Sorry for the lack of miniature related posts. I haven’t been able to make it out to the game store on Tuesday nights so I haven’t been getting many games in. However, I have finished up the remaining three models I have(pictured below) and will be starting the adventure of painting soon. I should also be acquiring more models in the near future. All that means is the miniature related posts will start flowing a bit more frequently =)
Onto bases!
Everyone has a different strategy on how to base their miniatures. Some will just glue them onto the plastic base provided. Other will go all out and sculpt some truly amazing things! I wanted to share my thought process and what I did for my bases.
You may have noticed from earlier posts that my minis had some additional height thanks to what they were standing on:
I wanted to add some height to my miniatures so they weren’t exactly the same height as everyone else’s minis. Plus I thought it gave them a bit of pedestal to stand on and show off a bit more. On the function side I was thinking it would easier to measure some of the minis that end up hanging over their bases a bit.
It’s pretty easy to add this element to your bases. You just need some cork:
An Exacto knife to cut the cork with, the base you want to use, a bit of a fingernail, some wood glue, and a sponge brush. You can find cork at any of your big box craft stores and should be pretty inexpensive.
First step is to cut the cork to the size of the base you want. I just lay the base right on the cork and cut around it. Your cut doesn’t have to be exact, you’ll see why in the next step. I will trace the bases next time when when I’m doing a lot of bases at once.
I have been using two “cookies” per base. I felt that was the right amount of height, but you can do however many you like. Once you have everything you need for the minis you’re making bases for you’re going to start ripping at the edges, all the way around.
To accomplish this just push your fingernail into the edge of the “cookie” and then just tear all the way around it. You won’t want to take off much, just enough to give it a rough, organic looking edge.
Do that for all of the “cookies” you made. Now you have a pile of rough “cookies” and a bunch of scrapes. I saved all my scrapes(you can see that in the earlier picture with the bag), but you don’t have to. My plan was to maybe use some for rocks or something, so I figured I might as well save it as it could be useful later on.
The next part is the most time consuming. Cork is fairly brittle so we want to harden it up a bit to stand up to being moved around the table top. First you’ll want to glue one of the “cookies” to the base. This is where the wood glue comes into play, just put a bit on the base and put the “cookie” on top. You could probably use super glue, but this seems to work fine.
Once you have the first “cookie” on all of your bases you will want to make a mixture of wood glue and water. I believe my mixture was 2 parts water to 1 part glue. This part is a work in progress since that was a bit thin for my tastes, but it worked fine. If you find a better ratio please share it with me! With a sponge brush you will want to apply a bunch of the mixture to the first layer on the base. I have been doing it until it starts to pool a bit on the top of the cork, which you can see below. It may take several dabs before it gets there.
The reason you want the mixture is cork is very porous and will absorb the glue and water. What you end up with is a hard layer of cork once everything has dried. It will be much less susceptible to breaking apart while you’re handling your minis.
Once the first layer has mostly dried you can add a dab of straight wood glue to the top of the first layer and add the second layer. The glue will keep the second layer stuck on and add to the hardening process. At this point just repeat the same process for the second layer as you did with the first layer by applying the glue mixture.
After finishing up the top layer you will want to let them sit out to dry totally. I left mine out for a day or so, but part of that was I was just busy with other stuff going on and couldn’t get back to them =) Once they are dry feel free to attach your mini however you see fit. Personally, for the larger models(warjacks) I stuck a pin into the foot and drilled all the way through the base. Then I just super glued the pin into the foot and the base. One my older models I attempted to pin the infantry feet but that didn’t go well, so this time around I just super glued them directly to the base. We shall see how that goes, if I have any problems I’ll probably end up buying a smaller set of pins and pin those in too.
There you have it! It’s more time consuming than it is difficult, but I think it adds a nice dynamic to the minis. Obviously you can do it in whatever order you want(such as painting the mini first, then attaching it). I’d love to see what you all did with your bases!
I’d be happy to answer any questions you all have.
Here is a picture of the three models I assembled while I was taking pictures for this post:
I primed right on the bases this time to try it out. Let’s see how it goes!
The Gaming Cubicle 