All about the Base - Remix

 

Following on from my recent experiments with modelling and casting resin bases, I had decided I wanted to try an alternative casting material and aware that I had used polyester resin previously (only because that's what I had lying about) which is not the first choice I procured some fastcast polyurythane resin along with resin dye to see how that turned out.

First attempt using the previously made base moulds was partially successful as I mixed too much resin, basically more than I could pour before it began to set. Living up to it's name as 'Fast Cast'. What I managed to pour worked out fine and trying again with half the amount of resin produced a variety of bases fairly easily and a lot quicker and less smelly than the polyester, all of which was nice.

The castings are a lot sharper, as the filler I had used in the polyester casting did blur things a bit though I did like the 'feel' of the castings produced. Polyurythane is obviously the way to go and I picked up some alternative 'white fastcast' at the same time to see how that works out as this has a slightly longer pot life.

I also knocked up a quick mould to cast up some small scatter terrain bits to individualise the various castings which I had deliberately kept fairly blank, especially so I could tart up bases as required with these decorations. This mould worked out fine and I can now produce rubble, scatter and battlefield detritus to my hearts content. A few choice bits are already added to the Kroot Killteam bases which are currently in progress and will post up soon.

All about the Base

 

First figs receiving newly cast bases

Having been getting into Killteam recently and investing in the 'Into the Dark' set when released last year I had started building up the teams included in the box with the Kroot band being the first to be assembled.

I had also invested in the 'Imperrium' magazine during Covid as a occupational therapy activity and had started assembling some of the new marine figures and a few others and intended to use the terrain bits included with the magazine for use with Killteam scenario's.

On assembling the first figs and basing them I had decided I wanted to get some modern or techy basing for the figures to difference them from other 40K ranges I already have. Having some of the GSW rollers from a small previous project ,I had tried to put on some rolled results on to the standard plastic bases for a couple of the SM figs but this prooved to give a very thick look to the base which I really didn't like.

Having never really liked the plastic bevelled edge bases from Citadel since first slotta base release back in the day and preferring a fairly thin square edge to my basing I decided I would sculpt up and cast some basing for the Killteam and SM figures and would add in some alternative basing for some of the other bits picked up recently like for my Sisters of Battle and fantasy skirmish bits too.

I had tried some bought resin bases previously from a couple of manufacturers and though the sculpting is OK and often very nice for the chosen products I have found the quality control over the castings is usually fairly poor with a general extreme variance particularly on the thickness of the castings and sanding the the extreme ones to a cosistent level a big pain and extremely laborious.

Selection of scuplted blanks

First up was to produce some blanks and I duly purchased some MDF circular 2mm bases to give a regular size and applied various textured clay pieces to the bases with a bit of chopping and changing and mixing the various textures to give a bit of variety and embelishment for some of the plainer basing.

A fair bit of finishing and minor sculpting and ensuring all the blanks were of suitable sizing and edges square etc. followed.

First moulds and casting results

Next up once I was happy with sufficient variety of bases of varying sizes (28mm, 32mm and 40mm) I made up some moulds with some silcone I had left over, enough for 3 sizable moulds.

The only resin I had to cat up first time was some clear water polyester resin, which although stinks to high heaven does give a fairly sharp cast result but is quite plasticy and hard so I added in a small amount of marble filler which makes the resin a bit friendlier and a much nicer feel. Also makes the casting a bit easier to work with though does blur the casting results slightly.

First bases cast, cleaned, and undercoated

The whole process though fairly labour intensive, especially at the beginning in the blank preparation, is simple enough and fairly enjoyable. I picked at the production in small bursts so as not to sicken myself with extended work.

I also limited myself to the number of casting blanks scuplted so I could produce enough bases for the figures I had already assembled and was wanting to get painted and into some gaming, though this has still been a few months in production over all.

Ready to get painting

Quite happy with the results of the project thus far and had to stop myself in sculpting up more and different bases, but have a few plans for some more and hopefully better basing.

The character and larger models I have planned will be individually scuplted as not wanting to make up castings for ones I would only use once or twice, but I intend to incorporate bits of the castings I have done so as to unify the band or army feel for all the figures.

Will post up the finished articles in due coarse.

Scatter Terrain - Plasma Pipes

Small update on a recently very quiet blog.

Have been painting up some scatter terrain for Kill Team and general Sci-Fi skirmishy things and just completed the plasma pipes which I have left in their constituent parts so I can use them in any way suits the game in hand.

They did take ages to do and not 100% happy with the way they turned out but decided long enough time spent on them. Was going for a slightly grubby steampunk feel which was sort of acheived. They do look better in the flesh than on photo's (but I'm mucking about with new lighting so added another thing to muck about with) and they'll certainly do as scatter once mixed in with other terrain bits on the table.

On other news I have been getting some gaming in and working on (as usual) multiple projects since last updates and am looking to get a few more posts in to update progress and gaming I've been managing to get in.

More on this shortly.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wishing everybody a happy and prosperous 2023.

Best wishes for the coming year.

Kill Team - Tau Hunter Cadre Photo-Shoot

Bit of a photo op this time around as I have been playing about with the old camera to see if I could improve on my miniature photography skills a bit.

Mixed results and going to play about a lot more, mainly learning on how my camera works, but having fun in the learning.

My chosen topic this time around was with my Tau Hunter Cadre for Kill Team as these were readeily to hand as I've been mainly playing 2nd Ed Kill Team at the club recently, so they presented a ready subject to snap at.

Quite pleased with the photo results but more to play about with both in subject and technique and decide what I'm most happy with.

Think the photo results had a better turn out that the Hunter Cadre have had on the table top, but that's another story.

As my results on the table top with the current team set-up have been mixed at best, I'm going to change one of the fire teams for the Stealth Suits and see how that fares, and I will do a 'photo-shoot' of the team once the suits are painted up, hopefully over Christmas.

More on this anon.

Kill Team - Tau vs Orks Trials

This weeks game at the club was by way of a first trial of the new (well from last year but new to us) edition of the Kill Team Rules from GW.

Myself and Andy W set up the basic matched play game with no frills and Tac Ops choices to deal with, Andy going for Ork Kommando's and myself going for the baisic Tau Hunter Cadre lists.

Got to grips with the rules fairly quickly but as things were fairly new it took a fair few refering to rule books for stat confirms and ability effects, so for a quick play game it was fairly slow but to be expected for a first trial. 

Didn't get the game to a conclusion before running out of time, with half time score of 4:2, advantage to Andy, but with half the board in Tau control and with a slight numerical advantage, it was still anybody's game.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the game and will be giving it another go soon with a better understanding of the rules so hopefully get a conclusion next time maybe with a batrep to boot.

More anon.

WHFBs 6th Ed - Empire vs Orcs Bash

 

Managed to have a Warhammer Fantasy bash at the club this week. First WHFB's outing for my Empire chaps in over 8 years (which happened to be a 6th Ed game too) and around 5 since last outing at all with the troops, then with the 9th Age rules.

Had had a couple of chats over the interweb during Covid about looking out the old 6th Ed stuff and finally got around to arranging a game with Kev and his Orc Boyz and game was duly played this week.

Managed all the rules OK with memories providing most of the details and only a couple of look ups required for a couple of details so both pretty pleased with brain power here as we both expected to be struggling but all pretty much fell into place once we got going.

The game was most enjoyable and won't put down a blow by blow account of the action, but suffice to say being seriously outnumbered from the get go and a poor deployment sealed the Empire's fate for the result. Though it wasn't all one sided and managed to score a couple of minor victories it was a well deserved overall victory for the Orks. Only three Empire units left on the field at the end and them pretty badly mauled and the Orcs still having 6 or so largely intact units rampaging about.

I did do my usual with my artillery and the Great Cannon blew up on it's first shot Rd 1 to much merriment, pretty standard for my luck with artillery dice unfortuneately. Kev also had similar luck with his wizard on his 2nd spell with the Gobbo type's head exploding, also producing much laughter.

The game produced quite a bit of interest on the night and a couple of bods expressed interest in digging out their 6th Ed armies for a bash, so all good from that point of view.

So there's likely to be some more 6th Edition action coming up, hopefully in the near future, and I'll endeavour to put up a better showing with the chaps in black & yellow. (I feel a gun line coming up with no doubt an explosive result). Watch this space for the next exciting episode soon.