Weekend Workbench

Boxes ... This weekend has been mostly one of tidying up. My 10"x4"x4" cardboard boxes arrived and so is it now time to glue magnets to the inside bottoms for the figures to stand on. Which means that my figures need ferrous metal bases. All of my newer standing figures are on 1" fender washers, but the older standing figures and all mounted figures are on the plastic bases supplied with them. I had considered rebasing the standing figures, but decided that I want to play with them more than rework them. For these I am just going to glue a washer to the bottom. I wish I knew of a source for a thinner ferrous rounds.

For the mounted figures I cut rectangles from a sheet of 0.008" steel. I used a guillotine to make the cuts so it might be possible to find a "scrapbooking" circle punch to solve the problem for foot figures.

Last year I had bought 7"x4"x2" boxes for the same purpose. While I like the smaller boxes their height is not sufficient for mounted or figures holding spears vertically. The spears poke through. I would have prefered 7"x4"x3" boxes, but these don't seem to be available at a reasonable cost. (One of the best tools I have is Amazon Prime. I rarely buy anything from any other online or physical store anymore when what I want can be had from Amazon within a few days. Well worth the yearly subscription cost.)

Boards ... Last year (hum, a pattern) I built a 3'x3' framed board for playing DBA and small skirmish games. This week I decided that it was time to actually put a landscape on it. Since this is not a display board it needs to be flexible for many scenarios. However, I was not going to accept a flat field of felt with creases! I have spent far too much time painting my figures to have them play on such and ugly, non-naturalistic landscape.


My plan is to incorporate into the surface a gentle slope in a, roughly, horseshoe shape. I used a hand sander to scoop out the hollow I wanted, but it was difficult to get the shape right. In part, this was because I would catch the edge of the sander on the surface and the sander would carve out a "cliff" that I did not want. And in part, because making something that looks natural without an example to replicate is a fool's decision. I wanted it completed today and so what I made would have to do. I covered it with felt, ironed before applying, and glued it down with 3M's 77 Super spray adhesive. I will add color to the surface later.

The results are acceptable for a first try. Final judgment will come when I to see how it affects game setup and play.

Note: A non-flat surface of a uniform color is impossible to photograph!

Paints ... Assembling before painting the Large Earth Elemental was a mistake. There is no way I can get under the arms to paint them and the torso correctly. So it found itself in a bath of Simple Green after removing the arms with Super Solvent. I kept the head attached.

Now primed, I am ready to paint. I like the instructions at Painting Rocks Step by Step for painting stones.