Adding weight to slottabases - iron filings + PVA glue

[BattleMetalChris]

I tried a thing last night that seemed to work well.

I was looking for tiny washers to glue under the base of some Stealers to stop them tipping over. I'd usually use a coin, but as Stealers use bases with slots that won't work. It occurred to me while I was basing some other models using sand + PVA that you could use the same technique with something heavy to add weight to a model.


I bought a bag of iron filings from Ebay, and have been using this instead of sand, mixed with PVA glue, as a basing material. I also put a good dollop of it under the base, to fill up the cavity under there. It seems to have worked really well - with a layer of varnish to keep out moisture and stop it rusting, (something I do with sand before painting anyway) you can't tell the difference once the base is painted, and with the layer underneath too the extra weight makes the model far more stable.

[mattblowers]

Switch to 32mm bases. They look better and they don't tip over. Since the princelings come on 32mm I saw no reason not to switch them all. I bought 100 from ebay for something like $25 or $30 shipping included. Best part is they don't get quite so tangled when you dump them all in box to transport them. With 25mm bases there were always a few that got impossibly intertwined.

But that still begs the question. Why are you messing with genestealers? I know I did, but I'm a sucker.

[BattleMetalChris]

Stealers are just the most unstable models I have (I have no Hormagaunts).

[theramirocketman]

Jul 29, 2016 1:26:42 GMT BattleMetalChris said:

Stealers are just the most unstable models I have (I have no Hormagaunts).

Yeah, I thought for sure you would be talking about Hormagaunts in this post .

As for the fillings, this sounds pretty good. I was thinking of using clay underneath my bases to weigh them down but I might try this now.

[yoritomo]

I find lead shot works well.

[BattleMetalChris]

How small is lead-shot? In my head I imagine little balls about 2mm in diameter which I would say are too big. I'm guessing they're not though, as you say you use them.

[yoritomo]

I left my calapers at work, so I can't give you an exact size. It's just small birdshot. I like them better than filing or coins because they will distribute themselves evenly across any kind of base without effort.

[immortalblue]

If you use flush clippers, you can cut the slot bit flush with the base on the slotted 25mm, then use a small disc of green stuff + sg to secure a penny. Works for all the slotted bases

[blackrainbow]

There are plenty of ways to weigh down ye'old wobbly. Pretty cool that you can do it mixed-in with the basing, and new ideas and methods are always good to know.

[Nightmare20]

Buy some fishing weights, cut them in half (they are soft) and glue them to the bottom. The reason I use them is they fit under slotted bases just as easily as unslotted.

[canadianfh]

Not quite the same but, I did convert a slot based metal terminator librarian to the modern terminator base size by trimming the edge of the slot base down then stuck it into the center of a pair of washers I had glued together that was within a mm of the current Termie base size... finished/secured the slottabase to the washer by filling the underside with JB weld.

Any slottabase base guys who need to jump to 32mm, or 40mm etc can use the same method I suppose.