"Wooden Wars: Of Wooden Soldiers and Felt Tip Pens" Topic

Tom Foss was kind enough to send me one of his new Wooden Soldier Officers to try out my own ideas of how to make them battle ready.

link

Nice job. He kindly sent my five-year-old a pair of rankers. I think we are going to each paint one this weekend. Any tip on a wood to use? I'm thinking of using Gorilla glue for strength.

Gorrilla glue will expand so that the pieces will be separated. Just a simple wood glue will work. title bond, carpenters glue, even elmers will work fine for this. Gorrilla superglue would be okay.

Thanks

Some sort of tacky glue was suggested, so I used Aleene's Tacky Glue from Michaels. The tackiness keeps the pieces stuck together while it dries.

One thing I was very careful of was to only put a very litte bit of glue on the pieces, so none would squish out along the seam. I wasn't sure if it would dry shiney or non-clear & end up being noticable.

Another trick I figured out (which I probably need to also add to my blog) is using the sprue & figure base as supports when you glue the Shako & plume on. Especially with the plume, the amount of the area being being glued is very small in relation to the rest of the piece. So, since the sprue & base are the same width as the pieces of the figure, I set the base on top of the sprue in a stair-step fashion, & then laid the figure down on top of that to support the pieces while it dried. (I really need a picture to describe this better).

Yeah, the plumes are the only thing I am really concerned about. Good tip!

Bob, you lob rubber balls at the figures as part of the game so white glue is out IMO. I've worked with Gorilla Glue a lot and you can minimize the expansion if yuo are careful, but I may start off with regular brown carpenter's glue and see how it holds up to the bombardment.

Bob, you lob rubber balls at the figures as part of the game so white glue is out IMO.

What's the problem with white glue and rubber balls?

Do you have to cut out the figures or do they pop out of the sprue?

Margard, I think Twiningham is just worried about white glue not being strong enough to withstand repeated battering by rubber balls.

Some other name, the pieces are pre-cut & pop out of the sprue. They are held in place in the sprue at only a few points, kind of like a plastic model.

Seems like alot of fuss to end up with a 2-D figure, but it is certainly a cool idea.

Exactly BC. Between the ball bombardment and repeated handling by a rambunctious boy white glue seems doomed to failure.

Oh, this is a dangerous route for me. I already make and own my own toy soldiers, but I love these! I couldn't find a website or shopping cart for the figures, beyond the blog. Have I missed something obvious?

Ken

allthekingsmen, Tom is still getting things set up to sell them. His plan is debut them at GenCon & have a Kickstarter project in conjunction with that.

So keep an eye on his blog & I'm sure he'll make any announcements there.

Ahoy everyone- sorry to be late on answering. I am currently in my secret base training up on laser cutters and making wooden soldiers for Gencon even as I type. Managed to wrangle a computer away from one of my minions for a bit.

First of all- Black Cavalier- awesome job! Can't wait to see your lad in person.

I use Elmers Carpenters wood glue, which I have in one of those small kids elmers glue bottles. It works like a charm. As the surfaces that you glue are for the most part wide, regular white glue should work too. Bob- did not know about gorrilla glue expanding- thanks for the tip!

I have never lost a plume yet in game play, but in tests where I literally hurl the models across the office into the wall, I've had two (9 outof 12) pop off. They glued right back on easy peasey.

Back to the laser mines for me. If you are at Gencon, please come by and say hi and toss about a few balls with me! And (shamless plug alert) keep your eyes peeled for my very soon upcoming kick start!

cheers
Thomas