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Post by arkhamresident on Aug 25, 2010 20:06:13 GMT -9
I just sprayed my first mini and found that it was a bit tricky to keep it from getting tossed around. I was wondering if I should find a way to secure it prior to spraying or if I'm just doing it wrong. First priority should probably be to do something new when fully awake. I was also wondering how many coats would be sufficient to make the paper sturdier. I did two light coats and it didn't appear to help making it any less flimsy but it did the trick as far as keeping water from soaking in. I'm using Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear www.kpg-industrial.com/products/acrylic_crystal_clear/
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Post by sammo on Aug 25, 2010 20:32:13 GMT -9
The trick (for me) to not knock them over is finding the right distance (like a foot or so away). Then I just lightly coat the miniatures.
I use Krylon matte finish. I don't think it really adds to the stiffness of the minis, so I am not sure how to help you there.
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Post by Sirrob01 on Aug 25, 2010 21:05:56 GMT -9
Blue-tak will hold them up or the no name brand equivalent.
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Post by wonderboy on Aug 26, 2010 3:33:39 GMT -9
You might try taking a scrap piece of foam board, cut a slit down the middle and place the mini(s) in the slit. This will give you a stand for spraying. The only thing that wouldn't get sprayed would be the tab, but you could do that separately.
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Post by Floyd on Aug 26, 2010 4:12:17 GMT -9
I spray the sheet of printed miniatures before building them.
~F
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Post by josedominguez on Aug 26, 2010 16:01:54 GMT -9
I mount mine on magnetic card bases, then place them on a steel ruler for sprayin, works a treat. Bases are easier to make and I like them better without the basing tab.
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Post by arkhamresident on Aug 26, 2010 16:52:41 GMT -9
What sort of infernal magicks do you employ to attach the minis to a base sans tab?
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Post by josedominguez on Aug 30, 2010 4:07:39 GMT -9
It's amazing, but, all you do is spread a line of PVA (white glue, elmers, woodwork glue). Along the edge of the mini and place it on the base. Hold for 30 seconds and that's it!
If you get thick enough glue (the woodwork type) you don't even need to hold them up. The dragon is 8" tall and holds up just fine. My bases are magnetic card, adds thickness and a bit of weight.
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Post by mruseless on Aug 31, 2010 18:08:17 GMT -9
Nice minis too!
Are those figures in the hoard? I don't remember seeing them.
Question: if you permanently attach your bases, don't you sacrifice the ability to store them flat?
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Aug 31, 2010 18:38:40 GMT -9
[quote author=mruseless board=hobby thread=2295 post=22222 t ime=1283310497]Question: if you permanently attach your bases, don't you sacrifice the ability to store them flat?[/quote]
You sure do... that's why I started making my bases out of foamcore. I discovered my wife didn't yell at me as much if I didn't have all my figures hanging out in the living room hopelessly stuck to their bases... plus, now I can switch up the bases depending on where my minis are playing... desert, grass, Mars...
onemonkeybeau
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Post by mruseless on Aug 31, 2010 19:29:39 GMT -9
Now I've got a dilemma. Do I use paper bases (with tabs) so I can change bases, and keep minis flat for storage.... Or do I permanently base them so they look better (to me), but take up more space?
I would also like to put self-adhesive magnets or "flex steel" base bottoms under the paper base so they don't blow around the table and have a more solid feel. But if I do this I almost have to permanently base the figures. Or else I have to find a way to temporarily stick the figure to the base.
Anyone worked out a good solution for this? I thought of Blue-Tack, but that seems like a lot of work to get an army ready!
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Post by josedominguez on Sept 1, 2010 4:18:07 GMT -9
Permanently fixing them means you don't have to fiddle around during games with them constantly falling out. I definately think they look lots better and the weight of a magnetic base makes them feel like figures. Additionaly, you just take them out of the box and they are ready to go.
Also, with magnetic sheet you can store them in an a4 filebox with a steel paper liner.... you can fit 100s of figures in this way as you can use all six sides, infantry on the top and bottom and larger (taller) models stuck to the sides.
And........ make movement trays by simply printing base texture onto steel paper, cut it out and there you go.
Can't beat it.
What you lose in flat storage you gain in better looking figures and no setup time.
Pick a neutral base texture and you are sorted. My flat bases are so unobtrusive that you forget they are there. I've also scaled the figures up slightly, so they are still around 30mm.
The other advantage with magnetic bases is when placing minis in awkward positions (rooftops etc..) you just clip a small magnet on the other side and it holds them in place.
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Post by mruseless on Sept 1, 2010 6:39:20 GMT -9
Excellent points! Can you post a pic of your file box? I'm having a little trouble imagining it.
I'll probably flat base the majority of my figures with magnetic base bottoms, then keep the rarely used ones un-based with some paper tabbed bases.
Seems like a good trade-off.
I tried using Blue-tack last night on some figures, but Blue-tack will not come off matte photo paper! So much for temporary! I'll just throw a glue stick in with the flat figs, and glue them to the bases as they are needed. Then I can convert them to flat bases later if I want.
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Post by josedominguez on Sept 1, 2010 7:09:03 GMT -9
THe file box is just a cardboard box with steel paper sheets glued inside it.. the figs will then stick to any surface. It works with any sturdy box
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Post by mruseless on Sept 1, 2010 11:44:31 GMT -9
Ah, I get it. For some reason I was picturing something more complicated ;D
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Post by mruseless on Sept 1, 2010 11:50:24 GMT -9
Where did you get the steel paper sheets? The ones on Litko.com are kind of pricey and seem too thick for such a simple application.
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Post by mruseless on Sept 1, 2010 16:27:58 GMT -9
My bad, the ones at Litko are only 0.020 inches thick, not too bad.
I found 1" round flexible magnets at my local Hobby Lobby, they are about .060 inches thick, which is about twice as thick as the Heavy Duty Magnetic Base Bottoms that Litko sells. I like the thicker magnets because they add more heft. But I may try some of the Litko HD ones.
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Post by josedominguez on Sept 2, 2010 3:26:51 GMT -9
I buy A4 (about US letter) magnetic paper and steel paper for about £1.40 a sheet (about 90 cents). You can print straight onto it and then cut it out to whatever shape you want. Great stuff. The magnetic paper is available all over in office supply places (for making fridge magnet business cards). I order the steel paper from a supplier in bulk so it's cheaper.
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Post by mruseless on Oct 7, 2010 17:39:59 GMT -9
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Post by labrat on Oct 7, 2010 18:21:26 GMT -9
I'm going to have to give the magnetic paper a try. It seems like a very simple solution. And it looks nice too. The foam core bases does have some advantages, but I think I would get annoyed after a while from having to put the figures into the bases every time I went to use them. I think I would be willing to sacrifice a little storage space to save me the effort.
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Post by mruseless on Oct 8, 2010 7:42:29 GMT -9
That's my ongoing dilemma. I decided to flatbase a lot of my mini's, but especially player characters, sidekicks/significant NPC's and enemies, and any other mini's that will be used a lot. The rest of them I keep in those "magnetic" photo album sheets (not really magnetic, but some kind of mild temporary adhesive with a clear plastic sheet over the top.) I was inspired by Afet's use of baseball card sheets, but I like these better because the mini's are layed out flat and easy to see. Here's a pic of the sheets. I think you can find whole photo albums of this stuff pretty cheap.
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Post by sammo on Oct 8, 2010 14:16:12 GMT -9
Using the photo album pages is a pretty slick idea, I may have to implement something like that as my paper mini collection grows. I use the clear Litko curved slot bases (discussed n this thread cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=hobby&action=display&thread=1387&page=1 to pull out and use unbased minis and they work awesome ( bit of an investment though). I do flat base a lot of minis that are either important characters or that I plan to use for specific games. The photo album/slot base option is sure to solve all of my storage problems though...especially when running games at other people's houses.
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Post by nikloveland on Oct 13, 2010 14:48:11 GMT -9
We are definitely going to have to put up a storage/protection guide! You guys have so many great ideas.
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Post by WaffleM on Oct 14, 2010 5:14:01 GMT -9
For spraying my 2D minis, I taped down a row of tabbed bases to the inside of a cardboard box lid. The tabbed bases were just a misprint due to running out of ink. So instead of throwing them away, I just folded them up, glued them together, and taped them down to the inside of the box (I didn't cut them apart like you would for individual bases). Then I just slip the unbased minis into the tabbed row and spray them all at once.
For spraying my 2.5D minis, I just use the same box lid that I use for spray adhesive. That box lid has a build up of adhesive that is just tacky enough to hold the mini in place with light sprays of acrylic. Eventually this box lid will get too tacky and it will have to be retired, but since we just moved recently cardboard box lids are bountiful.
Side note: Arkhamresident- Pie totally beats cake!
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Post by arkhamresident on Oct 15, 2010 3:26:20 GMT -9
Side note: Arkhamresident- Pie totally beats cake! You need to pop on over to the FDG forums and help me win the pie vs. cake war. I doubt they could withstand the assault of two Pennsylvanians championing the cause of pie!
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