Federation Commander

Im sure this has been answered somewhere but i cant find it. All my minis fall over how have people overcome this problem. Im thinking of maybe some washers or somethign stuck to the bases, but im not sure if this will add enough weight.

Thanks as allways for your help.

Zero.

Washers in the base are probably the most common and easy fix.

I have shortened the stands on some of my larger minis.

For my romy dreadnaught, klingon B10, large freighter, and some others, I will snip off about a quarter inch or so of the stand. I use a drill bit to make the hole in the mini large enough for the snipped stand to fit.

I have also filled in the hole on a mini and repositioned it so the mini is more balanced on the stand.

On my larger minis, I like the metal stands as they are more weighty and stabilizing.

I base mine on Litko stands which have larger bases and seem to solve many of the balance problems.

So far I've found the acrylic rod stronger than the mounting pegs on plastic bases as well.

There's also a quite clever system for bases over on Starship Combat News here:
http://www.star-ranger.com/BasingMinis.htm

I've got about 600+ SFB minis painted and based so far.

I use a variety of means to increase stability.

For DNs and BBs I like to use the B10 heavy metal base. Being solid metal, it helps with the stability.

And Like Burt, I have shortened the stands on some of my other large minis. This serves a two-fold purpose.. it increases the stability and it gives a nice effect on the table when the minis are at two or three different elevations.

I also weight nearly every base. Once the upright has been glued into place, I fill the cavity underneath the base with plaster and then slap a ex shaped piece of felt over it. This stabilizes the mini and the felt helps to prevent scratches on the maps.

As-above, I glue "fender washers" to the bottom of most of my mini stands to give them some more weight (it would probably have been even better if I had slipped them over the stand-peg before attaching the mini, but too late now).

Much like wedge_hammersteel, I shorten the stands on some of the bigger and heavier minis (also to make the Fed DN's a bit shorter for storage). I remove about a 1/4", drill holes in each end to take a brass pin, and then file a notch in each half to "key" it to keep it from spinning.

For the really big ones (B10, King Condor, etc.) I use the metal "B10 stand" which is short and stout.

I know of some miniatures gamers who glue small shot (shot as in "shotgun") in the base of the mini to weight it. Should be able to get it in a shop that sells reloading supplies for guns. Fishing weights can also be used.

What is that green putty stuff that some use on their minis?

Would that be heavy enough to mold into the underside of the mini bases?

If it's the "greenstuff" some of us use for sculpting that you are talking about, it is 2-part (blue/yellow) epoxy putty. It's not very heavy and would make a poor choice for weighting a base.

I tried using some steel-impregnated epoxy putty on bases for a few minis and it wasn't worth the effort. It didn't add enough weight to be worth all the extra hassle. Fender washers ended up being the cheapest, heaviest thing that is readily available.

I have two trains of thought on the subject. I have used both. One get a pack of small magnets and a sheet of steel form you hadeware store glue them in and place the steel under yours maps. Or fishing weights. Cheap and available. it depends on you base, to see if you need to flatten them or not. just glue in.

To weight my bases I bought some "split shot" in the fishing section of Longs. I use clippers to cut them in half, then superglue them into the underside of the bases. Cheap and easy fix for top heavy ships.

I also really like the heavy B10 bases for larger ships. If you're using the old plastic bases that have the paper cutout you can buy fender washers (fairly cheap) and glue them under the base. They'll add lots of weight to the bottom of the figure.

One of my friends glues fender washers to the bottoms of the bases of his figures, then buys the flexible sheet magnets and mounts to the bottom of the boxes he transports his figures in, so they won't tip over and get broken in transit.

Ill take all of this into consideration, im not sure if i can get shot in UK without a licence, but ill look into the weights.

Cheers all.

Zero.

Another source is fishing weights. In the US, they tend to be soft heavy metals that can be pounded flat (likely lead).

count_zero99uk wrote:Ill take all of this into consideration, im not sure if i can get shot in UK without a licence, but ill look into the weights.

Cheers all.

Zero.

Oh, it's perfectly OK to get shot in the UK, just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. No licence required!

Ahem. On a more serious note - yes, google lead shot using "pages from UK" and it will give you UK-based suppliers.