The Circle of (Basing) Life

A year ago, I decided to reorganise my small wing of Persians into larger regiments, and asked Redzed to paint another dozen for me. I've finally gotten around to finishing the job, but needed to tackle the sad business of stripping the existing minis from their old (but sadly attractive and very serviceable) bases. Above is a photo of them in the process of debasing; the old bases have been soaked for 24 hours in water. Once softened, I gingerly pulled the minis off them, and salvaged the valuable tufts and even the magnets that were glued into the base. Thrifty, neh!

 

Here they are, glued onto their new bases, more densely packed than  previously and in two ranks, instead of one. You may be able to make out the holes into which I fit my magnets. Once the wood glue has dried, I'll grout, flock and tuft and the circle of (basing) life will be complete. Until the next time...

Blowing hot air

I am just finishing some bases on a couple of regiments of cavalry for Roundway Down (at Partizan in late May), and I found myself wondering whether anyone else uses their wife's hairdryer to blow away surplus flock? Also does anyone else matt varnish their finished flock? I find it comes out better in photos, that way.

Reinforcements, Temporal and Spiritual

A quick work-in-progress shot of some new Venetian elements for my Condottieri army. I'll take proper photos later, when complete.

The knights in the front are partial repaints of an old unit, with new minis mixed in. To the rear are new stradiotti, beautifully painted by Shaun Watson, and likewise some super cardinals, on the left.

These are on a crash basing programme, as I need to finish them tomorrow, to take to the To the Strongest!  tournament on Saturday as part of the Godendag event at Firestorm games in Cardiff. If you are local, please drop by and say hello!

Base camp

I realised I needed even more bases for the Salute project- here they are, something like 425-450 of the blighters. They are chamferred, magnetised and sanded to perfection, and I have spray-painted the edges so that I don't need to hand paint them, it'll save a few hours, later on. There's no point in spraying the tops brown as they are already primed and will be covered in minis and grout.

The above stands are mostly for veteran legionaries, and the below for standard and raw. I prime everything in Halfords grey, below you can see other bases before priming.

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And these are command stands, and stands for elephants and lights, and a bombard for the early Renaissance.

The bases are from my various ranges, mostly designed by myself and Ian Notter.

So I have no excuse, now, I need to get some minis on bases!

Making basing!

These are the additional bases required for my Salute game (luckily, my Numidians are already based). There are (I think) 124 of them, each of which needed the edges to be chamfered and fitted with 6-12 magnets.  They took me something like 5 weeks of evenings to do, I went through around 60 Xacto blades and a couple of fingers.

The bases at the back are from my FK&P14 range- two of them fit in a 20cm square. The bases at the front are from various other ranges and three fit in a 20cm square. Laid edge to edge, there are 10 metres worth of bases here; the reason for having so many is that both armies will be formed up four units deep across the whole width of the battlefield.

Now I just need to fill them with minis!

Fun with de-basing

I believe that only three things are certain, in life: Death, taxes and the need to re-base miniatures.

I base well over 1000 minis a year, mostly onto the very large bases I designed and use with "To the Strongest!" and "For King and Parliament." Perhaps half of these need to be stripped off old bases, first, usually the 2mm MDF bases that we have learned to love over the last decade.* Following a discussion on TMP, I thought it might be useful to describe how I do this, because I have had a lot of practice!

The steps are:

1. Find a tray with a flat bottom, a jug of water and, ideally, a stack of pennies.
2. Place the bases in the tray on a couple of pennies each (this allows water to get under the bases, and speeds the process). See pic above.
3. Carefully pour water into the tray, to bring the level of the water level with the top of the bases. If a little water goes onto the top of the bases, that's all for the good. However, should the minis be in water up to their knees (or hooves), you risk damaging their paint. See below; the water is just wetting the top of the base, but not enough to frighten the horses.

4. Leave the bases in the water for 24 hours or rather longer, especially if the bases are 3mm thick. The longer, the better results. The bases will gradually absorb water and get  thicker and thicker. Top the water level up, if necessary. A nice by-product of the process is that, after the first hour or so,  the thrifty baser can often salvage any tufts. Just remove them with a pair of tweezers (below), leave them to dry and re-use, later, with a little PVA. 

5. Give some of the minis a gentle tug, and see if they will pull off the base. If they were originally glued with wood glue, they will, most likely, come away very easily.

If, on the other hand, they were glued with superglue or UHU, you'll need to "crumble" the MDF base away (see below), and carefully trim away the remaining MDF and glue from under the individual bases with a sharp craft knife.

And there you have it; it's easier (and safer) than hacking away at dry MDF with a scalpel.

*... although theologists talk of an especially hot corner of hell, that is reserved for those who superglue minis to pennies, or, worse still, plywood.

Knights to Chalgrove!

Last night, I finally managed to finish the basing of my army for Chalgrove, the To The Strongest! World Championship, on Saturday. I've photographed all eleven units.

Above are the Famiglia Ducale Elmeti, the household of the Duke of Milan. All minis are Perrys, the above were by painted myself and Lionel Béchara, with the flags from Pete's flags on eBay. N.b. all photos will enlarge if clicked.

Here are some Italian later knights, again by Lionel, who did superb barber-shop lances.All the bases are my famous magnetic wobbly-edged BatBases.

More later knights, again from Lionel. I gave these deeper bases to protect the lances.

Above, yet more later knights, painted by Richard Hampson-Smith. The standards are for the Bande Nere; I suspect that there may not have been many (or even any) such knights, but the standards are too good not to use.

Here is Giovanni delle Bande Nere, himself, with the last (fifth) unit of later knights. Interestingly it appears that the famous black bands may only have been so-named after his untimely, cannon ball-related demise.

Mounted crossbowmen ex Richard. The various lights will likely screen the advance of the knights.

More mounted crossbowmen, ex Richard.

Even more mounted crossbowmen, ex Richard.

Metal light infantry crossbowmen, from a chap in Sweden. 

Plastic crossbowmen, ex-Richard.

Formed crossbowmen; again re-touched and re-based minis, originally painted by Richard. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with these, yet; possibly a refused flank for the knights.

My favourite unit- Venetian spearmen painted by Richard Hampson-Smith, Shaun McTague and myself. These are raw, and likely to be used to garrison the camp. I'm aware that I need to separate the tails on the flag.

Above is the army list; it's not an especially subtle army but should do well-enough in a dead-on clash. As the army is entirely newly-painted, and I've not had time to play a game since November, I am not especially optimistic about my own prospects, but I aim to have fun!

Finally, here's a bonus unit, of Bande Nere pikemen. Unfortunately I didn't have enough points to use them, this time, but I plan to add supporting arquebusiers, post-Salute. I love the grim look of them.

So there we are, all done!

Can I take this opportunity to wish safe journeys to all forty-odd players who are attending the tournament, especially the brave Belgians and Howard who is coming down from the Scottish Isles! May none of your cards be Aces (except when playing me, that is.  ;-)  ).

Italian Condotta

Here are my Italian Condotta for Chalgrove. Last night I grouted the bases, and now just need to flock and tuft them. I am tempted to replace the pikemen with some spearmen that Shaun McT is painting, and add some tents for a camp, but other than that they are mostly done, which is just as well since I'm a little behind with my Salute preparations! The bases are currently raw umber which seems like an appropriate base colour. :-)

These are on FK&P5 and FK&P6 bases; I really like these because they are a good fit for both 15cm (2 bases)  and 20cm (3 bases) grids.

Preparations for Salute

Above are the "reinforcements" for the Salute game- eight regiments of horse and six of foot - have a click! Chum Ian has been helping me to grout the bases- just 2 regiments remain ungrouted- next week comes the dreaded flockathon that precedes any show game. 

A huge thanks to everyone who has bought the "For King and Parliament" rules so far- sales are off to a storming start! By close of play today I should have all the remaining orders despatched. At one stage, I ran out of chits but I have restocked, so if you couldn't get your dash chits they are in the shop, now.

2017 Flockathon Part II

The first batch of minis are flocked and just need some more tufts, weed, flowers and a little dry brushing. I'm really chuffed with all the new Eastern light cavalry- I can start thinking about Magnesia and Carrhae, now, and one day perhaps even Guagamela.  :-)

I'm going to tuft tonight, drybrush tomorrow and aim to get onto the Numidians on Monday.

2017 Flockathon part I

With less than three weeks to go to my big Wargames Holiday Centre gig, I find myself with 700-odd minis to flock- the above are around one third of the total. I'm saving the joy of the Numidians for next week. The above include Parthians, Persians, Thracians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Goths, Successors and Spanish. Almost all are on my special 20cm irregular edged bases and half-sized bases.

For me, flocking is a multi-stage process:-

• add static grass using flockbox
• add big tufts (around 6-8 on the big bases)
• add small tufts (way too many to contemplate)
• drybrush tufts ochre
• drybrush tufts buff titanium
• add flower tufts (remembering that less is more)
• matt varnish tufts

This will keep me very busy! :-)

Ten Green Bottles...

...turn out to be highly efficient weights for holding down Batbases whilst the superglue cures, that will hold the magnets in place.

They will also provide a useful lubricant for the baser, later today during the basing process.   :-)

Rebasathon II - Not a tray bake!

The Great Numidian Rebasathon continues apace. Above I've partially based 24 out of a required 40 stands. Each pair of stands will join together along the long edge to form a unit of ten light horse or eighteen light infantry - when complete, there will be around 300 "light"miniatures in this army. Most of the stands have been grouted.

Above is a close up of one of the units. The light cavalry will all be circling, and there will be quite a few casualty miniatures dotted around on the bases. My new large bases allow for very dynamic basing styles. The brown areas of the bases will need to be painted, of course. There's also a good amount of retouching to do, as well,  as I once dropped a couple of boxes of the cavalry and they are quite chipped. I was not amused.

Aside from the lights there will be a couple of units of militia, a couple of cohorts of imitation legionaries, half a dozen nellies and a small force of cavalry "with bridles" to provide bodyguards for the generals. Altogether, it will constitute a most unusual army that will first see the light of day at the Wargames Holiday Centre on 23rd September.

Bat basing part II

This is part II of a three piece posting on using my new irregular bat bases.  In part I I prepared the base and attached the minis.

Above I have carefully applied BigRedBatGunk to the wooden Bat Bases using a small palette knife. This is a basing compound of my own invention that is pre-coloured so that it doesn't need to be primed and which saves a heck of a lot of time.  I really need to get that into the BigRedBatShop...

Below, the bases have been dry-brushed with two highlights (I use a mix of Games Workshop Steel Legion Drab and cheap Buff Titanium on all my bases).  Finally I add a wash of matt acrylic varnish with a couple of drops of Army Painter Strong Tone ink in it, to protect and add a little depth. The base is now ready for flocking (during which I'll cover up most of the lovely groundwork; go figure!).

In part III later this week I will flock the bases and then take some proper photos of the finished units. 

Bat basing part 1

With Raphia behind me (at least for the moment) I've been able to make time for another project which has been burning slowly in the background- my Perry Wars of the Roses army. 

I thought it would be useful to explain my basing system, using my new Bat Bases, which are MDF bases cut to an irregular shape with holes to fit rare earth magnets, which I use so that my minis can be safely stored and transported. The bases shown below are just a bit larger than Impetus bases and  designed so that seven can be stored in a 4L Really Useful Box.

Above, I am in the process of fitting the magnets to the bases. The easiest way of doing this is to lay the bases on waxed paper (or better still the foil parchment paper) on a steel tray. A strip of magnets can be seen on the middle bases- these drop into the holes on the bases. The bases should be weighed down with coins or similar to ensure they lie flat on the sheet. In the top picture, a dot of super glue has been applied to fix each magnet in place. The whole process takes rather less than 1 minute per base.

Once the glue has dried (allow at least half an hour) I chamfer the edges with a craft knife as above; this avoids the step one sees around most bases. It is possible to sand them, too, giving a lovely smooth edge.

Finally for today, the minis have been glued in place using PVA (Elmers glue in the US). This sets slowly and means that the minis can be moved around until a suitably aesthetically pleasing arrangement is achieved. These minis were mostly painted by Redzed, they are stunning and I'll take some proper close-ups when the basing is complete.

If you'd like to try some of the bases I have the sample pack on 25% off sale for this coming week.

Ranking-up

Above, I've been painting some additional hoplites to provide a third rank for the three Athenian units at the front of my painting tray. 

Below, I've stuck 25mm extensions onto the back of the existing unit bases using superglue- each of the finished elements will be 60mm wide by 75mm deep. Later I might also add a small extension to the front of each base because the spears currently protrude forward somewhat and it would be a good idea to protect them.

And below the new miniatures have been stuck in place using wood glue. I always use wood glue because it is slow to set and allows repositioning. Moreover, if one should ever need to re-base, the job becomes a whole lot easier!

With the three Athenian units nearing completion, my mind turns towards Thebes and also the minor states such as Sicyon, Messene and Mantinea. I am pleased to report that I have located some of the former, conveniently located in the lead mountain of one of my painter mates...  :-)

Flocking day

I've just spent two-and-a-half hours flocking minis using my Heath-Robinson static charger. At one point I "crossed the beams"; there was a terrific zapping noise, an element flew up into the air, and the distinctive smell of burning hair. I was a little more cautious after that.

This evening, once everything is dry, I plan to add tufts and other foliage.

This week I've been working on some army lists for To the Strongest!, notably Franks, with the assistance of Paul Caspell. It's been very interesting; they are an army I knew little about.  Another army for my "to do" list!  n.b. they won't be posted for a few days as they need to be checked first. 

Waste not, want not

Alongside the cavalry in my last post, were seven primed Roman archers. I'm using these to complete two more units, one each of Eastern and one of Western auxiliaries, giving me a (somewhat excessive) seven units, of which 4 are shown below. I'm not likely to use seven units very often, except, perhaps, in a big siege, or an invasion of Persia...

I'm also taking the opportunity to improve the basing, moving from 6x3cm bases with two minis each, to 6x5cm bases, with three. The great thing about art card bases is one can carefully separate the top layer with a sharp craft knife, so that they can be re-used. I've been able to recycle some old 6x2cm bases, by sticking them onto the edges of the 6x3's. I have also re-used all the old tufts and even some of the painted grout. When finished, I'm confident that they will look a lot better than in their previous incarnation, and probably only cost £1-£2 for materials.

A highly charged experience

This morning I took my life in my hands and fired up the static grass applicator (purchased off eBay).  This made a humming noise, reminiscent of the Proton Packs in Ghostbuster.  At one point the sieve touched the crocodile clip and there was a terrific "zap"; it was a bit like "crossing the beams!".

My modus operandi was to paint wood glue onto the base (around 50% coverage), attach the crocodile clip to the element's base, press the on button and tap the applicator against my other hand, shaking the grass onto the glue.

I found the normal 2mm grass looked a little short, and mixed in some 4mm long strands, for variety. Most of these longer strands stayed in the sieve, but enough made it through to make a difference.

So did it work?  I think so.  Quite a bit of grass is on the bases, and it seems to be fairly vertical.  I needed to apply a second coat, in places, to make the grass appear thicker, but then I always do that.  It was a faster process than using my trusty Noch puffer bottle. All in all a success!

I hope to add tufts to the bases tonight, and then spray matt tomorrow (weather permitting), to conceal the gloss left by the glue.  After that I can finally attach the finished chariots to the bases.

Basing with the Bat- Part III

This is the final part of my WS&S article on basing.  The previous parts are here and here.  Enjoy! Please also look out for my new article coming out in WS&S next week; it combines collecting, basing and the lyrics of Johnny Cash!

Advanced Basing

I find that double-depth elements can be very time consuming to base, because it is very hard to get the brush or palette knife into the narrow space between the two ranks of figures. Moreover, sometimes paint or gunk finds its way onto the finished figures, which then need retouching. Yet, as the number of miniatures I own increases, I find that I want to base more and more miniatures this way, because they are quicker to deploy from storage and move around on the table.

Above are some of the splendid Foundry/Black Tree German figures that my friend Nick Speller painted for me. I've done very little to the miniatures, aside from varnishing them, and painting the bases of the miniatures to match the eventual colour of the earth that will surround them.  I've arranged them on six 60 x 30mm magnetic bases of my own manufacture.

In the above close-up, you can see that I like to position some of the figures so that they straddle both bases; this helps to create a “crowd” look, and has practical value at a later stage. Using a variable number of miniatures on bases, as above, also helps to give a more naturalistic appearance to the finished units. 

Next, place the two bases next to each other on a magnetic surface (in this case a 60mm square steel plate), and cover each with your basing compound; then add a little extra gunk along the top of the seam  to disguise it. It will then appear something like the above; the magnetic sheets hold the bases in place whilst the gunk dries to the consistency of concrete.

Once the gunk has fully dried, the two bases can be snapped apart, as above, leaving an irregular line along the break.  The figure protruding from the rear base will ensure that the join between the bases, when re-attached, will be a strong one. I then paint the bases of the two half-elements, separately, which is much easier than trying to reach to the middle of the larger base. Once fully painted and flocked, the two pieces can carefully be re-joined together, along the edge, with superglue. 

Here's the (almost) finished base, after re-assembly. One can just make out the line of the crack between the two halves, but it is pretty effectively disguised, being very much harder to spot than a straight line would be, and will vanish entirely once a few more tufts or some static grass has been applied.

In conclusion...  basing is all too often an afterthought, first considered after the minis have just been painted. A good basing scheme really sets an army off, and this is best achieved by planning the look for the entire army at the outset and using consistent methods and materials across all its units, as it is mustered. I always reckon that figures look twice as good as previously, after they have been based, so am always prepared to invest plenty of time to get it right!

I do hope you enjoyed these pieces!  If you have any questions, please email me at the address above, or leave a comment, and I’ll come back to you.