Basing with magnets to give a choice of column or line.

An 'Over The Top' Perfectionist?  [See footnote]

I must be in my attempt to make my modelling life more complicated than it's needs to be, because I'm striving to achieve an unnecessary objective. 

For my War of the Worlds game I purchased a number of British Colonial units from Baccus including some Mounted Infantry, (MI) a more modern term might be Mobile Infantry, certainly reading a little on the Boer War they fitted a niche in that unconventional war.

Whilst I have gently mocked or chided those who base their models on smaller bases so they can change the formation, I've managed to avoid 'That Need'. However the MI in this game not only called for it, rather they demanded it.

Ideally when they unmount to fire then I should swop bases but I didn't fancy that, and thought in my game they'd fire from the saddle or line up to charge towards the Martian Tripod dump the horses and shoot the heck out of it. My desire not to paint the same unit twice, mounted and unmounted, forced me to think about mounting them on smaller bases so I can have them in column or in a two lines.

Having already based some units on small 1/4 sized bases and realised how fiddly it was I wanted to have the best of both worlds on one base.

Requirements:

1mm plastic card Model Scenery Supplies,  and Small Super Strong N35 Neodymium Disc Magnets (3 x 1mm).

All I had to do was cut the 1mm card into  2x 30mm square bases plus 1 30x60mm base for each set. Drill a hole in the centre of the square bases and then two holes in the 30c60mm base that lined up with them, HA!

Precision is key, I glued the magnets in the bases tested for positioning choosing the best alignment and based the men accordingly.

Method

• Get some 2mm MDF identically sized 30mm squares (no store purchased aren't all the same size).
  
• Find the centre and drill with a small bit first, this gives more control and accuracy then put them on top of each other and turn through 90° to see how close to centre the holes are.
• When happy place them on the 30x60mm MDF drill through and using a pin see how well they both align with each other and on the board below in the two positions (column and line). If you're happy stop.
• Get the plastic card, cut it into 30mm strips and then 60mm lengths you need two lengths for each set. I found my card had a rough side and a shiny side. I planned it so the shiny sides faced each other, this gave the completed work a rough side for bottom and top, for basing and painting.
• Use same bit to drill through jig into plastic, then  enlarge with a 3mm bit, I used a small round file to widen it a little, try to leave it tight.
• Ensure all magnets have the same pole facing upwards, glue them in place and test again for best positions, you may want to file the edges of the top square.
• When basing setup the men for column rather than line as a slightly ragged line looks better than a ragged column, if you prefer the opposite then do that. If you look at my above picture You'll see what I mean.

My small 'jig', large 2mm MDF bases taped together to hold the plastic card. I did tape the 'jig' to the cutting board too.

Position the two templates on the plastic card and drill through.

Do both sides, remove one square and if this is to be cut in half then run a blade on the plastic, just score and bend/snap in half.

After you have glued them in place you should have this. All the large pieces have rough side down, all the small squares have rough side up. In all the cases below the magnets all face the same way, lets say North face is up. 

The final result.

Footnote:

I was going to title this article as; 'Are you an OCD gamer?' However before doing so I happened to read this article; 'The difference between OCD and Perfectionism' by Kyle, written February 22, 2018.
It's worth a read and has made me think twice before commenting that another gamer or indeed anyone is OCD when all they are doing is simply striving to be an over the top perfectionist. 
True OCD shouldn't be wished on anybody.

Home Counties 1897 - War of The worlds - No place like home 2

Almost at the conclusions of a project I started back in 2018.

At times I felt I'd taken on too much at others I added more aspects to it.

Having planned and started work on the buildings I then saw work by others, so I decided to make dioramas of the house rather than just paint them and place them on the cloth.

All the building bar a scratch built pigsty are from Leven. All of the Scenic barrels & crates, sacks, carts, horses, humans and dogs are from Perfect Six Miniatures as are most of the walls gates and fences with the exception of two types from Leven. The trees and large bushes are from K & M Trees. If you can see any long nettles/tallish plant they are from Boon Town Metals who do an excellent range of plants to enhance your 6mm-28mm projects. The vegetable plots are from Time Cast 'N' scale.

The fence posts are cocktail sticks, the horse posts to tie them up to are pins; and the hedges, flocked flat green scourers.

'The Manor' is the largest though not busiest of the the buildings I have done, which I plan to spread across the gaming table. These walls are from Leven too.

The Manor

Will the churches provide sanctuary?

Windy Miller's home

As ever with an eye to transportation I have planned ahead and made sure all the bases fitted inside the three trays from Commission Figurines which fit inside my Really useful box see this article for details;  My Storage Solution.  

Bottom Tray 50mm deep

Middle tray 50mm deep. 
The middle part of the windmill is in the third tray.

Top Tray 40mm,
Some of the models are 2-3 mm higher than the 40mm, but
there is a little squeeze room in the lid that I often use..

If you wish to see all of the models here is a link  to a file with all the building codes and details of suppliers.

Previous Articles

No place like home
Assembling the forces 1

The beginning

Home Counties 1897 - War of The worlds - No place like home.

For me the biggest problem with a new army is painting the first units.
I just can't it must be like authors block or stage fright.

I will literally do anything else. Have been known to do chores, not often enough in the opinion of some, but it makes the point.

So while I research the uniforms and consider how to paint them, prep them and undercoat them, I'll find something else to do (hobby wise).

So whilst this should be about painting the Brits it is instead the buildings.

I have some 6 mm from Battle Scale and they are lovely but Normandy or Russian, the Greek Orthodox Churches will be a miss, but the hovels will do nicely, peasants need to live somewhere and the Victorian times weren't all that enlightened. If in doubt read some Dickens!

I had some more 6 mm buildings unpainted that would do and as I was at the Joy of 6 I went to see what was on offer.
I'd seen Leven Minatures, before but this time I was in 'buy mode' It's so much easier to find what you want when it's in packets in front of you and at only £3 ish a model you get good value for your money, however £50 can exchange hands quite quickly, some wasn't in stock but was receive post free quickly after the show and I've made a similar purchase since and will again.

6 mm isn't cheaper than 28 that is a canard. What you find is that rather than buying a couple of 28 mm farm buildings for £52, you sepnd the same and get 4 farm buildings plus a town, a vicarage etc. and they do have more impact.

I intend to base a few up together, farmsteads and streets, but for the moment they're painted up.

As everyone is hiding on has run away, there are no lights to be seen in the windows!


P.S. I mentioned I had more 6 mm buildings - these went in the bin, I've seen more work from the same store and TBH there are too many pits and lumps and after seeing Leven's work I'll focus my spending with him.

Home Counties 1897 - War of The worlds - No place like home 2

Previous article

Home Counties 1897 - War of The worlds - Assembling the forces 1

The Tripods



So we start with a picture from Pendraken's site .

How on Earth, or indeed Mars do you assemble a 50mm high Tripod?

Consider I don't want to base them as I want them to be able to walk over the scenery.





















Plan 'A' was lots of blu tac models upside down and a good amount of Gorilla epoxy, I don't want to be forever repairing. I did consider pinning, I may have to.

Yes it worked but for repairs it was easier to stack some MDF bases tapped with masking tape and blu tack them on that, additional blu tac as required to stabilise or hold in place.
















The six legged crawlers had to be done that way and because of that it did suggest how to repair the others.
















Assembled and curing. I guess I've repaired 4 so far superglue in one case as the gorilla glue had created the shape, the socket for the ball so to speak.








Had to show them off on a sample latex mat from Magister Militum.

(These small latex mats are all different and I love them I use them to define woodland or scrub areas. They go very well with my 'Grass' cloth from Tiny Wargames.)

Striding over Leven Minatures' 6mm Victorian terraces.












For scale I've placed some 6 mm Baccus troops.

I feel I have got what I was imagining.





Painted up, I hope the Varnish will brighten the Green glass windows/eyes

Packed safely away in their Commission Figurines' mdf tray.



Now do I face the idea of painting 6 mm Brits or duck it and go to those rather tasty Leven buildings?








No place like home!

Previous Post

Home Counties 1897 - War of The worlds

At Salute last year I saw a game called Tripods and Triplanes and it made me think about the book War of The Worlds by H.G. Wells (1897)

I decided I'd like to have a go at setting up a game based on the book, with the Victorian army facing off against the Tripods.

Whilst still dithering over which rules to use would it be, Black Powder, Future War Commander, my own (to be written) rules or a hodge podge of the first two. I decided to ignore such niceties and see what models were on the market, this could determine the ruleset, it would certainly determine the scale.

I have a predilection for doing big games in smaller scales and so began at 6mm.

If it were 6mm the the army choice was simple Baccus' but which army. The British army of that time was using a Spiked helmet at home and a Pith helmet in various parts of Africa and India

Home Service Helmet

Pith Helmet

The home Service counties helmet and Pith helmet aren't that different.
In battle the helemt was often covered

The origins of such a helmet and who might have used it first is presented here at Straight to the Point: The History of the Spiked Helmet  but Russian or Indian in origin they all seem to hail from early Mongolian headgear.

I  digress, at 6mm the two are the same and who needs a spike anyway? So I decided on British Colonial Zulu wars, with a few Germans from the Franco Prussian war for the limbers. 

The scale however still depended on the Martian Tripods, a few questions on various FB pages and GWs Spindel Drones are suggested to me.

They do look the part.

However not enough I want them stepping over buildings.

In the above image I've positioned them behind 6 mm Baccus archers and 10 mm Pendraken ones, 6 mm works better, but there's a little voice saying,  "These are not the drones you're looking for."

Then some genius says have you looked at the Tripods on Pendraken's site, well I thought I had, obviously not. I looked but as I wanted to be sure of their size I sent a question to Pendraken on a Sunday, Leon's immediate response was

Image from Pendraken's site

Thanks for the message, the height of the tripods is:

Small = 40mm high
Large = 60mm high

I'll check on the crab walker when I get to work on Monday, I think it's around 30mm or thereabouts.

And that on a Sunday, brilliant service, I bought, they arrived swiftly and they are big, even better they are exactly as I think thy should be, courtesy of  Jeff Wayne's album cover.

Next phase