Tumbling Dice

[Leman]

Anzacs having fun down at the boating lake?

[paulr]

Bases painted up, sheet styrene for play aids cut out and sanded, ships washed last night, and play aid sheets washed this morning 

Very pleased with progress, will glue the labels on the various play aids tonight (rulers, turning circles, arcs of fire, etc)
Will get some magnetic vinyl for under the bases tomorrow

[paulr]

Made some progress with the play aids last night, cutting and gluing taking longer than expected

[paulr]

Finished the play aids last night
Will paint the moulded ship bases tonight and hopefully get the magnetic vinyl on Friday so I can base the ships over the weekend

[paulr]

Got the magnetic vinyl yesterday and glued to the bases last night 

Based ships up this morning 

Will paint a few white caps on the waves once dry then varnish and they are done
Looking at the forecast it will be a while till they get varnished, gales and rain for the next 10 days 

[paulr]

I'm pleased with the overall look of the ship bases 

Unfortunately the mix of filler, paint and PVA I used shrunk more than anticipated leaving the moulded on bases still showing slightly

Tomorrow I'm going to try applying a second coat of the mixture to see if I can build it up enough to fully conceal the base

[Wulf]

The integral bases are pretty thick to hide. I got my MDF bases in this morning and I was just considering how to do this myself.

[toxicpixie]

Can you scrape/sand/cut a depression in the base? Otherwise i guess getting enough filler/sand/PVA around them is the only recourse?

[paulr]

Can you scrape/sand/cut a depression in the base? Otherwise i guess getting enough filler/sand/PVA around them is the only recourse?

I use styrene sheet for bases so this wasn't an option for me. I had enough filler, it just shrunk 

[Wulf]

I've just been considering exactly that. But I've never done any such thing before, and the bases aren't so much bigger than the minis, so would be a bit delicate.  round the edges drilling the hole. I may try it with one though.

[toxicpixie]

Could you use double thickness styrene with the top one having a base sized cut out? Too late now, I know

[Wulf]

I am a Dremmelling Demon 

Well, technically, it's a Minicraft drill, not a Dremmel, but still...

5 minutes with a spherical router head, and the base held in a pair of pliers (and wearing a mask, remember, MDF dust is bad, children)and I have a hollowed out base the ship base almost entirely fits into. I didn't, as I was sure I would, go right through the base (not that that would have been a great problem), but it was actually easy. The bottom of the hole is uneven, and the ship leans over a bit, but... they do, don't they? It doesn't sit at waterline, but I have a more cylindrical, tapered router I'll have a go with later.

Meanwhile, my interest in MDF bases is reawoken... I'd always preferred plastic, as they were smoother & took paint better, but this makes me realise I can not only base on top of MDF, but into it... 

[toxicpixie]

I love it when a plan comes together!

[paulr]

Well done Wulf

Toxic, I use 2mm styrene so a second layer would have been too much

I applied the second coat of filler this morning and was pleasantly surprised how easily it went

It has almost dried and the moulded bases have disappeared 

[toxicpixie]

Huzzah

Yeah, 4mm deep bases would drown anything...