Monday, October 09, 2006

Workbench Notes:

As I posted yesterday, but was too tired to do the full details, now I shall update my readers about the 'magnetic' basing system I am currently using:

I had a number of draught horse teams and other troops to base and flock.



I am doing the detail images from the draught teams, as they were the only ones I had to do the magnets for.

In the first image I am showing the wooden base platform, with a single neodymium magnet having been glued on with cyanoacrilate (CA+) medium gap filling formula. Since this is a horse team, the horses are also glued to the base. For other troops and commands my normal method is to glue on the magnets in either a 4 (square) pattern for Infantry or Cavalry (on the correct sized bases) or 7 magnets for a Command // Artillery base, as seen in the image. This image has been 'brightened' so that the tiny magnets can be seen in relief on the surface of the wooden base that has been flocked.



Once the draught teams are attached, I then flock over the entire base stand.

This leaves the magnet 'camouflaged' under a layer of flocking.



All of my troops have 'fender washers' CA+ glued to their white metal bottoms. This gives a ferro-magnetic surface to connect or 'stick' to the magnets. These can be seen under the command stand (the large fender washer) or under the running grenadier (small one). For cavalry I put two small ones at each end of the white metal base or one large washer for a division commander or ADC figure. Either way there is enough strength on the 6mm magnets to hold a single 25-28 mm figure, but not with the smaller (seen inset next to a metric ruler) 3mm magnet.

This was my error, in getting the smaller magnets. One I shall not repeat with the next version of my magnetic basing system.



As can be seen with the draught team final image, it is virtually impossible to see the tiny magnet (indeed most players are unaware of it being there as a place to put one of the gun team to show that the artillery is 'limbered').

Overall the effect on the tabletop is great, whenever a man is 'killed' I just gently tip him over on his side and leave him there, on the battlefield. Casualties are very, very simple to keep track of this way. So far only 2 bayonettes (out of hundreds of troops) have every been broken by this action and no cavalry have suffered (though I am always watchful of the 'active' hussar models I have where the horse is on only 1 hoof!).

Yes the 'horse team' shown in these images is one of the ones done using Bluebear Jeff's 'fast horse' method, with a few additions of my own...

Cheers

1 comment:

Bluebear Jeff said...

I can vouch that this system (with the neodymium magnets -- aka "rare earth" magnets) works really well.

I am planning on basing my Saxe-Bearstein troops in this manner.


-- Jeff

http://saxe-bearstein.blogspot.com/