non-standard pieces end up identically colored, so I need the unfinished ones as well.

I have, however, been looking into getting some custom millwork done, where someone would make the meeples. It's not cheap, especially the setup, but it might be reasonable if divided among a sufficient number of designers.

Thu, 05/26/2005 - 16:52

#2

Vassoul

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

What about the prospect of buying a batch from the German supplier above (since size and shape are perfect) and stripping off the clearcoat? Does anyone have experience staining wood pieces after stripping? I wonder if the stain would take... Just a thought.

What kind of loot are we talking about with the custom meeple factory? It would be empowering to have teeming masses of perfect meeple specimines at your beck and call... (Little dash of world-domination-by-meeple-invasion humor there ;-) ).

Sun, 05/29/2005 - 14:49

#3

FastLearner

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

I've never got a quote on this, I've just used online millwork sites with rough costs estimators to get a sense of it. It appears that it would cost about $300 to get the router heads built/setup for the shape. Then something like $100 for a 10 foot long piece (probably less in quantity). I have no price for slicing those long pieces into meeples, nor for any sanding that surely occurs in there somewhere.

Mon, 05/30/2005 - 04:44

#4

zaiga

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Joined: 12/31/1969

Unfinished wooden meeples?

Take a look at this site: http://www.lorenz-holzspielwaren.de/

I ordered tons of stuff from them a while ago, including meeple-like pawns and I am very satisfied with the quality of it all. You might find what you are looking for under "Standardprogramm -> Figuren". They list "Natur" (unfinished) as one of their "Standardfarben" (standard colors). You can email them for specifics. Mention that you are a game designer looking for prototype material. I found them very helpful, and they are able to communicate in English.

Good luck!

Mon, 05/30/2005 - 07:50

#5

seo

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

zaiga wrote:

Take a look at this site: http://www.lorenz-holzspielwaren.de/

I ordered tons of stuff from them a while ago, including meeple-like pawns and I am very satisfied with the quality of it all. You might find what you are looking for under "Standardprogramm -> Figuren".
Great site! :-)

Vassoul, you will find meeples like you want under Spielesubehör/Halmakegel

Seo

Mon, 05/30/2005 - 10:10

#6

jkopena

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

Their traveling meeples page is pretty funny (though I don't understand a word of it):

http://www.lorenz-holzspielwaren.de/sites/aktuell/creativ.html

Mon, 05/30/2005 - 10:32

#7

seo

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

Sort of like the dwarf polaroids in the french movie Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. :-)

Seo

Mon, 05/30/2005 - 12:57

#8

FastLearner

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

I don't think the "natur" colored ones are unfinished. They are just "natural" color, unpainted. They still have a varnish coat on them, and so cannot be stained like the other unfinished wood components that would be part of each mini-set.

-- Matthew

Tue, 05/31/2005 - 15:16

#9

Vassoul

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Joined: 12/31/1969

Unfinished wooden meeples?

Thanks for the replies.

Zaiga, did the meeples that you ordered come clearcoated or without any finish at all?

Does anyone have any comments on stripping any clearcoat and refinishing the meeples?

Mon, 06/06/2005 - 10:52

#10

Vassoul

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

I emailed the German parts supplier about the natural pawns (since they seem to have the best meeple availability). Here is my email and their response:

My email wrote:

I have a question about your wooden pawns. When you say that you have a natural colored pawn, is there a coat of varnish or sealer of some kind on them? Or, are they unfinished wood? Do you have the ability to obtain unfinished wood pawns? Thank you for providing your services to the game design community!!

Their response wrote:

We have unfinished wood pawns in size 12x24 mm.

I am not sure on price or quantity reductions yet, but at least we know they are available somewhere. I will post more information as I discover it.

Mon, 06/06/2005 - 10:55

#11

zaiga

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Unfinished wooden meeples?

Vassoul wrote:

Thanks for the replies.

Zaiga, did the meeples that you ordered come clearcoated or without any finish at all?

Woops, didn't see this post before, sorry for the late response.

All the meeples I ordered were painted. I didn't order any "natur" meeples, so I don't know if they would have any finish on them or not.

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