Multipurpose Basing Done the Right Way!

Time to pop in for another blog update I thought to myself this morning.

I had been looking at the new Splintered Light Druid’s Children minis recently and thinking – man I really want these guys. They conjure up images of Redwall and Mouse Guard, but I was even more excited when I heard about a supplement being written for Song of Blades and Heroes specifically for these models – awesome!

I also thought how cool would they be in Mighty Armies, HOTT or Fantasy Rules! This brought me back to multi purpose basing again. My last attempt at it was ok, but too time consuming. I also found that the putty I used began to flake with the constant removing and replacing of models. They weren’t practical for longevity.

So I went down to the local Mitre 10 and asked around. After about a total of 6 minutes, I was walking out with some holesaws of various sizes. Now these weren’t the cheapest things I’ve ever bought, but well worth it if you’re going to be doing a lot of multibase stuff. A 20mm was perfect for the washers I use for basing my 15mm stuff. The 25mm one will be perfect for both basing 28mm models and 15mm cavalry. I intend to get a 40mm one for monsters as well – the system works that well that I intend to make bases for my 28mm stuff too.

Next, I grabbed a base and marked out some circles using spare washers that I use for basing 15mm. You could put as many as you want on – being sure to leave some space between so you don’t split the wood. I have tried this on 80mmx40mm bases and 80mmx80mm bases.

The demonstration is on 80mmx80mm bases simply because I liked how this one came out

Next, I attached the drill bit and used a work station to drill the holes halfway through the wood. Then I flipped and drilled through the rest. Its easy to keep your place because the bit shown above actually screws onto an actual drill bit, so you have the small hole in the middle to guide you. I did it this way after several bases came out with quite a bit of splintering around the edge. Doing it this way helps to stop this.

After some quick sanding (all of 5 seconds on each hole), I spread some PVA glue on the underside (not too much) and place it on top of another undrilled base. I made sure that the grains went in opposite directions to avoid warping. Then I just chucked some cheap hand clamps on each edge and left it for 30 mins. I had a set of 8 clamps, so I have two bases going at once and I just did some over the course of the day.

After half an hour, I just take the clamps off and use a stanley knife to trim the excess glue from around the edge of the base. The extra glue in the base holes can be removed with a toothpick or other small implement and will take all of 20 seconds for the whole base.

The next step was to paint them black and the flock them. It sounds like a long process, but in reality its quite quick. You just set a few up and come back to them later in the day. I have been able to whip up quite a number in very short time. The great thing is that you can drill the holes wherever you want to provide an interesting display for your models rather than packing them in on a base. I prefer this new method, but I know your milage may vary. If you do try this, please let me know how it goes – I’d love to see how your bases come out!

Remember, you can click on any of the images to view them at a larger size!

- Ben.

Project Update

G’day,

This is just a very short update today as I’m flat out at the moment. (I thought holidays were meant to be quiet and relaxing! )

Twilight (Dusk now)

I am in the process of organising all the rules that I have for Twilight into a logical order. My plan is to use a standard scenario to test the first two tribes extensively and then add one tribe at a time, making sure they are balanced against each other. Then I will add new Scenarios to the mix to check they remain balanced within the new context.

I need to do some more  initial playtesting on the first two tribes before opening up a more formal playtest arrangement. If you are interested in helping out with Twilight, keep your eyes peeled.

Song of Fur and Buttons*

*Working name

This is another major project I’m working on at the moment. It involves the exploits of three adventurous bears – Sir Maurice Fursworth, Sir William Cuddlesbury and Sir Uppity Paws. This orginated from a scenario that I wrote for .45 adventure, but after writing many stories about these three bears, it developed into something more.

This release will be a sort of campaign book to be used with the Song of Blades and Heroes engine. The inspiration for the stories came from the very characterful Teddy Bear miniatures sculpted by Mike Broadbent and produced by Eureka Miniatures. Each ‘Chapter’ in the campaing will start out with a short narrative which leads into the scenario. It is written to be kid friendly and is a great way to either introduce your kids to gaming or let your inner kid out. Just because it’s kid friendly, doesn’t mean that it is light on gaming wise. The variety of scenarios is vast, with the hope to get 15-20 different scenarios in the end book.

The first five scenarios are written and are being playtested as we speak. Once those five are fully playtested, we’ll move onto the next five and so on.

Below, you can see both my new board and part of the first scenario in action. Sir Uppity Paws needs to be sewn up again after being attacked by a group of Compies with a penchant for honey. But he’ll be back in Scenario 2. You see the bears don’t actually die. They just need to be taken to the bear hospital and sewn back up and be re-stuffed. This just means that they might be a little late to the next scenario, but they will be back.

It also means saying that the bear was stuffed is a good thing! … it’s when he’s NOT stuffed that there is a problem.

Here is a painted Gallimimus from HLBS Co (it’s sad they are closing down their 28mm lines in March – I love their dinosaurs!) You get to race one of these in the book!

Song of Blade Unit Cards

The first 36 card set of these has been completed. Now it’s just the necessary boring stuff holding it up. More news soon.

Anyway, if there’s any questions or comments, feel free to post them here!

- Ben.

Reusing, Rebasing and Rebounding…

Wow! What a busy couple of weeks that was. Back to work, starting assessments, writing games, playtesting and pulling hair out!

Reusing and Rebasing

One of my biggest modelling projects that I’ve undertaken recently has been the rebasing of all my Fantasy 28mm stuff. Yes that’s right, I’ve taken the plunge and have begun to rebase every… single… one… seemed like a good idea at the start…

The reasoning behind it was that I found myself painting up twice as many miniatures as I needed. One set for skirmish games and one set for mass battle games. The solution I decided on was to rebase all my models on washers which would be great for skirmish (as the model is now lower to the ground – this makes more visual difference than you or I would have thought!), but I also can use them for mass battle… how?

Well, I first ordered a couple of hundred round 25mm heavy duty magnetic bases from Litko. Then I waited and waited and waited. It must just be me, but my last two Litko orders have taken almost a month to get here… great product, but the waiting is hard when you want to get started right away!

The next job was to buy some wood filler. I used the bases that I had already bought (and used some of) for my 28mm Mighty Armies stuff (which I am rebasing for use with both skirmish and mass battle). I applied a smattering of the wood puty over the base (making sure it was a deeper layer where the models would sit), then I dipped a washer into some warm water and then pressed it into the places where the models would sit. Once the washer had touched the wooden base, I took it out and removed the putty from the middle.

Once dry, the base had three or four pock marks around 25mm diameter each. I painted them up and flocked them, then using the self adhesive on the heavy duty magnetic sheets, stuck a 25mm magnetic circle in each hole. Voila! Now I can just sit my models on there for use with mass battles.

Here is my test base (just an individual one to see if it would work):

Yes it is a LOT of time and effort, and despite the fact that I’m no where near finished, I’m happy that I undertook the project. I think in the long run, this will be a much better use of my hobby time (and my wallet’s money!)

Rebounding

Over the last few months I’ve been working on a few games. There are a few I can’t tell you about yet, but one of them has pretty much been completed and is just waiting on the final layout, artwork and external playtesting.

It is called Nuthin’ But Net and will be published through Two Hour Wargames‘ U-Play Sports Division. It is basically a 3 on 3 Fantasy Basketball game. In the base book there are 9 races represented. I have really tried to make this the best game it can be and Ed (owner of Two Hour Wargames) has been outstanding throughout the whole process, helping my original ideas grow and evolve into the current game.

I’ll give you more information soon, but I wanted to share my demo board that I’m making for it. It will allow two games to be run at once (one game at each end). I hope you all like it.

Until next time, catch you later!

- Ben.

Dragon Lord and Dwarf Frigates – Uncharted Seas

Today is just a really quick update on my Uncharted Seas project.

I’ll start off by showing you a few models that I’ve painted up. I decided on a colour scheme for my Dragon Lords and also for my Dwarves. Many thanks to several inspirational colour schemes on the Spartan Games forum (for my Dragon Lords ships)

So here they are:

The Dragon Lords frigates

and the Dwarven Frigates

They are resin miniatures (besides the sails which are metal) so I needed to wash them in warm soapy water to remove any mould release agent and any other dust. This didn’t take long, but really helped the black undercoat to stick to the model.

I have the rest of my Dragon Lords models ready to go. I thought I would paint one group for Dragon Lords, then one for the Dwarves and keep alternating so I would get a nice set of figures to play with.

Uncharted Seas is a new Fantasy Naval game by newcomers on the block ‘Spartan Games’.

So far there are four races available: Imperial Humans, Orcs, Dwarfs (Dwarves) and the Dragon Lords (my personal favourites so far). I was able to pick up starter fleets for all four races for 100 pounds with free shipping to Australia! If you could see the size of these ships, and their outstanding sculpting detail, you would know that this was a bargain. In my humble opinion (and excuse the pun), but these ships blow any of the Man O War ones out of the water.

The instintive reaction to another Fantasy Naval game would be to instantly compare and contrast to Games Workshop’s Man O War… after reading the rules however, it is plain to see that Uncharted Seas is a different beast. I’m sure there will be those Man O War fanatics that won’t even give this game a chance, and I think that is sad for them as they are missing out on something special. I think there is enough room in most people’s collections for both games.

It has also been mentioned on their forums that there will be at least another 8 races added to this four. Half of these have been announced as: Elves, Undead, The Dark Ones (evil dwarves) and an ally for the Dragon Lords (hinted at human, but no confirmation). Needless to say, I’m rather excited.

If any of you have been visiting their forums, you would know by now that Neil and Mark (from Spartan Games) are both great blokes who listen to and respond quickly to their fans. I have been very impressed with their interaction with the gaming community and would suggest that if you are interested, go and check out their forums here.

My current projects:

• Playtesting a game I wrote (sorry, still can’t tell yet… soon I hope)
• Mighty Armies: Swamp Dweller army
• Mighty Armies: Lord of the Rings – 10mm
• 2′x2′ multiscale board and terrain to go with it.
• Lost Worlds figures (including Bears in a Lost World scenarios)
• Triffids and scenarios
• Blood Bowl 7s teams (currently Halflings)
• Uncharted Seas
• Giant Monster Rampage board (project is on hold for the moment)
• Battlelore figures (haven’t done hardly any on this in ages!)

There are of course always things which pop up in between. Sometimes they become a project in themselves, other times they are just once offs. Laying out all the projects like this is nice to see. It shows me that all my projects are moving forwards (except for the Battlelore figures and Giant Monster rampage for the moment). It helps me set gaming goals and achieve them.

Since I’ve started the blog, some of my completed projects have been:

• Blood Bowl 7s board
• Frogfolk Blood Bowl 7s team
• Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl 7s team
• Lizardman Blood Bowl 7s team
• Pharohs of Vikhtorah Blood Bowl 7s team
• Frogfolk SoBH warband
• Frogfolk Mighty Armies warband
• Bat Clan Goblin Mighty Armies Warband
• Bears in a Lost World Scenario 1: Sweet as Honey

So I’m really happy that I started the blog, not only to share what I’ve done, but to help me keep on track. I hope you all enjoy the ride!

- Ben.

The Aim of this blog

My aim for this blog is to record the progress of my many hobby projects.

I would also like to add everything that I paint to this blog as well. So really, I’m using it as both a motivational tool for myself and to showcase what I’ve done. Hopefully, giving ideas to like minded people as I go.

Give me a few days to get some content up, but please enjoy yourself while you’re here and don’t be afraid to comment.

Cheers,
Ben.