Archive for the 'Papercraft' Category

Aircraft 2.5d – Spitfire, Hurricane, Bf109 and Bf110

supermarine spitfire thumbFinished my first batch of 2.5d WWII paper aircraft for wargaming. I’ve started with the four main aircraft used in the Battle of Britian, well the fighter aircraft. For the Allies there’s the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, for the Axis we have the Messerschmitt Bf109 and Messerschmitt Bf110. I’ve been working on these off and on since December 2013 but only recently finalized a design which was sturdy enough for gaming and allowed me to remove the aircraft models from the bases and stands for easy storage.

Unassembled

 

I designed these as I wanted something a little simplier to build than 1:200 scaled fiddlersgreen aircraft. I made a few of their models shrunk down but they took me on average 2-3hours to assemble a single plane, so I started work on my 2.5d simple designs. I based most of my models on freely available 3 drawings which I turned into vectors using Inkscape. In the case of Bf110 Péter Kaboldy  had already done this and released the 3-views under CC license so I used that as a starting point for the Bf110. About the only fiddly part to assemble on each aircraft is the horizontal stabs, I recommend using superglue to fix them in place. Full credit goes to Reivaj for the basing technique, which I’ve also reused on the underside of the aircraft so they can slipped on and off the stands.

Hawker Hurricane 2_5d paper aircraft

Hawker Hurricane

Supermarine Spitfire 2_5d paper aircraft

Supermarine Spitfire

Messerschmitt Bf 110 2_5d paper aircraft

Messerschmitt Bf 110

Messerschmitt Bf 109 2_5d paper aircraft

Messerschmitt Bf 109

There’s only one colour scheme for each aircraft and I tried to pick the colour scheme which was most likely to have been used during the Battle of Britian. I have included a high contrast version which I think looks better on the table and a more accurate historic version. I’ve included four different types of 25mm hex bases; Ocean, Coast, Farmland and City. The stands/posts I have completed three different types; plain blue, numbered 1-4 and numbered 1-6. The numbered stands are designed to fit in with Wings of War/Glory and the easiest way to track the current flight level is to simply use a paperclip.

wings of war_glory bases and aircraft scaled

I plan to use my models for Wings of War/Glory so I also created some slide bases based on the wings of war aircraft cards. Basically I copied each aircraft card twice. I then cut the central segment out of one copy of the card added a spacer between the top and bottom piece and ended up with a base almost identical to the original card which I can also add the 2.5d aircraft model to. For extra weight I added a thin piece of flex magnetic sheet to the bottom. The description above might be a little vague so I’ve assembled a quick diagram to assist anyone who might wish to make some.

Wings of War_Glory Base

 

 

in addition to Wings of War there are two free rulesets that I want to try out using my models. These are Thunderbolt and Lightning and Pz8 Aerial Combat. Both are hex based games and the rulesets are free so feel free to try them also.

I do plan on completing more aircraft from ww2 and I’ll also do some re-colours of the above aircraft over time. The aircraft files, hex bases and stands are below. I hand cut all my test builds (12 aircraft in total) to ensure they were fairly quick to build and it is possible to assemble 3 aircraft in about an hour including cutting out, edging and gluing together. Unfortunately this means at the moment there are no cut files for the above aircraft, however I will make some at a later date when I do some of the alternate colour schemes (read that as these four were way more work than expected and I need them finished). The below should be more than enough models to replicate some of the air battles from the  Battle of Britain, enjoy :).

Supermarine Spitfire

Hawker Hurricane

Bf109

Bf 110

Bases Hex

Bases Stands

 When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.- Confucius

Battletech – Buildings Sci-Fi Light Commercial

Here are my next lot of battletech buildings, three light commercial buildings to expand the city. The powers on, the roads are down, people are getting comfy in there homes and now they can walk down the road to the corner shop for a quick coffee, a haircut or some dancing at the local night club. As with the houses three designs have been created by the three companies offering building designs to the newly formed city.

Battletech 6mm City Commercial Buildings 1_1
B.O.R.I.N.G Construction Company are back and have truly excelled to bring you an even more lack luster design than before. They have developed a lower level shop unit that can simply be placed down before the existing house design to give you a small shop with an upstairs apartment or a large venue featuring up and downstairs area’s. Fortunately the designers did see clear to add more expansive glass paneling at the store front – bullet resistant glass is available on request for those buildings located in less reputable surroundings.

Battletech 6mm City Commercial Buildings 1_4

 

The next offering is from Cubico Construction Pty Ltd, they have continued with the modular theme for there buildings. They have added a new shop front base with a slightly altered upper floor window configuration module, more suited to use as a small office space or open plan restaurant, they do however offer this new upper floor in an open plan house configuration.

Battletech 6mm City Commercial Buildings 1_5

STAR Industries realizing they needed to keep pace with the other two companies, looked over the back inventory of star ship components and uncovered that they had several thousand units of standard cargo transport pods (HEX-11-21) on hand. Sealing up the entry and exit hatches on the ends and then tipping them on there ends provided a near instant light commercial building. They then simply added some windows, a new door and some internal fit out. For STAR Industries these are cheap to make as they are currently using up there stockpile of transport pods, so if you need a building fast no-ones going to be able to get one on site faster than STAR.

Battletech 6mm City Commercial Buildings 1_6

I’ve included about 23 different shop signs with the buildings so you can make the buildings multiple times and place different signs on each one. I’ve done two different sign types a flat glue on the front sign and a vertical sign. For the vertical sign you’ll need to run a thin film of glue down the edge and bottom to glue it in place, at this scale including glue tabs is near impossible. The second design (Cubico Construction)you should be able to mix and match with the existing pieces to get some interesting looks. Once again I’ve uploaded a copy of the sketchup file to the warehouse(Here).

I’ve created a 32/33mm PDF version and a 38mm (1.5inch) PDF version, links are below enjoy:

Commercial Small One 32_33mm

Commercial Small One 38mm

 

Battletech 6mm City Build So Far

 I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. – Leonardo da Vinci

Papercraft Kuboid Dragon – Something Fun

Will across at Inked Adventures  doodled a nifty little cuboid dragon, which was really awesome so I felt inspired to create this 3D papercraft version of Wills Dragon or Fan art….maybe fan paper model is a better term.

Dragon Papercraft Live Build Christmas Colors S01

I didn’t have any particular design goal in mind when I created the model it really was just made as a fun little dude (or dudette) to hang/sit around the place. For myself I plan to sit one on top of my monitor and I’ll make a few for the old Christmas tree this year to give it a bit of a fantasy theme.

Dragon Papercraft 3 View S01

I did design two slightly different sizes a 6.5 inch long model and a 4.5 inch long model. The larger model fills three pages and the smaller model fits on a single page. I have included four main colours as well as a version you can print and hand to a small assistant to colour in :).

Dragon Papercraft Christmas Colors S01

Not much else to say except here are the files, enjoy 🙂

Kuboid Dragon

Mini Kuboid Dragon

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. – J. R. R. Tolkien

Battletech – Building Sci-Fi Houses

Houses ThumbnailNow that the Power Plant is built and we’ve established some Roads, People have started to move into the Town. Three styles of house have started to spring up designed and built by three different construction companies but with a sci-fi look and feel (hopefully) – Sorry to much Simcity again :).

Houses Scene

First up we have the Bunker by the B.O.R.I.N.G Construction Company. A fairly simple industrial looking concrete bunker building, used for both military and civilian purposes. Quick and cheap to build and extremely sturdy.  The company plans to extend the range for the military by offering rooftop mounted weapon modules in the future.

Sci-fi House 1

 

Cubico Construction Pty Ltd is providing a more modern look to their buildings in a two story layout. With the top floor of the building dedicated to the living areas/bedrooms and the lower floor for the garage/workshop/laundry space.  Appealing to the more affluent members of the city, these buildings are  more expensive to build due to the extensive use of large glass panels. Due to the square design the floors can be built offsite and then moved into location and bolted together, this also enables the floors to bolted together differently or added to at the client request very easily.

Sci-fi House 2

 

Lastly STAR Industries a former spaceship building company has entered the housing market to try and bolster there income streams.  There design more than a little resembles the spaceships they normally design and assemble. This does however mean the designs are strong and suitable for both civilian and military use.  Unfortunately the interiors also resemble spaceships, with bulkhead doors used in some of the cheaper fit outs. Great for military applications but not so much for your daily household when little Tommy continually trips over the door jam.

Sci-fi House 3

Messed up the texturing on this one, should only have a doorway on the right

Okay enough fluff stuff :). I used the same texture pack that I used for the power plant so the houses have a consistent look and feel with the power plant. I’ve also uplaoded a copy of the sketchup file to the warehouse, not sure if that will be useful to anyone in the future (Here). I’ve created a 32/33mm PDF version and a 38mm (1.5inch) PDF version, links are below enjoy:

Houses Group One 32_33mm

Houses Group One 38mm

Houses Only

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest – Benjamin Franklin

 

Battletech – Roads Asphalt

6mm Asphalt Road Tiles Decorative CircleNow that we have power on our Battletech map-board we need some roads so people can move around and start to build the city…maybe I’ve played a little to much Simcity in my time. Some simple asphalt road tiles to spread around your map board to give it more of a city feel. Later I may do some transition tiles for cross-country roads so they meld better with a green background.

The road tile image I created myself using base textures, there’s not to much to a simple road tile, concrete, asphalt and some drop shadows and your pretty much done. I did throw on some drains and rubbish but at this scale you’ll need a magnify glass to see them. As Battletech runs in two very different scales, 1:300 for the miniatures and 1:900 for the ground scale I struggled a little with what to do. In the end I scaled the road widths to about 1:300 so two 1:300 cars can be placed on each road half and not look strange. The car-park tile I split the difference and just made the parking spots about 1:500 no particular reason other than it looked okay.  Later I might do a proper drop in 1:300 scale car-park area in various hex sizes making the single tile redundant but it works for now.

Asphalt Road Tiles 1200x900

It would seem that hex size on the old Battletech maps and the new Battletech maps is different. Not by much 32mm vs 33mm. However that 1mm causes big problems when you string 10 road tiles together in a long straight suddenly your either half hex short or half hex to long. So the only solution I could see was to export a version at 32mm and a version at 33mm. If your using mostly new map-boards or the downloaded map sheets from RPGnow. It is safest to stick with the 33mm size, if you have a ton of old printed map sheets from the 80s/90s go with the 32mm sized tiles, If your not sure I’d run with the 33mm as that’s what the new stuff seems to be created in. I also created a 38mm/1.5inch version for those playing on a larger hex size. If someone has a need for some other odd size feel free to leave a comment and I’ll export a copy at that size (hex dimensions flat to flat in mm) – not promising it’ll have the layer options :). Due to this 32/33 discrepancy I’ll also need to upload a new base for the power plant in 33mm but I’ll do this when I get time to finish the page of plain concrete pieces.

Asphalt Road Tiles mockup  1200x900

I used the Megamek Road tiles to check I had included all the various turn shapes etc, hopefully I haven’t missed any. Later on I might try and pull together a high tech road set if I can find some inspiration but for the moment I’ve got more than enough basic models to work on. No cut files as they seemed a tad redundant as you’ll need to glue the tiles to some heavier weight card and cut around them so the tiles have more heft/durability. I’d recommend box board, matt board, cereal box card as good starters to back the tiles to, or you can do what I did and mount them on 0.8mm magnetic sheet. They are much easier and quicker to cut out with scissors than using a box cutter or scalpel blade.

To prevent them slipping around you can paint the backs with a thin layer of PVA glue or if you can get hold of it that paint on rubber stuff that should help a little with keeping them in place (trusty old blu-tak will also work). If you do use magnetic sheet simply place a big piece of flat tin/steel (1.5mm thick) under your paper map and then drop the tiles on and they wont shift and as a bonus the map sheet wont move either. Links to the pdf files are below- enjoy 🙂

Roads Asphalt 32mm hex 1.25 inches

Roads Asphalt 33mm hex 1.3 inches

Roads Asphalth 38mm hex 1.5 inches

Step with care and great tact ,and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. – Dr. Seuss 

 

Battletech – Building Sci-Fi Power Plant

There is not to much card/paper hex based terrain around the internet that is designed to neatly fit on the standard 32mm or 1-3/16 inch Battletech hex without overhanging. As a sort of sub project in one of the several larger projects I’ve been working on, here is a Sci-fi power plant designed to fit neatly inside 5 standard Battletech hex’s.

Final Picture Scaled

Battlemechs not included 🙂

I designed the simple mesh in sketchup and then retrieved one of the many free sci-fi texture packs available across the internet to texture the mesh in GIMP – Full credit to Philipk across at the polycount forum for making the textures freely available. I did do some recolouring and tweaking to textures so they looked better on printout although at 6mm scale, textures are pretty redundant by the time the printer prints them.

PowerGeneratorOneSketchupColours

I did do two size varieties a standard 32mm 1-3/16inch hex size model and a 38mm 1 – 1/2 inch hex size model. Essentially the larger is just an upscale of the smaller although I kept the single door at about 7mm tall on both. My goal for the 32mm model was to have all the parts on a single page which was a bit of tight squeeze but they all fit with a bit of careful placement, unfortunately the 38mm model spans two pages.  I did a cutfile for the 32mm version which I also test built, although my cutter is playing up again so use the cut file at your own risk. The larger 38mm model has no cutfile – sorry, but I did include the rego marks in the 38mm pdf so generating one from the 32mm cut file should be easy enough if you have the desire. Minimal instructions included as most of the shapes are pretty simple box’s and half circles to assemble, although I have included an exploded view of the completed model inside the PDF’s and a few assembly dot points.

Exploded Image

I’ve uploaded a copy of the cleaned up sketchup file with the blue textures in place to the sketchup warehouse (Here). I have some plans for a modified 15mm and 30mm version for normal sized wargaming but I’ll have to see if I have time pull those together later on.

Power Plant One 32mm 1-25 inch

Power Plant One 38mm_1-5 Inch

Rename the studio file from .txt to .studio once you’ve downloaded it

Power Plant One 32mm cut File

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Flipit Black X – Commanders

Flipit Black X Commander Hanz Gewehr MiniI’ve been slowly working my way through building the Black X faction for Flipit. I’ve got a tub full of half finished Black X troops still to go but the commanders and almost all the vehicles are finished (One Tank to go).

The Black x faction for Flipit has four commanders as someone pulled together an extra commander who suspiciously resembles Colonel Klink. The three commanders done by Newobmij have special abilities I was unable to locate any special rules for Hauptman (Col Klink 🙂 ). I’ll either have to make up some of my own or simply sub the abilities for one of the others in.

Flipit Black X CommandersI wanted to give my Black X faction for flipit a city base theme, It probably seems odd to some people to have a basing theme for paper miniatures. However paper, plastic or metal good basing can really help finish off the miniatures and tie the army together. For the four commanders I made up some slightly raised bases so it looks like they are standing on the pavement in front of a road. I’m not sure it quiet works. It does give them a slight lift that should make them stand out from the regular troops so for the moment I’m happy with the effect. As I wasn’t sure this would work I magnetized the base of the miniatures and the top of the pavement surface so the miniatures can be removed from their bases easily (Erwin Muttonschnitzel needed this anyway).

Flipit Black X Commanders Magnetic BasesFat Dragon Games Capital City used for bases

Nothing much to mention in the assembly of Four Black X commanders for Flipit. Hanz Gewehr, Gunter Donnerfaust, Muttonschnitzel and Hauptmann all go together fairly easily. Donnerfausts claw and Hauptmanns crop were a little fiddly but this will have been because I’m building at 75% of full size.

Flipit Black X Commander Hauptmann

Flipit Black X Commander Hanz Gewehr

Flipit Black X Commander Gunter Donnerfaust

Flipit Black X Commander Erwin Muttonschnitzel

Captian Erwin Muttonschnitzel is a little different his special ability lets him drive (command an Uberpanzer). When I dropped him into the top of the Uberpanzers turret his arms naturally caught and he was suspended at a terrible angle. I created a little magnetic stool for him to stand on when driving the tank this means he pokes out a little more than normal but lets him stand straight. This issue was probably caused as I built the Uberpanzer as with the Blue Falcons Tank at 100% not 75%.

Flipit Black X Commander Erwin Muttonschnitzel Tank Riser

Flipit Black X Commander Erwin Muttonschnitzel Uberpanzer (Tank)

The commanders for the Black X army are now ready to lead there troops into battle. Muttonschnitzel is peppering me with tiny tank fire demanding I hurry up and finish the troops so they can face off against their adversaries the Blue Falcons….I better get back to building those troops before he ups the fire rate 🙂 .

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. – Buddha

Papercraft Build – Onemonk Hybrid Cannoneer

Onemonk Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer SmallThe onemonk site has not had a new release in a while but two days ago the Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer was released.  For those who missed it  Squirmydad took over custodianship of the onemonk website and all the content 4-5 months ago. Squirmydad has spent the past few months re-releasing all the old sets.  Now  the back catalog is back up he has released the first new set the Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer. Many of us have been waiting a longtime for this model ever since Onemonk showed some concept art 2-3 years ago… hmm maybe longer. I needed a break from building Flipit Black X troopers (25 waiting for arms) so I decided to build a Cannoneer.

Onemonk Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer all

The Cannoneer is a large model, think of it as either a light vehicle or small mech rather than as a single human sized model. The Cannoneer comes with four different weapons an Acid Lobber (right end), Spike Cannon (Left end) and two different types of claws (middle). These all mount to the top edge of the carapace, although I think I’ll be using the claws more for mods or possibly mount them down lower.

Onemonk Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer Spike Cannon

Onemonk Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer Acid Lobber

You can mount the weapons permanently or the Spike Cannon and Acid Lobber fit tightly enough that you can leave them as swappable weapon options (what I’ll be doing). I will be spraying mine with clear matte varnish so that the printed surface doesn’t take to much wear when sliding them on and off.

Onemonk Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer Claws Two

Onemonk Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer Claws One

Once I finished wrestling with my printer (its getting a little old 🙂 )the assembling of the model wasn’t difficult but it did take some time, this is fine if you remember the model equates to a light mecha or vehicle rather than a single  humanoid trooper. The Chimera Cannoneer will certainly help round out the Chimera Brood as they have been sorely lacking some heavier units/fire support. Unfortunately all the other Chimera models I had built were destroyed when the roof leaked in our back sun room so I’ll have to rebuild all the others from scratch again. This will be after the Black X army and the Orcs I’m working on, so many fun things so little time.

Onemonk Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer Ambush

If your looking for a Xenomorph styled Army but don’t want figure flats or are willing to spend a little more time building up the 2.5d Chimera Brood, drop across to RPGnow and pick up the whole set and then grab the Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer. I’m pretty sure you wont be disappointed and the sets even though a little old  (except the Chimera Hybrid Cannoneer) are still great value for money.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.  – Buddha

Flipit Blue Falcons – Vehicles

Blue Falcons JetHere are the Blue Falcon Vehicles from Flipit, I’ve built all the vehicle types except the Agile II. I will only build that model if I can find a copy of the Red Hammer mech. I’ve  included some notes and handy pointers from when I assembled each vehicle, hopefully these will be helpful for anyone else who may wish  to build their own Blue Falcon army.

First up for the Blue Falcons Motor pool we have the bikes. These are a pretty simple build cut out and score the lines, then fold up one side and glue the front back strip in place, then glue the other side up. I then glued some small rocks into the inside of the bike to help weight the base down. I did push my riders down a little far when I glued them in.

Flipit Blue Falcons Bike Vehicle

Next up is the AA Microtank (Night Owl), I found this model the hardest of all the Blue Falcon vehicles to assemble. Scaling it down to 75% meant the little gun barrels were extremely difficult to roll. So on one of my Microtanks I cheated by replacing the paper gun barrels with toothpicks  cut to the correct length and coloured yellow. The tracks were also a little fiddly but the best way I found to assemble them was to glue the track base to both sides and then wrap the ends around and glue in place. There are not many references around about how to build the Microtank so I pulled together a quick reference page which will hopefully be a helpful to others who might wish to build one.

Flipit Blue Falcons Night Owl Microtank Vehicle

Flipit Blue Falcons AA Microtank Reference

 All Troops need some form of APC and the Blue Falcons come equipped with a rugged 4×4 called the Osprey. The model came together pretty easily, I did modify the windshield and inserted a small clear panel. I glued 4 troops into the vehicle permanently for two reasons; firstly as I based all my soldiers they wont fit in the vehicle with bases and secondly I didn’t want to be fiddling around pulling out and putting troops into the transport mid game much easier to just deploy a unit and mark the vehicle empty.  There are a number of completed pictures of the transport around the place but as with above Microtank I pulled together a quick 1 page assembly reference.

Flipit Blue Falcons Osprey Transport Vehicle

Flipit Blue Falcons Transport Reference

To protect the skies the Blue Falcons can deploy a Fighter Jet (Peregrine).  This is my favorite model for the blue falcon army (followed by the Micro tank), there’s something about it which just makes it cool and fun looking  (I deny all knowledge of sitting around swooshing jets through the air making engine noises). They were however a little fiddly to pull together at 75%. Make sure you have a pen or something thin handy to push/pull/press tabs into place while they glue. Newobmij put together some assembly instructions for the jets. I did build my own custom flight stands which are magnetized and let me store the jets much more easily, I did however make them a little tall and may need to shorten them a little in future.

Flipit Blue Falcons Peregrine Fighter Jet Vehicle One

Flipit Blue Falcons Peregrine Fighter Jet Vehicle Two

Lastly we have the Blue Falcon Tank. I did build a 75% version of this tank but it just seemed a little small for the main line Tank so I rebuilt the tank(s) at 100%. With everything else scaled to 75% this gives the tanks a much more impressive presence on the table, well to me. I’ll be building the other faction tanks at 100% as well. Newobmij has also done a very nice sequence of pictures showing assembly of this tank. The only other minor change I made was that instead of using the paper/card axle I replaced this with a Kebab skewer cut to correct length, it was the perfect size as an axle and much straighter and stronger than anything I could roll from card/paper.

Flipit Blue Falcons Tank Vehicle One

Flipit Blue Falcons Tank Vehicle Two

Lastly I needed some way to store my miniatures, so I grabbed two blue CD box’s from an Office supply store. For one of the CD boxes  I created a lift in and out module to hold the soldiers. The 2nd box will be used to store the Agile II (assuming I build it) and all the vehicles, if I need I can fit several units of troops on the top floor of the lift in and out module and several vehicles on the bottom so if I’m traveling anywhere I can take a single box with enough troops to game with.

Flipit Blue Falcons Carrier Storage One

Flipit Blue Falcons Carrier Storage Two

Well that’s enough troops to field a fairly hefty Blue Falcon army so I’ll move on a build a similar sized black X army. Although I’m really not looking forward to making another 50+ Soldiers :).

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value – Albert Einstein

How to Base Paper Miniatures – Part 2

Paper Miniatures Litko Base Hexagon ZeroI detailed a few of the DIY options available for paper miniature basing here. However there are a few (and I mean a few) commerical options for bases around the web for paper miniatures.

I’m not going to cover the option of simply buying pre-cut plain flat wooden/plastic bases as pretty much that’s the same as permanent flat basing I mentioned in the previous blog post, be it with a little less cutting. I should mention all my paper miniatures are built using 220gsm (140lb) card which means by the time the front and backs are glued together it equates to 440gsm (280lb) thickness. If your using thinner card the bases may not grip as well as they did for me.

The first option are bases described as “card stands”. I’ve only found these as round bases approximately 20mm (3/4 inch) in diameter made of that hard plastic material approximately 6mm tall from base to the top . There are similar bases which are square but unfortunately these are 30mm in size (1 1/4 inch) and a little big for my uses.  Both do come in a wide range of colours and they are pretty cheap, they work out to about 10-20cents (AUD each) and I managed to find them at a few different web stores in various countries (UK round 1 UK round 2, US square 1, US square 2). Basically these stands all work the same they have little offset plastic nodules inside the slot which grab the miniature base tab.

Paper Miniatures Card Base 20mm Round

Over time these bases could slowly tear or wear out the base tab (best to slide them in sideways to minimize damage). However if your at all worried you can always strength the base tab by coating it with super glue this will virtually turn the card into plastic. At the end of the day though if a miniatures tab gets to beat up which should take a fair old while simply reprint the miniature, that is one of the advantages of paper miniatures :). Value for money wise these bases are great so long as you don’t mind the restriction of either 20mm round or 40mm square and your miniatures sitting a little tall. Even if your not sure  grabbing a bag they wont break the bank.

Paper Miniatures Card Base 20mm Round Two

Next up we have the Rolls Royce of paper miniatures stands by Litko games. The bases are custom created/made by Litko so there is a far wider range of choices 12 different shapes and sizes from circles, squares, rectangles and hexagons in various sizes from 20mm to 50mm. They are available in three colours; clear, clear-bronze and solid-black. The bases themselves are cut from 3mm thick acrylic and work by having a slightly curved slot which holds the miniature in place. If you buy a bag of 50 bases they work out at 40cents (USD each), if you stretch it to a bag of 100 they work out slightly cheaper.

Paper Miniatures Litko Base Hexagon One

I tried very hard to shake a miniature out of the base but the bases stubbornly refused to let go of the miniature, so I think Jim over at Litko has designed the curve of the holding slot perfectly. The curve is slight enough that miniatures are not permanently bent and when removed they go back to flat very quickly, the bigger base also means the miniatures are slightly tougher to knock over compared to the 20mm card stands above. I picked up a bag 25mm clear hexagons and will definitely pick up some more bases.

Paper Miniatures Litko Base Hexagon Two

I can’t really recommend one base type over the other, if your in the US and get that super cheap shipping from Litko I’d say just jump at the Litko bases. For the rest of us scattered around the globe paying ridiculous postage no matter what. If your on a very tight budget grab the cheaper bases they’ll be more than acceptable. If you have a few more $$$ to spend grab the Litko bases you wont be disappointed.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. – Mark Twain


Project Status


WWII Project First Release

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B-tech Buildings Five

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Design Victorian era City

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Something Different

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