Good News! Card Protectors & Standard Ship Control Panels

So this afternoon I drove out to Fantasy's Flights Game Center and picked up all the FFG's Card Protectors for the game.
I can now report that the Standard Ship Control Panel Can Handle FFG's Card Protectors. The Alternative Art Ship Panel should be able to do it as well. Since I used the same card surface area when I designed it.

The Fighter Control Panels on other hand are to small to currently handle them with the protectors.

So my future plans in the next few days is to make adjustments to all of these control panels to be able to accept card protectors. I am also going to bump up the thickness of these panels by another .5 mm - 1mm to strengthen them and allow the card to seat into this space better. Due to the added thickness of the card protector.

I may also cut out a small hole in this area to allow a person to tap/push a card out of this space for easier removal. Plus this will help cut the printing cost down.

Ship Control Panel: Pictures

More pictures of the two actual designs.

Ship Control Panels Arrived!

 

Here is a quick snap shot of both the Control Panels, printed in Purple. 

 

Over all I am extremely happy I got my measurements correctly and didn't loose them in the up-loading process. The Fighter Control panel is bang on. There is NO room available to possibly use a card protector with that control panel. The Defense Tokens fit just fine, they are secure and not so tight it causes issues with flipping them around. The finger opening is just the right size to make doing so easy. The Storm Trooper helmet stands out and adds a nice touch.

 

The Ship Control Panel is bang on as well. The Speed Dial region is deep enough and the right size so the dial rests easily in this spot. The Command Dials fit in the groove securely but not so tight to become a problem. Defense Tokens and Ship ID number are the same way as well. The Ship Card area, I built in an extra 1mm on all edges so the card does shift around a bit. However; I did this hoping it would be enough to allow the use of card protectors. I have yet to test that out yet!

 

 

The only down side is the fact these are thin. Max thickness in certain parts is only 3mm, like around the Defense Tokens, Ship ID, Command and Speed Dial's. The card area the lip around it is 2mm with about 1.5mm thickness. Over all these are very bendy because of it. They do hold their shape and lay flat but like everything else done in plastic if you bend them to much they will most certainly break. If you want to know how bendy they are put 4 ship cards on top of each other, now flex them a little.

 

The quickest fix is to increase the thickness by another 1mm which will bump up the price of these by close to $2 plus dollars, if not more. Or glue a card board like backing to them, something like card stock may work. Its not the actual card stock that will give it the rigidity but the glues used to do it will. 

Imperial Alternative Art: Ship Control Panel

Here is the Rendered shot of how the Imperial Alternative Art Control Panel will look like. This still holds the same features as the Standard Card Ship Control Panel. However; this one does feature a small tray under the Ship ID # and just to the right of the Speed Dial. This can be used for your Command Tokens if you do not want to place them in those vertical slots.
*Note: This control panel was not designed with card protectors in mind*

Again due to the size of this Control Panel, I can only over this in Black or White.

In the near Future I will do one with an Rebel icon and one with out.

Standard Card Ship Control Panel

Here is a Rendered shot of my standard card ship control panel. This panel will hold your Speed Dial, Command Dials, Standard Ship Card, Ship ID #, 4 Defense Tokens and 3 Command Tokens in the vertical slots between the defense tokens. This panel is available in many colors on Shapeways.
*Note: This control panel was not designed with card protectors in mind*

My 1st attempt at creating this sort of panel was simply just to big which meant a big price tag to print. It had a lot of the same features found in this one with exception to the ability to nest up to 4 up-grade cars into the base to help keep them from moving around to much. But it was an $35 plus print so I dropped the design for this more compact lay out.

The 4 Defense Token spots have an opening on the left side to help flip those tokens when used. These tokens will ultimately rest on top of your standard ship card. There is also a small amount of over lap, roughly 1mm, to help keep your card in place.

The Ship ID # Token also features an finger groove at the top to help remove those ID numbers. If this spot is not in use, it should be big enough to hold 1 command token.

Important: For those players that have Alternative art Ship Cards. You still can use this control panel with these cards. Because they are displayed landscape style you will of coarse have to turn this on its side to use. In doing so, the Ship ID # area is going to seem out of place because it would be on its side. If you can't live with this option, I do have an Alternative Card Ship Control Panel already designed. The down side is the Alternative Control Panel is to big to offer it in all the colors so your options are either Black or White.

Imperial Fighter: Control Panel

This is a Mock up of what the Imperial Fighter Control Panel will look like for Star Wars Armada. I have it available in multiple colors on Shapeways. This panel features a place for your Ship card and 2 Defense Tokens.
*Note: This control panel was not designed with card protectors in mind*

Imperial Fighter: Control Panel

This is a rendered shot of how the Imperial Fighter Control Panels will look. This panel features a place for 2 Ship Cards and has an trooper helmet sandwiched between the two panels. This panel is available in several colors on Shapeways.

*Note: This control panel was not designed with card protectors in mind*

Rebel Fighter: Control Panel

 

Here is another rendered shot of how the Rebel Fighter Control Panel will look. This panel features a place for your Ship Card and 2 Defense Tokens. This panel is available in several colors but I must say the red really seems to pop out at you.

*Note: This control panel was not designed with card protectors in mind*

Bounty Hunter: Control Panel

Here is a Mock up of what the Bounty Hunter Ship Control Panel will look like for Star Wars Armada. I have it available in multiple colors on Shapeways. This panel features a place for your Ship card and 2 Defense Tokens.
*Note: This control panel was not designed with card protectors in mind*