Sharpie makes two versions of these paint pens. (And they are actually paint, not ink. They’ll write on just about any surface you can paint.) One is water-based, and the other is oil-based. I use only the oil-based version for a couple of reasons. First, I’m not sure I want to put water-based paint on cardboard! I certainly would not do it without testing first. I haven’t yet found a color I wanted that was only available in the water-based version.
Second, one of the things I was hoping to accomplish was to protect the edges of the tokens. In X-Wing and other games, these tokens spend a lot of time being picked up and put down. The edges get quite a bit of wear, not to mention oils (and Cheetos dust) from your fingers. 😉 I felt that once the oil-based paint dried, it would provide a much more durable surface. Essentially it would seal the cardboard inside of the token.
The pens last a long time. I did eventually run out of black, but that was primarily because my older son decided to paint over the gold trim on his football cleats and try to make them black. Oh, and the soles too! 😯 Even when the black was almost dead I found a use for it. When I painted the helpless survivor tokens from “Dead of Winter” I just used black. When I did the zombies, I used red. But the red was too much. I got the idea to go back over the red with the nearly dry black paint pen and the results came out fantastic.
I’m not sure how well it shows up for you in that picture, but I really like it.
One note about the process which is optional but I have started doing it. If you get some Emory boards (or softer sandpaper might work) you can clean up the edges of your tokens before you paint them. Tokens usually have little “boogers” on the edges where they were originally attached to the sheets of cardboard. I have tried to show that in the slide show below but the close-up pictures didn’t turn out great. I will frequently use an Emory board to remove those imperfections before I paint.
X-Wing Focus Token Edge
Finally, as I mentioned earlier, the pens are good for more than cardboard! Remember I said they’re paint, and they’ll go on anything (even shoes). I used them to paint the sides of the cardboard tokens for Mysterium. But I also used them to paint the base of the plastic crystal ball as well. The slideshow below shows the results.
Mysterium Yellow Tokens - Painted
The results shown on the crystal balls required just one coat. I have two black paint pens; one is thicker and the other a finer point pen. I used the finer version for the crystal balls. I think even the black crystal ball looks great because the ball (which I did not paint) has a different shade from the base.
I buy my pens at a local hobby store that regularly offers 40% off coupons, so these are not expensive. They are also available at Amazon and likely other online retailers. You can buy them in a package with multiple pens (that’s how I got a pink one) or as individual pens. They come in standard colors or metallic. (I used the silver metallic for the food tokens from Dead of Winter.)
It’s a cheap (from a dollar perspective) way to “bling out” your games. It does take some time (how much depends on how much of a perfectionist you are) but that’s an investment you can control. I’ve added affiliate links below (meaning I get a small commission if you click through) to three different packages currently offered at Amazon.
