Hello, I'm a novice modeller, and this is my first post on Armorama, great site by the way!

Actually, I've been modelling all my life, but when I was young, I handled my Tamiya's as toys, and later on my skills got beter, but still, far from perfect! But so every few years, I start again, and again, and again...

So, my first question... I'm not building diorama's that exceeds my skills, but I do like to put some figures with my armour. Unfortunatly, not all figures are able to stand, like for example Tamiya's British Infantry on Patrol, so where can I find "stands" so my figures keep standing. Can I make those myself, and how? I want something like a small plastic bottom where I can glue my figures on so they keep standing.

Thanks in advance!

A small plastic square or rectangle cut-out should be fine for your needs.

However, if you're planning on displaying figures on their own, miniart does a great set of 12 bases that look good are cheap and work for 1 or 2 figures in 1/35. They are called 'bases for figures' and all online retailers of miniart should stock them. They won't really work with a tank or other AFV though unfortunately.

HTH

James

Thanks for the response, this will sounds like a very stupid question, but out what should I cut out the bases?

Any idea's for material, or household objects? I tried to cut them out from a plastic box, but the plastic started cracking...

Couple questions...Are you displaying your armor on a base? Are you planning to display your figures separately or on the base with the armor?

In both cases, you'll want to use a pin vice and drill a hole in one heel of the figure up the leg. If he's kneeling, drill the hole in the knee up the thigh. Now, glue in a piece of wire, brass rod or even a piece of paper clip. The first thing this will do is give you something with which to hold your figure as you paint him.

Now, if the figure is on a base with an armored vehicle, drill a hole in the base where you want the figure and put a drop of superglue, epoxy or even white glue, Insert the wire so that the knee/foot is on the ground.

Now, if you're displaying your figures separately, you'll need to go to a craft store and get some wooen decoupage plaques or unstained wooden blocks. The are typically 2 X2X2 inch cubes and the plaques can be 2X3, 3 inch square, round, oval or many other shapes and designs. These all cost about a US dollar. If you want to keep it really simple, there are usually some thin wooden circles as well.

Stain the wood, apply some ground work with self hardening clay, Celluclay, epoxy putty, etc. You want a surface that doesn't look like your figure is a parking lot, unless, of course, he IS ina parking lot.

Again, drill a hole where you want the figure and insert as noted above.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm putting the figures next to the armour, so it looks like they are one picture, but I don't put them on a base. I just put them in a vitrine, so i need something to hold them standing up.

If I drill a hole in them, I still have the same problem. So I just want a small plastic or other base, that you hardly can see, but that keeps the figures up right. Just like sometimes Tamiya enclosed with some figure sets. The figures enclosed in the Tamiya Sherman M4 105mm have bases enclosed. It's something like that that I'm searching for.

It would be great if i could make them myself...

Hi Dave,
Just try a small piece of clear plastic packaging from anything that comes in a "blister" type pack....it can be tacked on using a tiny spot of superglue or cement.

Incidentally a good cheap source of small bases for single or groups of figures are the lids of coffee jars such as Nescafe.
The section in the centre that has the logo on can be covered with some suitable terrain.

Lids are a good option. I glue my figs to 2 liter (litre) bottle tops to paint them. Gatorade lids work too. With some flat black paint I think they would make passable bases for a home display.

Shaun

Many really great ideas given here. If you want some small plastic bases for the figures, I've used the Games Workshop bases they have for their Warhammer & Warhammer40K figures. These are readily available (on web site as well as the stores) and sold separately in different sizes.

Blade48mrd

Is it this were you are referring to:

http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.uk?do=Individual&code=99080399001&orignav=9