the army of the Lord High Constable of Boozonia
it would also equally serve as a Scots army from the ECW period
This is the first year in forty that I haven't painted a single figure (so far, but I still have hopes!), the first year that I tiled a roof using individual hand-cut tiles and now, for the first time EVER in my wargaming life I rebased an army, or any portion thereof. I find painting tedious, basing is worse. Rebasing means undoing the work only to repeat it, madness!
In preparation for using the Tercio rules for my ImagiNation campaign I cut out a bunch of bases from matte board. To test out the rules I adhered the already-based minis to the much larger Tercio bases using sticky dots. This has worked very well but is visually unsatisfying in extreme. I was left with no option except to rebase my troops. Having never tried this before I was stumped as to how to go about it.
At first I tried simply yanking the minis off of the bases. This didn't go well at all as my intention was when I had based them was that they would stay firmly attached, and even after forty years my old friend Titebond was still doing its job faithfully. Far too many delicate figures were getting bent and twisted. My second thought was that the minis had been based on card and an overnight visit to a shallow pan of water might just loosen their resolve to stay based. This worked in a way, the card softened to the point of dissolution, leaving a mucky brown ooze in the pan, but the ancient wood glue still bound the minis in its grip. It was only with careful work that I was able to pull the now pliable glue from the figures.
Thus having freed my soldiers from their restraints I sorted them out and tacked them onto the new bases using Liquid Nails Small Project (a far less formidable glue than Titebond). One thing that I have to say about Tercio, the large full-unit sized bases give the battle a better look and really speed things along by reducing the fiddly figure-handling that all of my past rules-sets have allowed.
sanded and flocked and deployed as if ready for battle,
a much better look
Now the only thing that remains is to rebase the other 1400 figures, and then invest in some cubic yards of flock.
Rather than all that work, can you simply glue the existing individual bases to the new group bases? Then you can put down texture, paint, and flock as normal. The stands would be slightly taller, but it saves wear and tear on the minis.
ReplyDeleteWhen I need to rebase, by go-to method is to use a small wood chisel and hammer. I set the chisel against the glue join and tap it lightly. It’s pretty good at separating them, though it can cut through the metal base (or my fingers)
These were card-stock bases, I probably should have used emtal and super-glue.......ah, hindsight!
DeleteLike you, I try hard never to re-base. I don't enjoy basing to srtart with, so doing it again is extra painful!
ReplyDeleteThe only real upside is that the new bases are much larger, essentially the whole formation is on one base, and allow me to add little terrain details around the troops. I can't wait to get to the Tercio squares which will have plenty of extra room :)
Delete