Base Applications And Other Trifles

Before any painting can occur, the figures need to be arranged so that they are stable for manipulation.

They may need to be affixed to their respective BASES or ultimate stands.

If you are going to paint everything while it is still attached to the molding sprue, do so. But be prepared to very carefully cut each item from the sprue and THEN trim it. You would then glue it to the stand. Painting touch-ups may apply. In this case, read this article, but check out the Primering article.

1. An 8mm styrene railway figure would be glued to a base first before painting.

2. Or one might have a figure that already has a base but will be glued to a larger stand.

3. Or there might be multiple figures applied as a unit to a single flat base (Pendraken), or a supplied base with cutouts in it for designated figures (Dropzone Commander).

4. Lastly, if the figures did not come with a larger base, but you want to put them on something, what did you choose?

Depending on the number of figures you will be placing on the base, it might be one figure on a small, square or round base, or multiple figures on a larger round rectangular, or oval base. These bases come commercially as styrene or wood.

[As an aside, viewers might note most of my bases seem to have an inward bias from the top. That is because I use inverted solid plastic bases (not the platformed kind as in the Homepage picture for this site). This is because my klutzy fingers can’t pick up the miniatures EXCEPT with this little ledge. I do not wish to pick up the unit by touching the figures, and for the styrene figures, especially, this would be bad. The oils and friction from human skin are not necessarily wonderful for anything you took the effort to paint, even the tougher metal ones… your call.

So I use Proxie Models stands upside-down. Problem solved for me.]

To affix, glue with what you want.

The standard is superglue. Many people like it.

But for styrene, you need to use modeling cement made for styrene. In this case, supergluing will superscrew and melt your figures too much.

I prefer contact cement. (This is NOT rubber cement!)

You can use it directly with styrene, applied judiciously with a toothpick. It often works right away, BUT you may have to let it set for some uses, including with metal that isn’t just going to be glued to a larger base by gravity (a standing figure). See the contact glue manufacturer’s directions.

If there is already a base on a figure that you just glued to a larger stand, you may want to apply some modeling paste now to hide the chunkiness of that base. I like to hide the obvious planar base of the figure (often at least 1mm high itself) with an acrylic modeling paste before I do anything else. See the photo at the start of this article.