Don’t cut your hand. Don’t glue your fingers
One of the most problematic things for many people in Infinity the Game are the metal miniatures. They say metals are hard to clean, hard to glue, and complicated to base. It’s a problem especially for a player coming to Infinity from a game with resin or plastic models. It’s something new and sometimes scares them away. So today a bit of simple advice – what I do with my models to make them fast ans simple ready to paint.
What do you need?
– Tools. Today will be an episode with super glue and sharp tools, so be very careful with your modeling knife and other dangerous thinks! 😉
Tool you will need:
- Sharp modeling knife.
- Sharp, solid modeling clippers.
- Some sanding paper or similar tool (more about this later).
- Good cyanoacrylate adhesive (super glue or similar).
- Modeling drill and various drills (size depends on basing method).
- A base for the miniature.
- Some basing materials. I use a rolling pin from GSW and some modeling putty, like grey Miliput).
These last three are for basing.
First – make it look smooth!
You first need to remove all traces of the molding process from the miniature, just like with plastic and resin models. First use clippers to cut off all the flash [large bits leftover from the mold filling]. Be careful to not cutoff any details, especially barrels and aerials. It will be very difficult to repair. Don’t cut to close to the model surface, you don’t want to risk damaging it. Then use knife to clean up the cut.
I used a modeling/paper knife with retracting blade, but you can use an X-Acto Knife or similar. It must be sharp! It may surprise you, but if your tools are not sharp enough you will have greater chance of cutting yourself. You will need to use more strength with a dull blade and as you add pressure the knife is more likely to slip and cut yourself or worse, damage the figure.
When you cutout all spare elements, You have to find and remove that tiny line around any piece, where the two halves of the mold met in the production process. I usually use a knife, but not to cut, rather to smooth the mold lines with backside of the blade edge. It’s like shaving but in opposite direction. It usually do more than 90% of work.
On very complicated figures I use files. My newest discovery are high grade manicure tools like an elastic nail file. Usually I use very fine sandpaper, for this figure I used 400, on some elastic block or handle. It’s great because it’s adjusts to the shape of the object you are polishing. It’s very useful for the finish especially on big flat areas of armor or helmets after removing any mold lines. You can also use some filing “toothpicks”, small rods with abrasive tip, to polish complicated shapes, like cloth folds, with minimal risk of damaging details.
The next step is the metal “bridge” under model’s feet. You can’t just cut it off and glue the models feet flat to the base like you do with a plastic or resin model. Ok, you can, but a metal model is usually too heavy and glue under the feet will not make a strong enough bond to keep it in place. I don’t know about you, but I want model stronger and firm standing on base, not flying around when touched.
We have here 3 options - at least I use 3 of them. If you use a standard flat base with slot and want just to add some texture and grass, this bar can stay. You will place it in the slot and fill all any gaps with Greenstuff, Miliput or any other modeling putty. Then, you can add anything you want to the surface, just like with a plastic model. Straight and simple.
Another method is cutting the bar off with jewelry saw or clippers, making a flat, parallel surface under feet/boots and drilling holes for wire. That’s how many painters do it. They use a painting handle with a cork head and use the same wire to fix the model to cork and later to the base. It's good method, just drill holes in right places of the base to proper fix model. In my opinion, this works best with resin bases because your wire pins are in a fixed position in the base straight to the bottom.
I use third and a bit more complicated procedure. First, I cut out the “bridge” between the legs. I need just the parts of the bar straight under the feet. The best way is to cut it off with a saw… but I’m a little bit lazy and usually use clippers. This creates a little problem, because clippers have a heavy and thick blade and will spread legs a little. So, after cutting off the bar I need to fix the position of the legs and create parallel surfaces under the boots/feet for gluing. I than use a blade and file to transform remaining part of the bar into a more or less cylindric shape, thick for about 5-6 mm. It’s a part of a model so it will stay in position and it's thick enough to add some gluing surface and make a stronger bond. Unlike a wire pin it will work well with a standard hollow, plastic base. That's why I prefer to do it this way.
Don’t glue your fingers
When the model is ready you should clean it. I use dishwashing soap and water. This is to degrease the model and clean all the dust and shavings from previous procedures. Now, it’s time for glue… and a pinch of theory. For plastic the best option is special plastic glue, but in fact it doesn’t glue things, it dissolving the surfaces of the plastic elements and melds them together. So for a good bond you need two surfaces fitting each other as much as possible.
With metal and resin you just can’t use that trick with melting, so you need something what will stick to them as hard as possible. In 99% of situations the best option will be cyanoacrylate adhesive (strictly speaking - some kind of Super Glue). To help it stick to the surface you don’t need a very smooth but the opposite, a slightly rough surface. If the points of contact are flat and big enough you can cut some crisscrossed lines on it, but usually just don’t polish it.
For resin and metal I use gel cyanoacrylate adhesive, but it’s a question of personal choice. I like it because it's ticker then standard superglue so stays in, it won’t drip or flow too much.
First I always check how the parts fit together without glue. If a part of the model fits well and I don’t see big gaps I just glue them. Sometimes fitting it you will find that inside joint is some mold line or other problem easy to fix with a blade or file.
Older models sometimes have surfaces too small for good gluing and need some pining – drilling holes and using wire to fix parts in position. New Infinity models (N3 and N4) are better designed with a system of contact areas fixing them in the right positions. In really big models, like TAGs, sometimes you will have a problem with fitting the big parts and have some gaps. Some people use superglue and small paces of paper tissue to fill them and make a stronger bond but I prefer to use some epoxy, a two-component adhesive like Poxipol. It makes very hard bond and works like modeling putty – fills the gaps and you can easily cut out or fill if it flows somewhere you don’t want it. One way or another, here we have the model glued and ready to be based.
It’s all about the base…
Almost anyone has a favorite way to make bases. I was scratch building bases for many years but now I acquired ZEN wisdom – “If you make models for play, don’t spend on base time you can use to make the model better or start another one”. It’s easy to spend a lot of time adding some details to the base, but on the game table almost all will wannish. People will look at the upper half of your model, it’s face/head and gun, the rest is just a background for it.
I like simple bases, and usually use some texture and drybrush with few tufts for good effect, but… I don’t think it fits to Infinity. I don’t know about you, but I play 90% of my Infinity games on industrial, spaceship or city tables. So I need something urban or spaceship in feel. For Bakunin and Corregidor I used industrial/old-spaceship bases with chipped paint, cables, and metal grids. For Tunguska I wanted something with a hacker-city-cyberpunk vibe.
My revelation was the GreenStuffWorld Triple Hex rolling pin. It’s an interesting pattern, but you can look for something different or make some kind of a rolling pin using a 3D printer. Using a Rolling pin is easy and gives you the option to make bases with interesting textures in any size and shape. Also it’s a one-time expense and you can make as may bases as you need in the same style. You also can use few different rolling pins to add some style. I will add some industrial style grids and elements with Factory Ground rolling pin. This type of base you cen decorate with other elements, bits, cables, things like that.
But first - the rolling pin base. How to do it? I mix some Miliput, roll it flat to the correct thickness on some parchment paper or something similar. Miliput sticks to most surfaces, so it’s good idea to choose something to prevent you from cutting out bases from your workspace. When the surface of the putty is even and flat I smear it with a little bit of oil to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin recesses. Then I use one slow roll with even pressure. If the patter is correct I cut base-size circles with special metal rings; the rest of the putty can be reused. If something goes wrong I can always start again with all the material. Miliput is flexible enough to be formed for about an hour, but you can continue to use the rolling pin longer than that.
Then let the bases dry for a few hours and you will have strong, tick base toppers. I usually use sandpaper to make them little thinner – It’s easier to make the texture when the Miliput is thicker, but I don’t want my models to be elevated too much compared to a standard base. Grinding can also be used to help make the surface flat and straight even when you make a mistake in the forming process. I used to glue a Miliput topper, with superglue, on top of standard plastic or MDF base. I use now more MDF bases because they are thinner than standard bases and Miliput topper adds few millimeters. Also, the MDF bases have a flat bottom that I use for self-adhesive magnetic foil stickers on my Tunguska.
Now, with the model and base both ready you can try to make them fit together. I usually check a few positions of the model on the base before I choose the final one. A smart way is to fix the model in position is to use a little bit of paint on the pins under the models feet and press them on the base to mark places for holes. I’m as I said a little lazy, so usually I drill the first hole and then check where the second foot will be placed.
One way or another, I will drill holes fitting the size of the pins – tight but not to the point of braking the Miliput topper. I always check how it looks and if the feet are positioned flat on the surface. If everything is ok, I will use superglue end voila! – the model is ready for painting.
[NOTE] I would like to thank Polynikes Ulaties for helping Me with this text.
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