Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Tutorials => Topic started by: Hammers on 04 June 2011, 03:13:54 PM
-
uhum
-
eh?!? :(
-
How bizarre lol
cheers
James
-
Seems pretty normal for Hammers. :D
-
It's just a marker. I had to leave the keyboard in the middle of a thought and with a subject title like that, well, you know...
-
It's a telepathic topic.
If you can't see the pictures, you aren't one of the Xmen.
-
It's a telepathic topic.
If you can't see the pictures, you aren't one of the Xmen.
Exactly. So by inference: if you can see the below you're a mutant freak with rather mundane capabilities...
We here at Hammers Industries are proud to introduce a system to the public which e have been testing and developing during the last oh so many years or so. We've been calling it the miniforge for some time but our marketing department has been urging us to conceptualize the whole thing by slapping a lower case 'i' in front of it in the hope that we'll be selling off the whole shebang to venture capitalists for 19 billion dollars in a year or so.
The truth is that we, well I, quite often replace or add weapons and other details on miniatures with items crafted from brass. While pinning and brass rod banner poles conversions are common as muck among wargamers I have seen very few posts on how one makes a spade, spear, oil can, the horn of a phonograph or rope bridge with the help of brass materials and a solder.
An opportunity has risen for me to patronize you with another tutorial as I need to replace a pick axe and a shovel in a chain gang set from Brigade Games. I know there are some of you who find my tutorials long winded and self evident. What can I say? I never forgo an chance to wind Plynkes up. Plus, *someone* has to cater to those who still have their mothers tying the strings of their sneakers. Jim Hale, please let me know if it is easier for you to read if I use ALL CAPS.
Anyway here are the main tools I use for the iMiniForge system:
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/torch.JPG)
A butane powered torch and soldering iron. Or, as our French readers knows it, the gadget one uses to melt the sugar on top of the creme brulee. I use it both for soldering and to heat the brass to make it malleable. It is so to speak the very furnace of the iMiniForge. I also have an electrical soldering iron. Both variants have their advantages.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/soldernfluss.JPG)
Solder and flux. The flux, here in both paste and fluid form are used to improve adhesiveness and flow of the solder onto the metal. I prefer the paste. The tag on the bottle probably just says something uninteresting about lethal toxicity.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/secondhands.JPG)
A vice and 'second hands'. Both are vital. I have a larger vice to but this small watchmakers vice I inherited from grandpa Hammers. It has a little anvil thingy on it. You could of course use any lump of reasonably flat iron but the vice/anvil combination is very handy. The second hand thing is familiar to most people who work with soldering irons. If you don't have one you'll soon find you need one when you do this kind of work.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/hammerntongs.JPG)
Needle nose pliers, scissors, cutters, a watchmakers hammer. Wooden blocks. Pliers are needed to bend the material and to hold it, because it gets hot, hot, hot. Thin brass sheet can be cut with nail scissors, which is preferable, since the cutters tend to warp the sheet metal in ways which is less than desirable. A small hammer like this is a bit of a speciality tool but I find it hard to do without since it gives you better precision. The heads on this one are screw on and comes in different shapes and materials. The wooden blocks are of oak and cork, materials which doesn't burst into flame as easily as other types of wood.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/needlefiles.JPG)
An assortment of needle files. To shape and tidy up the brass and to remove excess solder. I also have a Dremel tool with various 'business ends' which makes some tasks a bit easier.
What else do you need...? A pot of water. Your wits about you. Good insurance against accidental fires.
To be cont...
-
Nope, still can't see anything ???
;D
Seriously though, this looks like it's going to be a cracker of a tutorial 8) I'm eagerly waiting for the next installment :)
cheers
James
-
Speaking of mutants and odd powers... Just this morning I was just thinking of emailing you to ask about the grammophone. Freaky...
-
Hmmmmmmmm. Sorry, I lost concentration and zoned out after you mentioned creme brulee. hmmmmmm creme brulee....... :-*
-
A butane powered torch and soldering iron. Or, as our French readers knows it, the gadget one uses to melt the sugar on top of the creme brulee.
Hmmmmmmmm. Sorry, I lost concentration and zoned out after you mentioned creme brulee. hmmmmmm creme brulee....... :-*
Sad that you, non-french readers, use "creme brulee" instead of "crème brûlée", because that's where all the flavor IS. ;)
Like this tutorial, french pastry is better when slowly eaten.
-
It's only because our keyboards can't make those funny signs without delving into Windows Character Map.
You French fellows get all kinds of cool hats to put on your letters, the Germans get umlauts and the Norsemen get to do funny little crossed out 'o's and shit.
Us Brits don't get nuffink but Pound signs on our keyboards, localisation-wise. And we use loads of words with accents that we nicked from you, our friends across the Channel. :)
-
It's only because our keyboards can't make those funny signs without delving into Windows Character Map.
You French fellows get all kinds of cool hats to put on your letters, the Germans get umlauts and the Norsemen get to do funny little crossed out 'o's and shit.
Us Brits don't get nuffink but Pound signs on our keyboards, localisation-wise. And we use loads of words with accents that we nicked from you, our friends across the Channel. :)
Ah but we can: Different language, similar set of funny hats and appendages, vis: candomblé, Itapoã, Antônio, calçada etc. Unfortunately if I change the keyboard settings to French my computer sounds like Sacha Distel.
-
Us Brits don't get nuffink but Pound signs on our keyboards, localisation-wise.
I've got a key with pound and dollar sign. You invaded our keyboard with you highrated exchange currency ! Better to buy miniatures on LAF though. :D
Unfortunately if I change the keyboard settings to French my computer sounds like Sacha Distel.
Only Georges Brassens should be known as a French famous singer (childrens should learn french just to understand how brilliantly he tells funny/moving or both songs). Not the illiterate (funny fact that in french :analphabète could be anal[same in english]+fat[old word for conceited]+bête[dummy]) crap that french rap/r'n'b "artist" make. (only 22 and I already think as a granny)
Hmmm, I'm quite off topic. :?
-
It's only because our keyboards can't make those funny signs without delving into Windows Character Map.
You French fellows get all kinds of cool hats to put on your letters, the Germans get umlauts and the Norsemen get to do funny little crossed out 'o's and shit.
Us Brits don't get nuffink but Pound signs on our keyboards, localisation-wise. And we use loads of words with accents that we nicked from you, our friends across the Channel. :)
View halloo! Yoicks! And all that! To the rescue...here's a link to a chart of how us proper English speakers can communicate in foreign with them folks across the Channel (or Pond, in my case!). And, at no time, do your hands leave your wrists!
http://www.typeart.com/special_characters.asp
Printed off a copy long ago and use it all the time, maybe because I can get a bit anal about spelling. :D
-
Well I would have said it sounds like Serge Gainsbourg but I've never tried feeding my computer two packets of cigarettes a day and I'm not sure Jane Birkin would agree. Now if my laptop sounded like Françoiz Breut my wife would be justified in suspecting I was having an affair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQWNB5fZQ9I
-
Will you fellows take offence if I leave the topic of linguistic fezes and bicorns and talk about soldering again? No? Well then...
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/WIPPickAxe1.JPG)
This is the 'raw' shape of a pick axe. It is basically a piece of thickish brass sheet. Roughly cut to shape with metal shears. A hole was drilled in the middle (0,8 mm). A length of 1,20mm brass rod was selected and the end filed to fit the hole where after they were soldered together.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/WIPPickAxe2.JPG)
The head was carefully filed to shape with various needle files and Dremel attachments. The files were the more useful items in this case, the Dremel is better for grinding away amounts of brass and/or polishing. A narrow beak in one end and a broadish, flat edge in the other. The handle was filed to a more oval cross cut shape with a knobbish bottom end, just the way a real pickaxe handle looks.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/WIPSpade1.JPG)
For the spade a rectangular piece of sheet metal was cut out. A 1.20 mm rod of brass rod was bent to a slight kink at the end and the end ground filed to an narrow angle where the handle was to be soldered to the blade. Solder was melted onto the blade and clamped together with the handle. An extra hands anvil is essential in this job since you basically need four hands to hold solder, iron, blade and handle all together.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/WIPSpade2.JPG)
The blade of the spade was filed to shape and the edges thinned just enough to look convincing.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/ChainGang.JPG)
Here are the items in the calloused hands of a couple of convicts.
Why did I go through all this trouble when the miniatures comes provided with cast glue on tools? Well, those flimsy things don't last very long neither on the game table nor (even less so) in storage. There may of course be other reasons for doing so...
-
Excellent! Last time I tried soldering stuff it was 20 odd years ago and I burnt a hole in my hand, time to try again I think 8)
-
That's a really cool idea! The conversions look very convincing. I should consider the same use for soldering; I've only ever used it to wire up LEDs inside of minis.
-
Excellent! Last time I tried soldering stuff it was 20 odd years ago and I burnt a hole in my hand, time to try again I think 8)
Maybe you should ask your mom to help. ;)
-
Clever stuff hammers. 8)
In times gone by weren't some mini masters made out of wire and solder?
-
Clever stuff hammers. 8)
In times gone by weren't some mini masters made out of wire and solder?
It's quite common for 54mm figs. It makes sense if they are, they will survive the moulding process better.
-
Just another quick and dirth of some other stuff I have done with solder and and brass.
(http://www.adventuregaming.tsome.com/iMiniForge/otherwork.JPG)
Left to right:
Tea trolly and Stokes mortar ( a bit simplistic), theodolite for Egyptian dig conversion, horn for a Phonograph, pickaxe, boat hook, Cricket wicket, oil can.
EDIT: I admit, they are a bit old hat since I have posted them on LAF before (the theodolite I think not). I have never posted all of them together before.
-
Nice collection 8)
That wicket deserves a Plynkes!
-
Great stuff Hammers 8)
So many applications as well :)
Have you used soft soldering for filling unsightly gaps between joints in figures, say for a crap fit between cavalry and it's mount?
In times gone by weren't some mini masters made out of wire and solder?
If I remember rightly, Tumbling Dice does his 20mm samurai in that fashion, as well as some other figures that he does :)
cheers
James
-
The theodolite and gramphone are beautiful pieces. I was an abject failure at metalwork. Whilst other 14 year olds were making scale models of the Forth Bridge and constructing altimeters and what not I was still attempting to fashion a dustpan out of sheet tin and solder. The handle fell off about five minutes after I finished it. :(
Thanks for another fine tutorial, you should make casts of those pieces and flog them to us lesser beings. Then again, you may have overcooked things in terms of what is strictly required for commercial application, quality wise . I've noticed that a number of companies seem to turn a profit by allowing random blobs of solder to hit the workshop floor, then they package them and despatch them to a credulous market.
-
Clever stuff hammers. 8)
In times gone by weren't some mini masters made out of wire and solder?
I'm maybe a little dumb whe. It comes to these matters, but how on earth does one do that?
Great tutorial btw Hammers, I'll be digging out my soldering iron again. Last time I tried soldering it was two halves of a GW eagle and ended up ruining it.
Duncan
-
I'm maybe a little dumb whe. It comes to these matters, but how on earth does one do that?
That was probably back in the day when any old vaguely bipedal blob of lead with a curvy thing on an appendage went for a Conan miniature.
-
That was probably back in the day when any old vaguely bipedal blob of lead with a curvy thing on an appendage went for a Conan miniature.
lol
-
Cool tutorial. I like to replace weapons a lot because the molded in ones always look too chunky to my eye. I mean, I know they have to work with the limits of the soft metal and all, but I still cringe at spear shafts that look like they're as big around as a Fosters can, and sword blades that are half as thick as they are wide. Haven't done a lot of brass work though.
I've made sword blades by lathing brass rod with a Dremel 'till the cross section matches the blade profile, then grinding it flat, and beveling with a needle file. Works quite well, but isn't easy.
I'm very interested in learning more about different soldering methods & materials. I don't know much about soldering. I learned to solder in a jewelry making class waaay back in the day, and the method was very different from the one I see used at lot in tutorials. I've been curious about this since every time I try to solder the "normal" way, it doesn't work, but the apparently unusual way I learned way back when does. I'm also not clear on the different types of flux, and which to use for what application.