Wednesday 25 March 2009

Grand Designs(3) - Trial Clear Figure Base

I had a spare painted fusilier figure, so I cut off the base carefully around the feet then trimmed and filed the excess from the bottom of the feet. I used a small piece of clear plastic which I chose as it wasn't too thick, a couple of dabs of super glue on the bottom of the feet and onto the base.

Below the fusilier tries out his new means of support. The edge of the base is visible but overall it looks better that the guardsman he is standing next to, not so 'clunky'. From above it looks OK, from low down it can be a bit reflective.

7 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

It looks pretty good . . . what did you think of the process?


-- Jeff

abdul666 said...

Indeed there are always moments when a painted or flocked base looks silly -when the mini is on a paved road or street, in a building, is crossing a river... To try a clear base was a very interesting approach, and the result looks quite conclusive. I suspect the clear bases will be even less conspicuous when the minis are massed in units.

littlejohn said...

Seconding Jean-Louis' comment, it would be a nice way to base a whole unit.

justMike said...

My complements. The clear base certainly looks better under a variety of conditions. It just seems like a lot of additional work. I'll be curious to know how well how well a lead mini keeps his balance with such a light base. A great look nevertheless.

Mike

Fitz-Badger said...

Interesting. Wouldn't work well for those of us using magnetic bases or magnetic movement trays, but might be fine for photographing the minis on various floors/ground.
There's a scene in the movie Ronin where Michael Lonsdale is making a diorama of a Japanese castle/battle and the minis have wires or pins coming out of their feet to plug into the "ground" (possibly into pre-drilled holes).
I've also seen where someone used small rare-earth magnets to be able to place a mini on a base or on something else (might've been a GW dwarf king on a shield?). But then you would need metal (or more magnets) on or under the floor/ground.
There are also the rare minis that can stand on their own without a base.

I have minis on green "grassy" bases, a few on smooth bases painted to look like marble floors, on sandy beach bases, on bases meant to look like water, some that I haven't based yet but should be on cobblestones.

CWT said...

I once used clear bases, and they are very good - however the weakness is in the edges, which cutting scuffs up into an unfortunate white line. I'd advise if you're basing figures in groups of several to each base, but if you base your men individually, I'd see what a mass of bases together looks like first!

Cheers,
CWT

Stryker said...

There once was a king who was a bit of a comfort-loving tyrant who demanded that his whole kingdom should be carpeted so he would never have to walk on the bare ground. He gave his servants just overnight to complete his request or they were for the chop. The servants were in despair of their lives until one bright spark had a brilliant idea – he made a pair of slippers out of carpet for the king! In the morning he presented them to his master who was thrilled that he could walk on carpet anywhere in his lands.

Perhaps carpet slippers for Leopold?