Rebasing Figures

For many many (many) years now, I've based my figures using the same simple technique:

1. cover base with textured paint
2. paint base green for countryside or red-brown for town/city

Citadel dwarf on cardboard base covered with textured paint

Modern post apocalypse figure on metal washer covered with textured paint

I've never been too crazy about this, but I tend to view the base as just an irritation that has to be addressed once the figure's been painted, rather than anything more. Recently, however, my Pirates and Zombie figures have forced me to reconsider this approach.

I reckon the towns of the apocalypse will be messy, so muddy textured bases still seem appropriate. Having bought some pavement bases for my most recent figures, however, I definitely prefer them.

Latest zombie survivor on pavement base

This brings me to something of a dilemma: Should I leave my old figures on the textured paint bases, or should I rebase them on shiny new pavement/rubble strewn bases?

Part of me says to rebase. Even though a specific base type "locks" the figure in (pavement bases will look a bit silly indoors or in the countryside, whereas a generic base, while not really fitting in anywhere, also doesn't look completely out of place anywhere), it does ground (sorry) the figure. There's also scope for extra touches on the bases - litter etc., that just add that bit more.

However, the big question is: How do I remove all the gunk that's on the base without damaging the figure? There are two types of base I use: slottabases for plastics or figures that came with tabs, and washers for figures with integral bases.

Slotta bases

Metal figures are glued to the base with everything from Bostik to two-part expoxy. Clippers, however, will remove the base and getting rid of the tab shouldn't be too much trouble. Hopefully this can be done without damaging the figure too much (ideally not at all). The liberated figure would then just need pinned to a new base.

Plastic figures are just glued directly to the slottabase. I'm not sure it will be possible to remove them without damaging the paint. It may even be difficult to remove them without damaging the model, which would be A Bad Thing. I may have to accept that some of these figures will just have to remain on generic bases...

Integral metal bases

The bigger challenge is those figures with integral bases. When I based the pirates I took clippers to their bases and then filed the feet flat. I noticed, however, that the legs of the figures moved apart when I cut into the base. I suspect doing this on a painted figure would lead to cracked paint - definitely not the result I'm hoping for. My current thinking is to clip off the edges of the base, then file the rest of the base away. I'm going to try this manually first, but hopefully a drill with a grinding stone can be used to take out the bulk of the base before finishing it off with a file.

Another possibility for integral bases is to remove the textured paint, then create a new rubble strewn base around it. This would be done using filler, sand, plasticard for beams and corrugated iron etc. While this won't be appropriate for all the figures, it does at least leave the figure on its base, and on the washer, but should make the base much more interesting.

I've set up a test figure (shown below) by gluing it to a washer and adding textured paint to it. I'll leave it for a few days to dry thoroughly, then see what happens when I try and remove it. I shall report back on the results.

Scale Calculator Update

Just a quick post, as I was busy last weekend and haven't had a chance to photograph anything for a while.

I've updated the Scale Calculator program from last time.

It occurred to me that we talk about "28 mm", "54 mm" etc., rather than the corresponding 1:n scale, so I added a drop down list to each of the scale boxes with a selection of the most common scales. I also added some train scales, as some of the scenery can be useful in wargaming.

Selecting a value from the list populates the scale box with the corresponding 1:n scale. Other scales can be entered as before, but hopefully this will be useful. One thing I found during my searching is that some scales "round down" in common use. 15 mm, for example, is 1:122. There seem to be a lot of references to it as 1:100, however, so I've added both to the list. There also seem to be three versions of O scale for trains, which was news to me.

I've updated the help text and tidied the layout up a bit. I also managed to find out how to stop the iPhone from treating certain numbers as phone numbers and underlining them. I wouldn't have minded so much, but it seemed fairly random. Anyway, they're all stomped out now.

New screen layout

Hopefully this program is finished, at least for a while, and I'll get back to figure pictures next week. I'm just about finished my zombie hunters (finally) and may have found a suitable base for my 54 mm Selene from Eolith Miniatures. The base is from Voodooworx, so I'll see how it goes. I had expected to have to try and build something for that figure, so hopefully I won't have to now :-)

Did a small spot of impluse buying a couple of weeks ago. I was walking past my local SF bookshop when I spotted the Steampunk Modeller book from Sci-fi and fantasy modeller. I'm not a big fan of steampunk, but I had a quick look though it and decided to buy it (not the most difficult decision I've made this year :-)). It looks quite good, and there are plenty of techniques to explore, even if most of the models don't really do anything for me.

The only other thing happening at the moment is some cleaning and preparation of ten Mantic skeletons. I bought a whole lot of them at the end of last year, so I'm doing a small group to try to decide on colours and a general look for the army. I have some old Citadel and Grenadier skeletons, but they're in a heavily drybrushed style, so I'm probably going to do something different.

Scale Calculator

I did some sculpting a few years ago. I never produced anything I was particularly happy with, but two or three of the figures I made were ones I would have bought had I seen them in a shop, so that's always a good sign (alternatively it's similar to someone laughing at their own jokes, which is kindof sad). Anyway, I stopped largely because I ran out of inspiration (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). Recently, however, inspiration has returned, and I'm doing some background work on what will hopefully become a fully fledged project.

The plan is to do a 54 mm vampire hunter type person. I plan to use a precast head and feet (and possibly hands), as those are the parts I have most trouble with. I've had a modern military type figure awaiting conversion for some years, but the amount of work I'd have to do on it has always put me off slightly. The main stumbling block, however, has been my inability to find a 54 mm scale modern crossbow for the figure. Scratch-building has never been one of my strong suits, so the project has languished...

For whatever reason I've decided that, as I want to sculpt the figure, I should at least try and scratch-build the weapon. To this end I've spent the last few weeks finding pictures and getting details of crossbows (not from work, could be dodgy explaining that in my surfing history :-) If all goes well, I plan to try a shotgun and chainsaw next, so definitely not suitable for work!).

After finding quite a variety of measurements - bolts ranging from 14 inches to 24 inches, and crossbows up to 36 inches long, I settled on a more modest bolt size, giving an overall real life crossbow length of 28 inches. However, I now had to convert and tweak the real world measurements to 54 mm (1:32) scale. I did some of these by hand on the calculator - convert inches to mm, then scale, but reckoned this would be better done by computer.

A little while later, I had constructed a simple online program, published via googleapps. I wanted something that I could keep beside me, so it had to be accessible from my iPhone, rather than having to drag a laptop out. Some Googling later and I found the magic html tags to size my app correctly for mobile devices. It is still usable from a full size browser, just looks quite boring...

Scale Size Calculator

To use it, you just put in the actual size, select the units and new scale, then press calculate. It will also convert between scales, so you can enter, e.g. 2 mm in 1:65, select output scale of 1:32 and it'll tell you how big the part is in 1:32 (4.063 mm if you're interested). This should allow measurements to be scaled up (or down) fairly easily.

I posted this in the Lead Adventure Forum and someone suggested it would be handy to know what real life size a figure is, given its scale size, e.g. if a figure is 28 mm tall and would be 6 feet (72 inches) in real life, what scale is the figure (1:65).

I added this to the program, as shown below. Note also that I've added some help text since I took the screenshots, just in case anyone has trouble understanding the form.

Figure Scale Calculator

If you want to try them, these programs can be accessed at Scale Size Calculator and Figure Scale Calculator respectively.

Being really impatient, the thought of having to wait for the results over wifi prompted me to create an offline version. I have a Dell Axim lying about (bought it a while back, and have never really found a use for it. It just lies in the cupboard and I dig it out and recharge the battery every six months), so I have created a Windows Mobile 5 version of the software (apologies for the screenshots, they're resized clippings from the device emulator with the development SDK). I don't have a way to link to the program for upload, so not really sure why I mentioned this :-)

Scale Size Calculator

Figure Scale Calculator

I used the online version when sizing the crossbow, and I plan to use it for the other models. Normally, after I write a program, I never use it again, so hopefully this will make a nice change :-)

The actual adventures in scratch-building will be the subject of a future post, assuming I produce something usable...

Pirate Bands

I'm slowly working through my zombie survivors. However, as I'm painting them "properly", the shading and highlighting is taking forever. I wouldn't mind so much, but what little I achieve in an hour will be wiped out when I matt varnish them :-( Got to increase the contrast between base and shade/highlight!

Anyway, another of my many projects is Pirates. They're a fairly quiet side project, but a group slips onto the painting schedule occasionally. I have plenty of unpainted Pirates, mostly Foundry, Reaper and Scorpion Miniatures. To date, I've painted two bands of Foundry pirates, shown below. The first group suffer from the matt varnish effect - they were shaded and highlighted, honest. The second group don't, but that's only because I'm waiting for warmer weather before I varnish them. I'm planning to test Humbrol matt varnish on some other figures, so hopefully it'll be kinder to the paint job.

These are the Foundry Horrible Henchmen figures, and were the first group I painted. They didn't look particularly ship bound to me, so I put them on "outdoor" bases. I'm in the middle of changing my basing technique across all my figures (new paints only, I'm not mad enough to redo many hundreds of figures), as I'm not happy with the textured paint look. At the very least I need to add some static grass to the bases, just to make them a bit less bland.

The next group I painted were Henry Morgan's Crew. I clipped off the original bases and pinned them to BlackCat wooden bases. Not really crazy about the giant pistols and skulls, but I don't find them offensive enough to want to redo them :-) The next set of bases I plan to use have the wood effect as part of the base, rather than just being a base topper - and no giant hats!

Dwarf Villagers

Many many (many) moons ago, when getting to the FLGS involved dodging marauding dinosaurs, Citadel produced a range of dwarf villagers. Some of them were done for one of the campaign packs they produced (it's in the loft somewhere, but I can't remember where, or which one), others just because they could :-)

So, without further ado, some dwarf villagers, all pre-slottabase

Some general civilian types. The guy at the end has a pirate feel that I'd forgotten about. I still have (unpainted) the Dwarf Pirates that Citadel produced, so he may get press-ganged when I finally get around to painting them.

Most of the female Dwarves in my collection. Not quite sure what the ratio of female to male Dwarves is, but hopefully it's higher than that suggested by the various figure manufacturers.

Prospecting for gold's (figs 2 and 4) hungry work, which keeps the cook busy.

Innkeeper, along with a patron and a rat-catcher (should have photographed him at a bit of an angle). Not sure if the guy on stilts has height issues, or if he's testing an invention. Sadly, I suspect the former.

Recently Completed

Just a few photos of a couple of recently completed miniatures.

The first figure is a 54 mm WW2 British infantryman from the Tamiya British Infantry on Patrol box. I finished painting him early last year, but only got around to basing him a couple of weeks ago. It's the first 54 mm figure I've painted, and was done mostly as a learning exercise. It's not great, but looks okay in a dark display cabinet.

The next figure was the second 54 mm figure I started, and the third I finished :-) He was another learning exercise, but got interrupted when I had to concentrate on Blackbeard. I finally finished painting him late last year, and based him at the same time as the British figure.

The model is a Wee Friends Miniatures late imperial Roman auxiliary. It's an okay figure, but took a lot of filling at the shoulders and there were some annoying resin "blobs" on the figure, including one under his left eye that left a flat area when I removed it. I made a mess of his spear, which I cut too short, but again, early attempt, and I learned quite a few things, so overall I'm happy enough.

There are also some Pig Iron heavy weapon troopers and pirates completed, but I'll get them based and varnished before photographing them

Resolutions for 2011

Most years I sit down with a sheet of paper and jot down bullet points of my plans for the coming year. I then pin the sheet to a noticeboard and pretty much forget about it. This being the 21st century and all, I thought I'd get all hi-tech. I also hope that by putting my plans down here, I'll be less inclined to "forget" about them.

So, my gaming related plans and aspirations for 2011 are:

Painting

• Improve my painting. Kind-of a given for a painter, but worth saying. Hopefully it'll prevent me from falling into a rut and remind me to keep experimenting
• Experiment more. Try coloured washes when painting skin and armour, practise designs on clothing (borders on cloaks) and skin (tattoos), have another go at NMM etc.
  
• Learn just what the "consistency of skimmed milk" actually looks like, so I can judge when paint is properly thinned :-)
  
• Spend a bit more time looking at what colours I have available for a particular part. All too often I just grab the same paint each time, and only afterwards find a colour that might have been more interesting
• Practise blending and gradients. My transitions are still too sharp, so I'd like to smooth them out more. This may involve using retarder in the paint to slow drying and allow for wet blending. Yet another item in the experiment category
• Stay focused on the project I'm working on. I have a bad habit of starting to prepare the next project while still in the middle of the current one. This tends to split my concentration and make me want to rush the current one to get it finished (at the moment I'm actually thinking about the project after the next one, which is just not helpful)

Modelling

• Get back to converting figures. I enjoy this aspect of the hobby, but it always seems to take away painting time, so I tend to find excuses not to do it. I need to make the time to select and work on a conversion project
• Sculpting. I sculpted some figures a few years ago and want to get back to it, so I'm hoping the conversions will get me into the correct mindset . I enjoy painting, but the creation of a figure from nothing but putty and wire is equally satisfying (and infinitely more stressful, when you're as bad at it as I am). This aspiration may get converted to heavily modifying an existing figure, depending on time constraints
  

General

• Try and enjoy the hobby more. I tend to focus on the painting side, so I'm going to try and not just jump from painting project to painting project this year. The hope is to do more modelling, sculpting and gaming (possibly even exceed my total of last year's one wargame!)
• Practise with my camera and try and take better photographs. I bought my first DSLR before Christmas, so I need to learn to use it properly