For some whimsical reason I decided to mount my OSW stuff on 3/4 inch circular bases. After much cogitation, I decided I needed to come up with a solution to allow me to put them on movement trays for large battles. Here is my solution.

The trays are custom cast out of resin by SmoothOn. I made the master using two layers of plasticard. I cut 10 3/4 inch holes in the top layer (which proved to be the hardest part of all of this) and then glued the sheets together. I took some Liquitex Texture Gel and put it on the top between the holes and then made up some filler bases with the texture gel on them so I could fill spots when there were casualties or smaller units. I chose the 10 figure base as it fit in nicely with the Charge organization - two 10 man bases allows me to have a company on two trays. In retrospect, I probably should have made them 12 figure bases so I could mount the NCO on a different side than the officer.

I placed squares of sheet metal used for duct work in the bottom of the holes and, as I mount my figures with magnets in the bases, they stay on nicely. Overall I am pleased with how they turned out.

The molds were made with a small amount of MoldMax 30. It is not a simple compound to work with as you have to know the weight of the goop and the liquid hardener by gram as the ratio is 10:1. I have a jeweler's scale I weigh the stuff with. The resin is a 1:1 but again needs to be weighed in terms of grams. I add a glass microsphere filler to the resin to save on the amount of resin I have to use. The filler is about $15 for a five gallon bucket which lasts a looooonnggg time.  One cast takes about 20-25 grams of each part of the resin and a tablespoon or two of the filler so comes in at $0.25 USD for the tray and filler pieces. The resin takes about 20-30 minutes to set up.

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great idea! zurik (71.116.173.162) 2008-07-24 20:25:49 and well executed! Now you can mass-produce as many as you need. Are the "plugs" magnetized, too, or just plopped in? I'm thinking they don't need magnets to hold them in, and it would be harder to remove magnetized ones without pulling off some of the static grass or otherwise damaging them. I've been laboriously hand-crafting my movement trays in the finest old world traditions, so to speak. oh, another question - do you pre-color the resin or paint it black after curing? Reply | Quote 0   0

webmaster Mike Cannon (151.118.132.105) 2008-07-24 21:04:16 The plugs are not magnetized but the soldaten bases are. I store my figures standing in a cardboard box with a metal bottom to maximize the storage space I can get. I can dye the resin but did not with this first batch (I cheated and used a fast-drying flat black spray paint!) Reply | Quote 0   0

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.