Friday 30 January 2015

Basing, the tight arse way.

I like to make my own stuff when it comes to miniature gaming. You "could" say that it's just coz I like to kitbash? Or that that's how they did it back in the day coz they had no choice & I like to roll the way they did? Others might suggest that it's because I'm a bit of a cheap bastard?

It's probably a mix of all those opinions....leaning more heavily towards the last one mentioned :)

So, this post -as the title infers- is about making cheap, strong, large bases. This subject stems from my Helsreach Walker that I made last year. After I had finished building it I wasn't completely satisfied with the look or strength of the base. It was too thin (looks like it's standing on paper) & it flexes too much. But I didn't have time (or an idea) of how to fix it, so I left it as it was.

Fast forward a few months & we come to my shelved Siege dreadnought project. When figuring out how to base this mother up, I came up with an idea of how to improve upon my single DVD basing technique. What's better than one DVD? Why two God damn it!!! Isn't it obvious?

Anyway, I thought I'd post up a little tutorial on how I go about making my new & improved bases. Maybe someone out there in internet land might be interested? Who knows :)

Let's begin,



Posed & fixed to a sturdier base than the Helsreach Walker.

See what I mean, nice & thick.

This one was a "one disk wonder", too much flex for my liking.
I'll be rectifying that deficiency soonish.
Here's what the almost finished base will end up looking like once you've
followed my 8 & 1/2 steps to better abs!

This thickness is the best.....coz I said so.

Ok, step 1, Pick two of your favourite DVD's & lay them on some baking paper on a perfectly flat surface.

Step 2, Scuff the hell out of the laser disc side with
coarse emery. Then get some old sprue of the correct
thickness & super glue in place.

Now here's the important part. You need to make sure that the
two DVD's will be centralised with each other. I have this little 
emery wheel from my Dremel kit that fits perfectly. You can 
use whatever you want, but it has to be a snug fit or the base 
will end up misaligned & look retarded.

Step 3, Place the centralising bush in the first DVD, then run
super glue over the sprue & place the second DVD ontop.

Step 4, If you need to, put a few other DVD's ontop, so that
your bush sits flush with the top DVD.

Step 5, Place a dirty, great heavy weight ontop of the stack &
allow it to dry fully.

Step 6, After it has set, take out your hot glue gun. Or as I like
 to refer to it "the thing that makes a bloody great
stringy mess" gun.

Step 7, Run a bead around the perimeter of the DVD to fill
in the gap & increase its rigidity. Don't go over board
with the stuff or you'll end up warping it from the heat.

Then lay the DVD base back down on the baking paper &
squeeze a blob of hot glue into the centre. Once set you'll
have a nice flat surface on one side.

The almost final product -balancing on my desk- show's you
how perfectly aligned it is.



Note, If you end up warping it from the heat from the hot glue gun, don't worry. All you need to do is lay it out on the baking paper and put the heavy weight on it once more & it'll flatten out again.

Also, in the final picture I said "almost final product". All that's left to do is run a thin bead of acrylic gap filler around the edge & then with a wet scraper/finger just wipe off the excess. You should end up with a nice flat edge. Job done.

After reading through this tutorial you may be asking yourself "why didn't the idiot just glue a stack of DVD's together?". Well the short answer is "weight". This technique is lighter & just as strong as if I'd have stacked them together. So there, I'm not an idiot & besides that, Asslessman called me (or my work, either way it doesn't matter) a genius.



I hope this tutorial is coherent & somewhat useful enough for someone out there. Otherwise I've just wasted a couple of hours of my life for no reason :(



So, until next time, toodle pip & all that other crap people use to say goodbye.



5 comments:

  1. I missed the point where you explain how a "cheap bastard" (sic) end sup using DVDs instead of those lousy CDs we all have spare.
    Otherwise I find the technique super nice and will undoubtedly steal it at some point for large models (some of which are going to be to your liking I believe).

    Oh and the genius thing applies to the overall package, work and artist included ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't wait to see what your cooking up JB :)

      Glad you like the basing idea.

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    2. Oh, I forgot to mention about the DVD's, I've got a tonne of rip off one's. Come to think of it, I don't think I've got any CD's that I'd throw out. Just music & PC games that I don't play anymore.

      I do have some old LP vinyls though! What do you think? :)

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  2. A man after my own black (and cheap) heart =)

    ReplyDelete