Miniatures Could I get advice on a model I made?

[RakeJoe]

Hi folks! Would like some advice. I made a diorama/train layout of a fictional battle. I used a little over 1000 figures, but what is irking me is that I glued them all. I only painted the based instead of texturing them. I am going to attempt to attach photos, could I get some feedback/ideas! I am a beginner at this soo…Thanks so much!

 

[Kurtlg]

Ideally you could remove the bases and pin the figures into the terrain. You would do that by drilling holes in the feet and inserting pins. The pins could be made out of cut paperclips. The other option would be to blend sculptamold or another material that you add paint to inorder to replicate the ground work. You then would take a spatula like artists use for oil paint to spread it over the bases. In either case it will take a lot of work. That is a very impressive diorama.

 

[scooter748driver]

Welcome from the Fort Sumter and the Fredericksburg forums. There are a lot of accomplished model builders here who should be able to give you great advice. I'm impressed with the diorama and the fact that you painted all those figures! Well done!

 

[Pat Answer]

Very nice job!

On behalf of the Games & Miniatures Forum, let me officially welcome you to CivilWarTalk! I am more the "Games" guy but my fellow hosts, @rebel brit and @Booner, as well as members like @Kurtlg above are (very!) talented and experienced miniaturists and can give you a more helpful reaction than my Wow - that looks really good! And impressive indeed for a beginner.

Stick around, browse the forum, enjoy the place, and keep posting those pics.

 

[RakeJoe]

Thanks so much guys!

 

[donna]

Nice job. Shows a lot of detail and work.

 

[GwilymT]

Looks great. One of the best things about modeling is that we always find something we want to do better or improve upon.

 

[rebel brit]

Ideally you could remove the bases and pin the figures into the terrain. You would do that by drilling holes in the feet and inserting pins. The pins could be made out of cut paperclips. The other option would be to blend sculptamold or another material that you add paint to inorder to replicate the ground work. You then would take a spatula like artists use for oil paint to spread it over the bases. In either case it will take a lot of work. That is a very impressive diorama.

Great suggestions @Kurtlg and the only ones I could come up with too.
That's a fantastic diorama. I'd be tempted to leave it as it is, great work on the set pieces and layout.

 

[RakeJoe]

Great suggestions @Kurtlg and the only ones I could come up with too.
That's a fantastic diorama. I'd be tempted to leave it as it is, great work on the set pieces and layout.

I appreciate that, thanks…i may leave it as is…same mindset i had with not adding smoke effect. One, I don't know how to, and two I'm afraid I'll mess it up!

 

[H. J. Durgin]

I think you did a great job. I like your early pics of the mud/ground. I see the talent you have and the more dioramas you do the more you will learn. Keep them coming RakeJoe !

 

[7thWisconsin]

1/72 scale? I see hours of fun in this project!

 

[Booner]

Your work is pretty impressive. So much work has been involved in what you have done, that to remove those figures and re-base them would almost be like starting over.

I'm not completely understanding your question; "I glued them all. I only painted the based instead of texturing them." The bases do look rather thick, and I imagine that you want to get rid of them or texturize over them. On second look, it looks like the bases are molded to the feet of the figures. Is that true? What is the terrain made of? How hard is it to poke or drill a hole in it?

Kurtlg gave two solutions about how to fix your diorama, but I would use his first suggestion if possible. That would be to remove the base and put pins in the figure's feet and glue them into the landscape, because this method doesn't require re-doing so much landscape work as in his second suggestion.

I would take one figure and try the following. If it works to your satisfaction, then problem solved.
I would use a Jewlers side cutters (found in the jewelry section of Walmart), to cut the base from around the feet of the figure, which when done will make the figure look like he has a huge sole on his shoes. You can use the side cutters to trim the size of the sole down to a more manageable size then using an "exacto" blade trim it down to where it looks decent in its thickness. From a hobby store, get some tiny drill bits (they should sell a package of very small drill bits in various sizes), and either a collet hand drill or ideally, use a cordless drill to drill holes perpendicular through the foot of the soldier. It would be better if you drill into the heal of the boot rather than the instep wherever possible so you can set your post deeper. Use a small sized paper clip to use as a post, cut to size, but you might be able to find some small finishing nails that you could use, although you might have to cut off the head of the nail, so it'll work better. Take the side cutters and do a little "crimping" on the entire shank of the paper clip or finishing nail to give the glue something to grab onto. I would use superglue (probably the "gap filling'' type) to glue to post into the figure, and you (hopefully) might find that you only have to use one post on most of the figures. Now you're ready to set the figure onto/into the terrain. Simply drill a hole into the terrain, put some glue on the crimped portion of the post extending from the figure and insert that into the hole. You might want to try different glues to see what works best and experiment with how long that post has to be that gets inserted into the terrain in order to see what length of post works best to hold the figure in place.

I'd try something like this first, as you wouldn't have to re-do any terrain features or it would minimize what you do have to correct. Every hobbyist should have some Jewlers side cutters, and everything else I've mentioned, so we're not talking about much cost. The biggest expense will be your time. You said you have around 1000 figures in your diorama, so now you'll have something to do for the rest of the year! (I'm a glass half full type of guy).

You really did an excellent job in your diorama. Along with the shear scope of it, you did a wonderful job on the landscape. Removing those bases will take your diorama to a higher level.

 

[RakeJoe]

Thanks so much! The landscape is foamboard from the posterboard section at, wait for it, Walmart! i will get those tools this weekend…i was using a box cutter on the sprues…not fun.
So, I glued all of the figures down individually. Ot wasn't until I had entire regiments down that the bases started bothering me.

 

[Kurtlg]

Thanks so much! The landscape is foamboard from the posterboard section at, wait for it, Walmart! i will get those tools this weekend…i was using a box cutter on the sprues…not fun.
So, I glued all of the figures down individually. Ot wasn't until I had entire regiments down that the bases started bothering me.

Booner's advice was excellent and is what I would do. Tackle a few figures at a time and don't get overwhelmed. Once you get a rhythm going you can accomplish a lot. One word of caution is about the glue. Some gap filling super glued will melt some foam . They do make super glue that won't harm foam board. If you can't find them locally check out online sources.

 

[RakeJoe]

Oh whoa I didn't know that about melting foam…thank you!

 

[Booner]

Booner's advice was excellent and is what I would do. Tackle a few figures at a time and don't get overwhelmed. Once you get a rhythm going you can accomplish a lot. One word of caution is about the glue. Some gap filling super glued will melt some foam . They do make super glue that won't harm foam board. If you can't find them locally check out online sources.

Good advice about the foam melting glue. I don't think I knew super glue would do that.

So now that we know the base is made out of foam core, I guess it would be best to take a scrap of it and try different glues on it first.
One type of Gorilla glue looks like it expands and turns to some type of foam itself, I wonder how that would work?

 

[Booner]

So, the groundwork is laid over foam board. Is there anything under the foam board to help support it, like a piece of plywood?
Counting the ground features and foam board, how thick would you estimate it all is? The bases of the figures are pretty thick, if you cut a hole in the terrain and placed the base of the figure into the hole and glued it down, then you'd have to do a little filling in of terrain over the base and around the legs.

I was just looking at one of your pictures that contains a horse. It'll be pretty hard to pin a horse down to the base so I was wondering if you could cut the groundwork out from the area where you want to place the horse (current base included).
If there was a strong backer under the foam board, like a piece of plywood, you place the horse where you want, and with your Exacto knife cut the terrain out as if you were tracing a line around the base. You take the terrain out and place the base of the horse into the whole you created and then do your terrain making magic in covering the base.

Now you have two choices on how to proceed. I'd think about the work involved in each case and go from there. No matter which you choose, I'd want something under that foam board to give it some strength and protection.

 

[Booner]

As I think about your situation, there is a third choice. You can re-do your terrain.

We might be able to come up with some other ideas, but it would help if you were to tell us how you made everything, and perhaps a picture of the whole diorama? Just how big is the whole thing?

 

[RakeJoe]

Sure…here are some pics. Also there are some cavalry where you can see where i attempted something like what Kurtlg suggested with not so great results. The whole thing is 5x4 with foam board over 1/4 in plywood, glued together. The mountain ridge is all foam with wood stilt support below.

 

[RakeJoe]

I have considered doing a redo…but in my brain it seems like a lot…