Panzer Marsch! is a great set of WWII wargaming rules, and two of the things that help it play so smoothly are the measuring sticks and templates used. Here's a list of what you are going to need for games using 15mm or larger figures:
The templates provided in the Panzer Marsch! rule book
include both Flame Thrower Templates, the Cyclic and Shotgun "Grid", and
the Side and Rear Armor Template.
While you can cut these directly from your rule book,
we don't recommend it, as there are important rules on the other side of
the page! Instead, copy these onto a clear plastic sheet. Any
copy shop (such as a Kinko's) should be able to do this for you.
Then all you need to do is cut them out!.
You will need to get some wooden dowel. You can find this at most DIY type stores, such as Home Depot. You will want it to be robust, but not to thick that you are crushing your scenery and figures during play! We recommend 3/8" diameter as being a good size, although ultimately the choice is yours.
In our town, we found it impossible to get dowel longer than 48". Fortunately, this it not much or a problem, as Panzer Marsch! only uses one dowel of greater than this length - the "A" Gun Stick, which is 60" long. For the smaller sticks, simply cut them to the desired length.
There are a couple of approaches you can take to making the "A" Stick. You can special order a dowel or even nylon rod or other similar material. This can be expensive, since most companies will not sell you a single dowel (typically you have to order dowels in units of 500 or 1000). Another option would be to just ignore the "A" stick and use your handy dandy tape measure. This is inexpensive and easy, with the only downside having to remember that the "A" stick is broken up into six 10" sections for purposes of fire - not a complicated task at all.
The other option and the one we chose (because we like having the sticks - they add an element of fun that we enjoy), was to make a 60" dowel. We did this by taking one of the 48" long dowels and 12" of scrap from one of the smaller dowels we made. Then we took a pipe join from the plumbing section of our hardware store with an inner diameter equal to the outer diameter of the dowels (in our case, 3/8"), and simply stuck the two pieces together. Easy, and quite inexpensive.
The final step to making your sticks is to mark them off into their appropriate bands. This can be as simple as using an ink pen to put hash marks along the length of the dowel, or you can paint the separate bands. The later method looks better, and can be done quickly with spray paints and simple paper masks. You can even color coordinate your range sticks so that you can tell them apart more easily!
Another option is to use colored tape to indicate the
different range bands. One of our local club members has done that,
it it came out very well, and was probably a little less labor intensive
than painting them.
To make the artillery grid, start with some wire fencing
with 1" square spacings as shown below:
Fencing
with 1" square grid pattern.
The next step is to cut it out into a 1'x1' square, making
sure that it is 12 wire "squares" across and down. After that, it
is a simple matter to cut out interior wires to make your 3x3 artillery
template, with each square being 4" across. Below is a visual example
of a completed Artillery Template.
Completed
Artillery Template
You can see in the photo above where we trimmed the individual
wires away to make the larger squares which compose the Template.
If you don't trim the wires any closer than this, then you will want to
be careful when using to make sure you don't prick or cut yourself on them!
Note that you will want to get about 2' (width) of the
wire fencing. This will be enough to make both the Artillery Template
and the HMG Grid. Don't worry - this stuff is cheap, and can be found
at any DIY store.
The next step will be to bend it into it's appropriate
shape. Refer to the Panzer Marsch! book for details. You can
connect the two open ends of your basically triangular shaped Grid with
a wire connector - another inexpensive item found at any DIY or hardware
store. Then it's a simple matter to color code the three different
range bands of the Grid!
Remember, if you don't trim the wires cleanly, you need
to be careful when using the Grid to make sure you don't poke or cut yourself!