Lights and Shapes board

[Hatchorder]

Hi everyone,

Can someone point me in the right direction. When I was a cadet we all used lights and shapes boards. They were a rectangular metal plate, black one side and white the other, about 12 inches long by 8 inches high mounted on a wooden block. On the black side we had lots of red, white, green and yellow 5mm dots for lights, and on the other side were black shapes. Practicing lights and shapes was easy, you could all move them around and see things from every angle until you could do them in your sleep.

My son is due back from his first trip and I want to help him with lights and shapes as part of his rules training, but I have looked everywhere to buy one of these but cannot find them anywhere. I can find magnetic dots in red, green, white and yellow, as well as black magnetic rectangles to make shapes out of. I can get a friend to make a thin steel plate and then paint both sides and mount it on a strip of wood and make my own, but in reality I would like to buy one as a complete thing.

If I have to, I will make one and then post pictures of it up here to show you what I mean, but does anyone have one, seen one, use one or know where to buy one from? I have searched high and low on the internet, but maybe I am just using the wrong words to search for!

Thanks

Ian

[IFHP]

Hi Ian,

I know exactly what you mean, we had them at college when I was a cadet however I have not seen them anywhere to buy.

I only ever used it in college for orals prep but when doing work at home I used the flip cards from Kelvin Hughes which do the job just as well.

[YoungMariner]

All of the smartie boards I've seen are home made exactly how you describe, even in the MCA. Niche business idea?

[Hatchorder]

...... Niche business idea?

That was what I was thinking! Will try and work out a cost to make one I think...

[YoungMariner]

Match it with the wooden boats and dowling to put shapes on and you've really cracked it.

[Lewis]

my last ship try to find one to order and couldn't ended up improvising with something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magnet-Expert-Ltd-Planning-Magnets/dp/B00BFUBI0A/ref=pd_sim_diy_12

And a small sheet of steel "borrowed" from the engine room

[Steve]

but does anyone have one, seen one, use one or know where to buy one from?

All RFAs were issued with them about 10 years ago as part of a cadet training kit that includes buoys and model ships. I cannot imagine that they were homemade.

I think this is almost what you want, apart from orientation: http://www.katom.com/166-ELEMME.html