Figure painting

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Still mucking around with some 1/100 stuff....

Nice, but how do you see that small?

[healey36]

A strong light, a decent pair of glasses, and occasionally I have to break out the OptiVisor. The 1/100 stuff's not too bad...it's the 1/6000 stuff that kills me:



Healey

[chuck]

game token (as in Jutland)? Very nice work.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A strong light, a decent pair of glasses, and occasionally I have to break out the OptiVisor. The 1/100 stuff's not too bad...it's the 1/6000 stuff that kills me:

Ok, that takes care of the seeing, but you get that small my hands just are not that steady anymore.....

[healey36]

game token (as in Jutland)? Very nice work.

Thanks Chuck. Yup, we play a lot of "General Quarters III" and "Fleet Action Imminent". We were using models at the 1/2400 scale but to get realistic-looking ranges you really needed to go out and play on your driveway or the Shop-Rite parking lot (a 30,000 yard maximum gunnery range cooked down to roughly thirty-seven feet). Most rule-sets cook the ranges down further to something that will fit on a table-top, but that can look rather silly. To my mind if you're going to go to the effort of using actual ship models you should spread out to something reasonable in terms of scale ranges. Going to 1/6000 scale compresses things nicely (now a 30,000 yard maximum gunnery range cooks down to just fifteen feet, lol). Most medium/extended-range WWI action would occur at the 12,000-18,000 range or closer (on a clear day, shorter in heavy weather). Given that, you can use 1/6000 scale models on a decent-sized table-top without it looking too silly.

I'm glad to hear you think they look okay...I've been experimenting with these for awhile. The first ones I painted were pretty awful. I would love to put masts on them but that's just too fiddly for me. The bases are home-made...ink-jet printed and pasted on 0.5" X 1.5" plywood.

Here's a few pics of a session from a few months ago. It was raining that day so we had to work indoors. We factored the ranges by two-thirds so we could get the stuff on a small table-top:









The WWI era is interesting, WWII not so much. By then things had evolved into a series of air-actions primarily. Innovation from 1900-1920 was pretty extraordinary. Thankfully the navies didn't come to grips very often...the results when they did could be horrific. A good example is the British armored-cruiser HMS Monmouth which was lost at Coronel early in the war. She took a terrific beating from the Germans and capsized in heavy seas. Of her crew of 735 men there were no survivors. Difficult to imagine...

Healey

[chuck]

Used to play the old AH "board" game Jutland. We had to take over entire rooms in the house for the fleet action parts. Only had cardboard tokens. Took forever and the furniture kept getting in the way

[healey36]

Used to play the old AH "board" game Jutland. We had to take over entire rooms in the house for the fleet action parts. Only had cardboard tokens. Took forever and the furniture kept getting in the way

Played that game a million times myself. Rules today are pretty much just a progression from Jutland and Fletcher Pratt...somewhat more complex but maybe a bit faster...maybe...

[Jim K]

Not feeling this is worthy of a separate thread and noting that it seems to apply to parts of this discussion I have a question: What does one use to mount or secure a figure to a layout? I have tried various glues and a dedicated Scenic Accents glue that you brush on and let dry until it is clear and tacky. Then you can put down the figure. In about 7 days the figure will fall over......or is does for me. Just wondering what others use or if I should just Krazy Glue my way to happiness and not worry. The advantage of the Scenic Accents was suppose to be that you could relocate the figure if desired. This seemed like a good thing.

Thanks for your time,

Jim K

[rogruth]

Jim,

I have had good results with Aleens Super Tacky glue or Aleens Super Tacky Gel glue.
I have also used Loctite and good old Elmers glues.Got most of my glues from Hobby Lobby.
Just don't need any on Sunday.
Sometimes I will brace a figure or whatever in place for a while, often over night.

[chuck]

What about pining? Is the scenery base soft/deep enough to support this? There is a scene in "Ronin" when Robert De Niro is talking to Michael Lonsdale who is working on his cast metal figures for the scene of the 47 Ronin attaching their master betrayer. All of the figures have pins in their feet that he uses to insert them into the foam scenery base. This is pretty common in fantasy/military gaming and there a number of YouTub video's on how to pin models together and to your scenery.

Alternative is to attach a thin flat clear base (looks like acetate) to the figures and the you can move them around. You can add some of the "tacky" bee's wax adhesive to hold them in place. Since you have a larger surface to work with they tend to stay put.

[healey36]

I haven't been gluing figures directly to the layout, mostly because it's predominantly prewar tinplate and the kids like to move everything around. As Chuck recommended, I usually glue them onto a small clear-acetate base with a drop of super-glue. From a distance you can't see the clear base, and the kids can play/move them without issue. For other applications I've been using Loctite GO2 All-Purpose glue...that stuff seems to be working well for me, is durable, although it dries clear/shiny. A shot of clear-matte lacquer will dull it down.

Healey

[rogruth]

That is the Loctite I use.

[Jim K]

I haven't been gluing figures directly to the layout, mostly because it's predominantly prewar tinplate and the kids like to move everything around. As Chuck recommended, I usually glue them onto a small clear-acetate base with a drop of super-glue. From a distance you can't see the clear base, and the kids can play/move them without issue. For other applications I've been using Loctite GO2 All-Purpose glue...that stuff seems to be working well for me, is durable, although it dries clear/shiny. A shot of clear-matte lacquer will dull it down.

Healey

Thanks for the ideas. Over the years I have also used the clear acetate base painted or dulled down and I just bought a couple of animals at the NTS that had pins at the bottom of their legs! I will scope out the Loctite and Aleens.

Jim K

[healey36]

A buddy dropped off a box of unpainted 1/32 toy soldier castings he picked up at MFCA earlier this year. There were sixty or seventy figures in the box...he picked out the few he wanted and passed the rest over to me. Some of these look like they were cast from molds made from Britain's or Heyde's figures.

Better detail than most toy soldiers, this one remains unpainted (manufacturer unknown):


Gave this one some tartan trousers (manufacturer unknown, possibly Britains):


Zulu warrior from Britains set #147. Probably should have a bit of paint on his face/chest:


Generic Britains infantryman:


Unfortunately most of the box is one-offs, so not much of a chance to replicate a set. Still, fun for an evening's distraction.

Healey

[chuck]

Beautiful work on the tartan trousers. How did you get those lines so straight (and even thickness)?