The Tinman gets going!
For a couple of weeks I kept pulling the sprues out of that brown paper bag and looked at them. 28mm is new to me, let alone plastic. Earlier this year I did a quick and simple 1/72 scale plastic soldiers project for Crossfire. This is entirely new to me, including the period. I knew I just had to take the plunge the first moment I found the the time. Well, I did.
A little over a week ago I cut out the first six figures. Messed around with some heads, arms, and various accessories. I decided for my first six figures I was going to make some of them a bit like a tribal command. The other three would be warriors. So I went at it.
I made a standard bearer, a chief, a horn musician, and the three warriors. When they were completely assembled I glued them to a painting stick. When all 30 figures are assembled, I'll bring out the airbrush to prime all of them in one session.
First pics:
Then of course, I can't fiddle with the other 24 figures like this. I recall an earleir post that mentioned an assembly line to crank them out. That's what I started tonight: cut out the other 24 bodies, cut out 24 heads, and glued them on. Each night I'm planning on gluing on another part so that in a few days, all 24 warriors will be completely assembled. I want the glue to harden well before I do the next piece, and this method works well for me as I am lucky to get 15-30 minutes available on any night to work on them.
The beginning of the assembly line:
That's great to see! Thanks for posting the pics and explaining how things are going. I've been overwhelmed with real life issues these past 2 weeks, but I hope to start building and painting this coming weekend.
Nicely done! Sounds like a very good system. I like the idea of getting a specific task done each day so that you can see progress in a clearly defined way.
I managed to assemble a few yesterday while the rest of the house took naps. Its the best time of day for me to get anything accomplished.
We all have to have our own systems to make it work when we do it individually. The numbers are staggering. When there are opportunities to it in groups I think the established assembly line method will be best as well. Provided that there is enough space to lay out the figures as the glue dries sufficiently to move on to the next step.
In group mode and with 3000+ figures to do handing out ten sprues to Bucky, ten to Joe and so on won't get it done in time. I should think that the first step could be a group cutting, trimming, and sorting party to be a good first step. Doing all the pieces for 300 figures or so, or maybe even 600. Little boxes or tubs to sort the pieces into identical piles. Then the assembly and glue party could come after that (make sure for good ventilation... ).
At an assembly party hand one body type to one guy, another body type to another guy, and so on. Lay out the tubs of heads, arms, weapons, and shields in the center of the table. Open up the bags of cheese crunchies, bottles of favorite brews, and tubes of glue and go at it assembly line fashion. Every five or six completed figures from each worker should spot glue them to a painting or priming stick and move them out of the way. I think we almost have to think like China or some other part of the planet to get these done en masse. 3000+ figures, holy smokes.
Dean, if I make good progress on the first set, I'll ask for another 30 figures to be done individually. Will bases be sent out or will there be an opportunity to pick them up at some point?
Now I'm off to my second job. Then I'll get to the figures again later tonight.
Mike
Hi, Mike.
Bases are available for those wishing to base their own, or we will be organizing some group basing days too.
Got some more shots. I was able to get outside with the airbrush on Sunday and shoot them with a base primer coat. Now that has been done I can use the craft and hobby paints indoors on long, cold winter evenings.
Mike
Nice job. Thanks for the pictures! Speaking of cold nights, brrr! Its a chilly one out there now with the full moon.
I've found that the first six figures that I did are not as rigid or strong in the joint bondings. Being my first use of plastic figures I was careful using brush on liquid plastic glue at the joints. I did a light coat on each mating surface, waited about 30 seconds and stuck the two pieces together. After prming I discovered that one of the initial warriors had lost a spear. Needless to say is that I pulled out the 'ol tube of Testors glue and took care of that.
The other 24 figures were all assembled with the Testors tube glue. Good stuff but I'm quite sure not as nasty toxic as it used to be when I was a kid killing brain cells. The 24 warriors are securely welded at the joints with the Testors. Even the shields are on tight, and the glue does fill in what little of the gaps there are too. If you're careful about how much of the Testors glue you're applying, I feel that the the Testors is my best recommendation for making rugged warriors to withstand rough handling on the table top.
Flesh toned paint next.
Mike
Ready for basing. I'll bring them to game day on the 27th.
Mike
Excellent! Nicely done, and timely too. Thanks, Mike!
Mike - Nice job! After seeing how much construction is required to put the little buggers together, I'm glad I requested pre-assembled figs! Geez - that's a lot of work - and the part I hate most about painting! I had no idea that you guys had to deal with arms as well as heads and weapons. Was there a reason for the manufacturer to do them this way, or just some AR wanting to give gamers more choices? The plastic figs are incrediblt durable so am not sure why they're built in pieces?
Andy
Yep its all about flexibility in poses. Both from the standpoint of the gamer putting them together, and the manufacturer. Imagine trying to mold these in once piece. Much more complex mold, and therefore much more expensive, probably. Think of it like Eli Whitney. Interchangeable parts make everything easier...
Now imagine doing the same thing with lead figures. Some of the poses, the Romans in particular, would be prone to damage or significantly harder to do with less detail. And they would cost 4 or 5 times as much.
That high level of detail on every part is the real advantage here, as nothing is inaccessible. If you could see the Vikings or the Saxons by the same manufacturer (they've gotten even better) you would see what I mean.
Tim
Yesterday was warm enough in a sheltered spot to spray the first coat of Gloss Coat. My intent is to hit them with a coat of Dull Coat afterwards.
Oops.
In this project I am trying a few things for the first time. One of them is to use fine tipped Sharpies for doing some of the shield artwork. The Sharpies did OK for freehand drawing of scrolling designs. If I missed it somewhere, I went and made a mistake. The Gloss Coat dissolves and runs the ink from the Sharpies. Dang it.
Now I have a bunch of shields to rehab. I'll do the finish spray of Dull Coat on another sufficiently warm day, then I'll redo a buch of the shields than were ruined after the Dull Coat dries.
Mike
What a drag. I did not know about the gloss coat and sharpies.
At least you did not grab the grey primer instead of the gloss coat when you went to spray!
Mike, Don't feel too bad - a friend of ours once spent about a week on 4 fantasy figs for an FRP game and then proceeded to spray them with black primer instead of a sealer!!! Dean will remember - and one day you'll laugh about it.
I'm spraying mine now with a matte sealer before going at them with the sharpies. I'll let you know how it turned out.
Andy
Mike - Get yourself some Krylon - flat clear coat and spray those babies down really well. Put them in the sun or a warm place and wait at least an hour. They'll take the ink without bleeding. I just tried this method and it's working beautifuly.
Andy
Thanks for the tip about the Krylon sealer. I'll look for that on my next saunter through Home Depot.
Today did not warm up enough for another spray. The wind was quite active which kept a slight chill in my sheltered zone, despite the nice sunshine. I may have to hit them one night in the garage this week.
I picked up the new cans of Gloss and Dull Coat this past week. I was pleasantly surprised at the packaging. Both cans have a white label vs the colored labels on the colored sprays. Also, the Gloss Coat had a CLEAR plastic cap, and the Dull Coat has a frosted/clear cap. Awesome! That will help keep the two separate and easily recognized. I never use both at the same time so a mix up will not occur. Another neat tip for those who like to spray black or gray primer instead of a clear coating... the cans of colored spray (I'm talking Testors here) have a colored sticker on top indicating what is inside. My mental connection for the frosted/clear cap is what happens to windows or windshields on your kits when you spray them with Dull Coat. I now always mask the windows/windscreens before I hose a model with Dull Coat.
Mike
