We have a dusting of snow on the ground and the garden is put to bed for the year. Having a bit more spare time now I thought I'd make a painting block suitable for painting 10mm figures, specifically my shiny new ECW collection. The block I already have is best for 15mm-28mm figures, and those poor little 10mm blokes look lost on it.
It's a simple design, based on one a friend of mine uses. Take a block of scrap wood, drill a series of holes in it, fill holes with a number of galvanized nails, and glue the figures to the nail heads using a hot glue gun. The nails make it easy to grip and maneuver the figures to get at all angles with your paintbrush. Bob's your auntie's significant other!
This block will take 45 nails, but I'll typically use fewer than that to allow a bit of handling space. The inaugural batch of figures to grace the block are musketeers for a Parliamentarian regiment of foot. These are Pendraken Miniatures.
I'll paint these up as Edward Montagu's regiment of the Eastern Association, which was raised in Cambridgeshire and issued with russet-red coats. Being early-war Parliamentarian they'd have roughly a 3:2 or 2:1 muskets to pike ratio, which I'm going to represent with 24 musketeer figures to 18 pike, including the command element.
3 comments:
I've seen the idea before but am quite interested in your idea to use hot glue gun.. how do you get the figures off afterwards??
What a great solution.
Thanks, gentlemen!
Steve, hot glue is quick but not that strong. It will hold the figures in place while they're being painted. All it takes to separate the figure afterwards is a quick and gentle cut with a craft knife. The glue residue can be pulled off the base and nail and disposed of. The only caveat I have with using nails is they tend to be cold at this time of year so the glue will set quickly, perhaps too quick to set the figure in place. This is easily fixed too. Just touch the hot glue spout to the blob of glue on the nail head to melt it again. I hope this helps.
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