How To Base Figures

Someone asked me how I do my bases. I would direct you to the master, who taught me what I know, and that is Frank Hammond of Minden Miniatures fame. Click on the link to view Frank's excellent tutorial on terraining bases and applying static grass:

http://mindenminis.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-i-do-my-bases.html


Whenever you see one of my bases that has a darker ground and has static grass, then you will know that I am using The Hammond Method.

The other bases that use flock employ the Old Fritz Method. I have to rush off to dinner right now, but I will be back to explain that and add more detail.

OK, I'm back from a fine curry dinner that Mrs. Fritz made. I love that gal!

Old Fritz Bases

I used to (and sometimes still do) use quarter-inch foam core for movement trays. These are easy to make as you just slice them up with a Box Cutter Knife, watch out for those fingers, and then slap some magnetic sheet on top of them.

The main drawback to foamcore bases is that they don't have a nice finished look to them. Oftentimes, the knife blade gets dull and as a result, big chunks of foam are gouged out of the edge as you cut your base to size. It doesn't look very good. When I started using this method for movement trays, it was always intended that these would be temporary bases. My plan was to eventually remake all movement trays from MDF wood. So this is what I am gradually migrating to. (never end a sentence with a preposition).

My new system is to purchase premade or custom made (bespoke basing to those of you in the UK) MDF bases from a local entrepreneur who sells the bases under the name of "Georgo Bases". I presume that his first or last name is George. Georgo will also cut bases to any size, so this what I am doing now. For my SYW armies, which are mounted on one-inch square metal bases, I find that I need about a quarter inch overlap on the length and width of the movement tray. So a 15 figure stand of five files by three ranks (5" + 1/4" = 5-1/4" wide by 3" + 1/4" = 3-1/4" deep) has the dimensions shown in the parenthesis. This gives my chubby little fingers some extra room to pick up the movement tray if needed.

You can buy premade Georgo bases from the Games Plus hobby store in Mount Prospect, Illinois or from The Last Square in Madison, Wisconsin. Both stores have on-line web pages that you can google. Whenever I need a custom size base, I simply call the owner of Games Plus and give him my order requirements and he then passes the information on to Georgo. I usually get the custom sized bases back within a couple of weeks, sometimes sooner.

For the figure bases, I use precut galvanized steel bases made by Wargame Accessories. Many stores in the US carry this line of bases and I usually get mine at Games Plus. I use 1" square for the Seven Years War and 3/4" square for Napoleonics and Colonials. I think that the 3/4" square bases look better, as the soldiers are packed in closer together. However, many of our Surens and Redoubt and some other figures have large bases that will not fit on the 3/4" base. This is why Bill Protz and I went with the larger bases for our BAR SYW armies.

OK, so I clean and prime the figures, then glue them to the metal base and then prime them all in one shot. This covers the metal with a coat of dark primer (I typically use black primer) so that the shiny metal doesn't pop through the basing material and detract from the appearance. I used to glue the painted figures to the shiny metal base, then paint the base brown, then cover the base with spackle mixture.

Then I had one of those "DOH!" moments and realized that I could eliminate the time consuming step of repainting every single metal base black, if I just sprayed it with primer at the same time that I was priming the figure.

At this point, my method is similar to Frank Hammond's other than the fact that I use flock instead of static grass. This is faster, since it can all be done in one easy step. However, it doesn't look as nice as Frank's Method.

I mix brown paint into a quart pail of Red Devil Pre-mixed Spackle Compound, which you can buy at any hardware store or home improvement chain store. I like the texture and consistency of the Red Devil brand. I don't like the generic or store brands of spackle as much, even though they cost less. Mix in the paint directly from the paint jar and stir until the goop looks like chocolate pudding.

Then, using a small artists' palette knife, I trowel in the spackle compound around the base and between the legs. I quickly sprinkle some Games Workshop or Gale Force 9 fine gravel onto the wet spackle. Then, just as quickly, I sprinkle on some Woodlands Scenics "Burnt Grass" flock and presto! I am done. Set the figure aside for about an hour or two, afterwhich it will be completely dry. If you want, you can then dry brush some tan or light colored paint onto the parts of the base where you did not put any flock or gravel. This provides some highlights. Now you are done. I find that it takes me about 30 to 60 seconds per figure to base up a battalion or a squadron

You might have noticed some flat pieces of wood that are embedded into the 2" diameter round command bases. These are strips of mahogony, cherry or walnut that I buy at a local hobby shop. Eventually, I will print out the name of the general on my laser printer and glue the label onto the wooden plaque. It gives it a nice professional looking finish.

When I have a lot of time and am not in a hurry, I now prefer the Frank Hammond Method of basing. But when I am in a hurry, I resort to the Old Fritz Method. Either one will do the job.

Happy basing everyone!

French Limber Team

French artillery limber circa 1805-06 from Front Rank Miniatures. Click pix to enlarge.

I finished my first of eight French artillery limber teams that I purchased from Front Rank Miniatures about a month ago. I started Friday night and finished the team (7 Olley Painting Points) on Saturday afternoon and started the basing process, which takes several steps. Here you can see the semi-finished product before I apply a coating of brown ink on the base, dry brush some tan paint, and then apply the static grass.

I used some sheets of polystyrene that were laying about the workshop and cut them to a dimension of 7 inches long by 2-1/4 inches wide so that I would have enough extra space to attach an artillery piece to the limber. I do not glue my cannons and crew to a single stand, but rather keep the cannon standing free without a base and I put the crewmen on 3/4 inch square metal bases, finished off with spackle compound, paint and flock. So when it is time to move the gun model, I can simply attach it to the limber and take off!


Here is the Front Rank limber with an Elite Miniatures French howitzer hooked up for a ride. In the background, you can see either a Dixon or Essex (I can't recall which of the two made it) French caisson team.

It seemed a rather daunting task to assemble all of the parts for painting and then carefully glue them onto the plastic base, but the whole process turned out easier than I had imagined it to be. I went back and forth in my mind as to whether I might want to use only two horses and one rider, or go with the four horse and two rider team. However, after painting the whole team and finding it relatively easy to affix to the base system, I have decided to go with the full four horse team. Each one of my French guns will have a similar limber. The battery will be comprised of six gun models (2 howitzers and 4 8-pounders), their respective limbers, and one ammunition caisson team.


Four of the six guns that will make up one of my French line artillery batteries.

So there you have it - the start of the limber building process. I was afraid to tackle this project, but as is so often the case, once you start on a project, it is not as difficult as you might have imagined it to be. I am currently cleaning and getting two more limber teams ready for the primer and hopefully should have them finished by the end of this coming week. The French artillery battery should look downright awesome once all of its elements are in place: guns, crew, battery officer and ADC, limber teams and caissons.

En avant!

General Gudin & Staff

General de Division Gudin (center) and his staff including Generals de Brigade Petit (left) and Gautier (right) along with their aides de camp. Elite Miniatures figures. Click the pix to enlarge the view.

I have been spending the last several days working on the command figures and staff officers for my 1806 French and Prussian armies. I had set up all of my forces on my wargame table so that I could see how they look all at one time. This also highlights what is missing and what needs to be painted next. After doing this exercise, it was clear to me that I needed to paint an aide de camp for each officer.

My basing system uses a round base for the division and brigade commanders and a rectangular base for the staff. This way, when I look at the figures on the table, I can instantly pick out the Big Kahuna from the staff at a glance. The long pieces of wood that you see on each stand is where I will glue on the name tag for the particular general. The ID tags will be printed out in a nice looking font and glued to the wooden placque with white glue.


French light cavalry commander for Davout's III Corps in 1806, Generale de Brigade Vialannes and his ADC. Elite Miniatures figures (French Guard Chasseurs a Cheval command figures).

Eventually, I will have Gudin's 3rd division of eight battalions of 72 figures, one division battery of foot artillery, and to cap it off, the corps' light cavalry brigade. This was commanded by Vialannes, who was not viewed positively by Davout and later transferred out of the corps. I may change history a little bit and promote Colonel Exelmans of the 1er Chasseurs a Cheval to the command of the light cavalry brigade. The brigade will consist of the 1er, 2eme and 12eme regiments of chasseurs plus one battery of horse artillery.

I will post pictures of the Prussian general staff tomorrow. I am also working on additional artillery crews for both the French and the Prussians and hope to be able to post some pictures of the larger batteries within a few days.

1806 Update

I took a little break from painting figures this weekend and spent some time finishing off the bases of all of my command figures for both French and Prussian armies. That worked out to 15 different bases needing spackle, brown ink wash, a dry brushing of tan paint, and finishing off with some static grass.

Each brigade will have one brigadier general on a round base plus one Aide-de-Camp on a rectangular 1-inch by 2-inch wooden base. The shape of the base will instantly identify the stand as either that of a commander or that of his ADC. Each figure will eventually have his name printed out on a piece of paper and glued to the base. Thus the gamer will know who his command figure represents, and who knows, maybe over time, some brigadiers will perform incredible feats on the battlefield, while others may turn out to be cowards, slackers or poltroons (or all three!).

Setting the command figures and the brigades out on my home table top also gives me a better idea of what I need to do to get the army into game shape. The French are doing fairly well as I now have General de Division Gudin and his ADC painted, as well as those of his two brigadiers Generals de Brigade Petit and Gautier plus their ADCs. The French light cavalry commander, General de Brigade Jacquinot and his ADC in hussar mufti are completed and based, but my heavy cavalry command figure of d'Hautpoul needs his own ADC. I can see that I also need to paint an artillery commander and an assistant.

On the Prussian side, I have three infantry brigadiers, one division commander and one cavalry commander. However, all of the Prussian generals need ADCs. So I spent some time this afternoon selecting the appropriate figures to use for Prussian ADCs and then doing the prep work so that I can prime them later this week. I have yet to select names for the Prussians, other than Blucher, who will command the Prussian cavalry in 1806.

The command stand basing looked so good (and thank you again to Frank Hammond for teaching me his method of applying static grass to bases) that it had me thinking about creating some "vignettes" to place around the battlefield. These will include such things as men and horse casualties, a prisoner of war stand, a vivandiere or two, etc. So I will eventually be working on these items as well.

Finally, I opened up the packet of Front Rank French artillery limber teams and attempted to assemble one of the sets (I bought 8 of them). I made a number of mistakes in the assembly, the first being gluing the limber trail (center pole) upside down. It wasn't apparent to me untill I tried to glue on the front harness bracket that attaches to the limber trail pole. So I filed it down a little bit to make the fit better. I should work out all right. It looks like the most difficult step in the assembly process will be the limber traces that connect the harness to the limber. Front Rank provides some pieces of copper wire (steel plated). You are instructed to cut the pieces to the "proper length". It would be helpful if FR would give you a precise measurement for the "proper length". You then insert one end of the wire into a little notch on the horse and bend a loop in the opposite end of the wire. The loop is then supposed to fit around a horizontal bracket on the limber, afterwhich, you close the loop with pliers. This will be the hard part. I will let you know how it turns out later in the week after I get the pieces painted.

Connoisseur Napoleonics

An assortment of Connoisseur French grenadiers and one Bicorne Carabinier in bearskin. Most of these were painted by Dennis Smail about 15 years ago. I painted the officer in the blue trousers in the front row.

Click on all pictures to enlarge the view.

Today on TMP several people were inquiring about Connoisseur Miniatures and wondered what they looked like and how they might compare to newer 28mm ranges of Napoleonic figures. Given the general lack of pictures on the internet, I rushed home and dug out a few "remainders " that I still had laying around the Closet O' Lead in my basement. I thought that everyone might want to take a closer look at these venerable old figures.


Another view of the same grouping of figures.


Guard Dutch Lancers in French service, partially painted and never finished. I may have to finish this group of figures to do them justice.

I sold nearly all of my 25/28mm Napoleonics several years ago, but I still had a few extra castings sitting around in the "bits box" of miscellaneous lead figures. These Connoisseur Dutch Lancers were going to be in my defunct Waterloo Project. My painting style has changed a little bit, so I may go back and touch them up and finish them off, now that I'm a little bit motivated to do so.

Connoisseur Bavarians


Connoisseur Bavarians

The unpainted figures shown above are from the Connoisseur range of Bavarians during the Napoleonic wars. These are suitable for 1809 to 1814. They also have light cavalry and artillery (I'm not sure about the artillery crew, but I think they were made). I rather like the Bavarians and think that they would fit in nicely with my Elite Miniatures 1805-07 French. Perhaps one day I will paint a brigade of these lads. They look nice to me.

21e Regt. de Ligne

Two battalions of the 21 Regiment de Ligne. Elite Miniatures painted by Der Alte Fritz

I finished the last four voltigeurs, this evening, that I needed to complete my second full regiment of French line infantry for my 1805-1807 project at a 1:10 ratio. As shown above, these are Elite Miniatures figures with all of the soldiers in the "at the ready" pose. The two battalions of the previously-painted 12e Regiment de Ligne are all in the "advancing" pose. Thus, when I start removing single casualties during a game, I will remember which regiment the figures belong to by way of their pose. These two regiments complete Petit's Brigade in Gaudin's 3rd Division of Davout's III Corps.

Note that I have not gotten around to basing the figures yet. I will terrain the individual bases with spackle compound and gravel and flock to finish them off.


Another view of the 21e Regiment de Ligne. Click all pictures to enlarge the view.

I also have one battalion of the old Elite figures painted (which will become the 25e Regt. de Ligne) and one battalion of Dave Alsop-sculpted Legere figures. The second battalion of the "old Elite" figures for the 25e Regiment de Ligne are already primed in black primer and are ready to paint. These will be a joy to paint, after slogging through the second battalion of the 21st. I did not like painting the "at the ready" pose for some reason - the figures just did not inspire me. However, the old Elite figures are little gems and I look forward to working on them.

For the month of October, I ended up with 89 Olley Painting Points - all of them infantry figures this month. That included 72 French line, 2 eagle bearers, 1 "old Elite" carabinier in the Napoleonic genre. In the SYW, I painted 8 Stadden Prussian grenadiers for the Reisengarde regiment and 6 Stadden AWI artillery crew that were painted as Prussian artillerist.

We have our annual SYW light troops game on December 4th or 5th and so I suppose that I should work on adding more dismounted hussars and freikorps dragoons, but I would much rather work on the 1806 project.

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Russian Project of 1806

Close up shot of the Smolensk Regiment on temporary stands. Click all pix to enlarge the view.

I did an inventory and sorting of all of the 1805 Russians that I bought from Old Glory over 15 years ago. These are the original Dave Alsop sculpts that were compatible with his limited edition French in bicorns and shakos that are no longer available. The Russians were not going to be released to the public after Dave's untimely passing since the range could not be completed. I prevailed on Russ at Old Glory to cast about 900 of the Russians for me and he agreed to do so. I believe that a couple other people in Omaha, Nebraska also piggybacked on my bulk order.

I was going to build up Russian forces to refight the Battle of Austerlitz on its 200th anniversary in 2005. The battalions would have been at 1:30 or 20 figures per battalion. I had about 40 plus battalions of Elite Miniatures Russians painted over the ensuing years and I probably could have completed the project, had not life, getting married and having a family not interceded. So I didn't do the big battle, Wargame Holiday Centre style, but that was my intent.


The whole Smolensk battalion (60 figures) in line with GMB Designs flag. Old Glory figures.

Once I caught the bug to do Napoleonics again at a 1:10 ratio with French and Prussians, it occurred to me that I still had a lot of Russian castings left over, even after having sold the entire painted collection of 28mm figures a couple of years ago. I thought that I would never paint another Napoleonic soldier in my life, but I guess that I was wrong.

It seemed like adding a couple brigades of Russians, circa 1805-07, would dovetail nicely with my French in bicorns and my 1806 Prussians. Afterall, the remnants of the Prussian army in East Prussia fought with the Russians in 1806 and 1807. Or, I could do some of the battles in the 1805 campaign and maybe add a few Austrians too. See how a little project can grow by leaps and bounds?


Elite Miniatures Russian Horse Artillery circa 1805-07.

So I did the Russian inventory and found that I had enough figures to paint 14 battalions of 60 figures, or 840 figures in total, from my existing supply of lead. I had previously painted the Pavlov Grenadiers and the Smolensk Musketeers in shakos, so two battalions were done, and Apsheron Musketeers in bicorns were half way done. So I had a good start on a Russian brigade. The inventory indicates that I will eventually have:

2 x 60 Musketeers in shakos
6 x 60 Musketeers in bicorns
2 x 60 Grenadiers in mitres
2 x 60 Grenadiers in shako with busch

All of the above will be Alsop Old Glory figures. I also use Elite command figures (officers, drummers and standard bearers) since Alsop only made one NCO figure (the fellow who is pointing his arm to lead the way).

To that I will add two battalions of jagers using Elite Miniatures. Because Old Glory did not make the artillery or cavalry, I decided to use the Elite range of figures for everything else. The pictures of the horse artillery are from the Elite range.



Elite Russian horse artillery battery has a frontage of 15 inches.


A closer view of the Elite gun crews and cannon.

The cavalry contingent will eventually include a regiment of uhlans (40-48 figures), some hussars (30-36 figures), dragoons (40 figures) and cuirassiers (48 figures) plus an assortment of Cossacks that I will recruit from my Seven Years War Russian army.

As you can see, I have a lot of painting work ahead of me and I probably will not start painting the Russians until sometime in 2010. Then, assuming a pace of 60 figures a month, we are looking at a couple of years of painting work to finish the project. That is not to say that there will not be periods where my painting production is not faster than 60 figures per month, but that is a sufficient amount to assume for planning purposes. Anything faster than that would lead to severe painter's burnout.

In the short term, I may add a battalion of Russians here or there so that I can build out the first brigade of infantry sooner rather than later. Since I only need 4 battalions per brigade, I am already half way there. And those uhlans, hmmm, Fritz likes uhlans and has been wanting to paint them for a long time. I can hardly wait. But first, I have to finish some more of the French and the Prussians.