We had email problems, and I got removed from the list. Ha! You couldn't keep
me away, I'm back!
Anyway, I was wondering what people do with bases for ships. Do you glue your
ships to them? How often do you have a base for a ship that fits snugly enough
to put it on and take it
off easily? I'd like to replace the micro-machines bases with
something hex-sided (or see below), or at least with a vertical
pole to sit on. I also have a bunch of Renegade Legion tanks that have become
ships. But the various things I have for bases don't necessarily fit into the
holes on the bottom of ships very well.
Although I'll be picking up some hex-bases, I may also use the
following base. I got a piece of plastic marked with a grid. The grid could be
easily snapped to make smooth edges. A 4x4
square is very close to the (old-style) GW Epic infantry stand,
so I've been gluing bikes and such to them. But a 4x4 square also gives me:
+---*---*---*---+ The * show 12 locations in the appropriate 12
| | | | | directions for Full Thrust. If I put a dot at
*---+---+---+---* those locations, I could use this square base
| | | | | to help label those positions. Plus, I can use
*---+---X---+---* the corners to show fire arcs.
| | | | |
*---+---+---+---* I could take off the corner squares and still see
| | | | | the 45 degree positions. Or I could cut them off
+---*---*---*---+ diagonally to round it off a bit.
> At 11:44 AM 3/10/97 EST, you wrote:
I'm a bit of an odd ball. I took the base that Geo Hex puts out and made a
mold of it. Now I cast as many as I need using Alumilite. If your a bit
creative, try gluing a piece of balsa to large zinc washer, and use a 10penny
nail or simililar object as the veritcal pole. The zinc washer is weighty
enough to keep your models in the air and not on the table. If you afix
flexible magnets to the base it will stay very nicely in a tool chest.
30degrees is the arc for each tic of the clock.
> 30degrees is the arc for each tic of the clock.
I had a mind-hiccup on my last message. I was thinking that
my 4x4 base gave me the 30 degree ticks. Well, the ticks were separate by 2 on
one axis and 1 on the other, so I figured ".5, yeah, sine of 30 degrees is.5".
Except I was figuring the tangent. Silly me. But those arcs are about 26 or 27
degrees.
Figured I'd better send this out before I hear it from all you guys.
By the way, the question I'm most interested from my post was how you get
ships to stay on without fixing them there, especially if the hole in the
bottom of the ship doesn't quite match the peg on your base.
thanks,
> On Mon, 10 Mar 1997, Andy Skinner wrote:
> We had email problems, and I got removed from the list.
Yes. I use ICE's hex-bases; on some models (MicroMachines; some of GW's
ships) I cut off the small peg on top of the "pole", though. If you bore
up the hole in a MicroMachine model a bit, this works fairly well even without
glue.
As for RL plastic tanks, you can put them on Silent Death stands - no
real problem. I fix them with blue-tac (or whatever that blue-grey
sticky goo is called:).
> How often do you have a base
Only in my dreams... and when I've drilled the holes myself.
Later,
> By the way, the question I'm most interested from my post was
I drill the hole out with a pin vise drill. If the hole is too big, I fill the
orginal hole with White or Green Putty from Squadron, let it dry for a day or
so and redrill the hole at the correct side. Make sure that the post that
holds up the ship is cleaned of any mold marks and is fairly round, this
prevents slow and subtle enlargement of the post hole.
> Andy Skinner wrote:
I've seen a friend use brass tubing mounted inside the mini which easily
connected to the brass rods on a base. The tubing and brass rods were of very
close tolerance to permit this with a somewhat snug fit. Personally, I just
prefer to glue the little suckers to the base. If you have fewer bases than
ships this is a problem, unless you can make or buy more bases. Fortunately I
have plenty of bases to keep me busy for a while.
> that have become ships. But the various things I have for bases
Time to start drilling. No one base will fit all ships. Try to find a base you
like and either use different shafts for the base to match the ship or just
drill the mini's mounting hole a bit larger to accomodate it.
With a Dremel Multi tool, there is no such thing as a hole that's too small,
however, I have found that ther IS something as a hole to big. Fortunately,
there is epoxy putty.
Gene
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