Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => VSF Adventures => Topic started by: Dochejed on March 07, 2018, 08:01:48 PM
-
I’m painting some RAFM Space 1889 figures to use as crew on Crossover’s fantastic flyers. At some point I would also like to use them in some ground combat games. So here are my options:
1) Do my traditional basing of sand and grass tufts on a metal washer. It’s easy, and they’d look fine on the battlefield, but they’d be dragging a pile of sand and grass around with them on the flyer.
2) Grind the metal bases off the figures and pin them to some resin wooden planking bases. They would look great on the flyers but it’s more work and they would be tramping around the battlefield on wooden boards.
Just formulating the question makes me realize I prefer 2, but what do others think? Or is there an option I haven’t considered?
-
Clear acrylic bases? They seem de rigeur at the moment and would mean that your figures look ok on both the flyers and the ground.
-
Ahh, that’s a good one, hadn’t considered clear acrylic. Can’t say I ever liked the look but in this case it may be the best look.
-
What I am concerned with is not the bases, but how to keep the figures from moving when the ship is moved.
-
Hmmm, I hadn’t considered slippage either. I think metal figures on a metal washer wouldn’t slip around that much. If I used resin bases a circle of felt on the bottom might keep them from slipping. But I’d worry about clear acrylic bases slipping. In the end it might depend on how smoothly the flyers move on the table. They’re on acrylic bases so they may move smoothly but now I’m going to have to test that out.
-
How about just sand that's a colour between the board and deck?
-
Yes plain sand is a good idea too, it would look unobtrusive in both settings.
-
I have been mounting all my pulp figures on clear bases. It really is not that hard, cut the old base off, a few seconds on the disk sander and touch up with a file. I pin 1 foot with a piece of brass to support the figure in a wine cork while painting. Cut it short drill a hole in the clear base and glue figure down. All in all it does not take me much more time than gluing on a regular base, and adding sand etc.
The one thing I did not like about the clear bases is the light magnification effect of the edge of clear acrylic on the edge. or the none perfect edge on the bases that I have. I found that if I use a fine to clean up the edge of the clear base if leaves a frosted look on the edge and I do not get the light magnification effect on the base. They still blend just fine with everything, and my figures look at home on grass or in terrain.
Dale
-
Dale, do you have any photos of your figures on clear bases?
-
How are you (Are you) painting the flyers?
Would matte on the deck make slippage less likely?
Doug
-
The deck will be painted but I'm not sure about a matte coating yet, I'll have to test that out on some scraps. But for the rules I'm using, based on Blood and Plunder, the deck is divided into areas and the exact placement of the figure in the area doesn't matter. So slippage shouldn't be that much if a problem.
-
I've been doing a bit of online research on clear bases and much to my surprise my opinion of them is improving. I realized the main thing I don't like is the shineyness and on the Sally 4th website they say you can use matte spray to cut the shineyness. But it seems like that would make them foggy. Has anyone tried matte spray on clear acrylic?
-
Thats something I never get around to :-(
Nothing special on the paint jobs on these, they were a quick paint for a game, but do show the bases.
The edges of the bases frosted with a flat to smooth out and I leave them frosted.
The bases are Litco 1.5mm 25mm bases.
(http://www.wentztech.com/webdav/Photos/Gaming/ChicagoWay01.jpeg)
(http://www.wentztech.com/webdav/Photos/Gaming/ChicagoWay02.jpeg)
Dale
-
Thanks fir the photos. The figures look great. And filing the edges definitely cuts down the shineyness of the bases. I like it. Have you tried a matte spray on the tops of the bases as Sally 4th suggests?
-
NO I have not tried that, I have not really noticed the shinny tops of the bases being that noticeable during game play, only really notice it in the photos.
Dale
-
I don't know if this helps but I am now using thin plastic bases obtained from the packs the minis come in and other packaging?
(https://i.imgur.com/Od7nstX.jpg)
I use a 1" punch and a small hammer as the punch is not really built for plastic.
Vagabond uses them in this post and it made me change to this method:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=107388.0 (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=107388.0)
-
I wondered about that - if the shineyness looked worse in photos than in real life. And those really thin bases from plastic packaging look good too. Ok, that settles it, now ordering bases from litko and digging through the junk pile for packaging so I can compare the two.
Thanks everyone for the great suggestions.
-
A late reply but I went with mdf bases with green stuff planking. Though I like the clear bases idea, but I've reserved those I have for some Sci-Fi stuff in the future.
-
Another call out for clear acrylic bases! I use them for Shadows of Brimstone, and they look great during the game. The "shininess" is much more noticeable in photos.
-
That's great to hear. I've got the clear bases on order from Litko.
-
Is there some kind of handy tutorial how to base a model on clear plastic?
I've been making bases with thick turf to hide the lump of metal between the feet of figures as I don't know how to remove it without damaging the detail, but I can see the advantage of using clear plastic if I can figure out how.
-
Andy,
I used a dremel with a metal disc cutter on it and a vice in the shed and just chopped those big old bases right off but very carefully :`
Glen
-
I used a heavy clipper (actually a ‘rail nipper’ from the model railroad shop) to trim off the base around the feet, and then a sanding disk in my Dremel tool to grind down the thickness of the base under the feet. I was expecting it to be an ordeal but it was surprisingly easy. I have done it so far for some RAFM Space 1889 British and some Wargames Foundry naval crew, and in both cases the metal was much softer than I expected. I did accidentally trim off a bit of some toes in the beginning before I got the hang of it, but I can always fix that with a little bit of green stuff if I need to. Grinding down the base under the feet was a little trickier since you want both feet to sit level on the ground, so you just have to grind a bit, stand the figure up on a level surface to see how it sits, and repeat until you have it right. The worst thing that will happen is if you grind too much and the feet start to look a little thin, but again that’s fixable with a shim of thin plastic sheet if necessary. I don’t actually have any of the figures mounted on the plastic bases yet (don’t have the figures painted yet) but from what I can see I’m not expecting to have to do much repair of my mistakes, I just don’t think they will be that obvious in the end.
-
Useful information, thanks. I've already got some 'rail clippers' and never found them to be a lot of use on rails so it'll be good to get my moneys worth.
Of course now I've made bases for all the figures I'm currently painting, so it'll have to wait for the next set. Such is life...
-
We switched to using our own clear bases several years ago, and I have been really happy with them.
Over 90% of our figures on based on 20mm clear bases, but I still use a few larger sizes sometimes...
(http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o665/pulpalley/AAR/2018LOLO0214_115032%20copy_zps73wftkeb.jpg) (http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/pulpalley/media/AAR/2018LOLO0214_115032%20copy_zps73wftkeb.jpg.html)
(http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o665/pulpalley/AAR/100_9838_zps7b8310c0.jpg) (http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/pulpalley/media/AAR/100_9838_zps7b8310c0.jpg.html)
(http://i1337.photobucket.com/albums/o665/pulpalley/AAR/Betty%20vs%20the%20horror/IMG_1150_zpsepey7b9s.jpg) (http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/pulpalley/media/AAR/Betty%20vs%20the%20horror/IMG_1150_zpsepey7b9s.jpg.html)
-
After I started gaming Pulp Alley, I found that clear bases were the only way to go because you play in so many environments: cobblestones one week, snow-touched wastelands of Transylvania the next, the jungle of Lemuria the next, and so on.
I started with Litko 1/8" thick clear bases, then switched over to Pulp Alley's Ultra Inviso bases because of the "glow" from the edges of the Litko bases. That switchover is not fully complete, as this photo from a recent convention shows:
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/31/8164-260218234954-31576946.jpeg)
Light does reflect off any clear plastic bases occasionally, but I am otherwise highly pleased with the results.
Mike