"How do you base your minis?" Topic

I'm currently working on building Zvezda's German Infantry Platoon 1942-1944.

I have notice that these figures are not very stable on the bases they come with and was wanted to see what other options there are out there to mount these units.

I know some people use fender washer, but I have no idea how they glue the plastic to the metal. Do they glue the base of the model on to the washer? Do they skip the plastic base and glue the model by its feet? Lots of questions here.

I'm also open to other method as well. Please let me know.

Crazy glue plastic to metal prior to painting. Fender washers

Same same. Mostly 2 figures to a washer with a few single figures for change. Weapon teams anywhere from 2 for a light mortar to 5 figures for heavy artillery.

Evergreen Plastic plastic tiles are easy to cut to a specific size. I use a mixture of superglue and model glue to glue figures to them if the original base is too small or not what I like.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Hi TonyBravo

I am also building the same platoon currently, great figures.

Each mini comes with its own base – so I glued the built minis to their plastic Zvesda bases. They are a bit taller now than my other minis but thats OK.

Then I glued the mini to a washer, washer size is 5x18x1.5mm. The diameter of the washer is about 18mm or 0.708 inches, maybe look for a three quarter inch washer ? I base my infantry as singles.

For officers/leaders I use a slightly larger washer, 5x25x1,5mm, which equals 1 inch.

For weapons teams I use 6x32x1.5mm.

For attaching the mini to the washer I use superglue or crazy glue – normally Loctite (brush version) as its easier for me to brush the glue onto the washer.

Then I would use wood glue or acrylic contour paste or acrylic dimensional medium (coarse) to build up the metal washer so its sort of flush with the mini's plastic base.

I stick individually based figures on to pennies. I've found most impact adhesives work fine, these days I use UHU.

I stick individually based figures on to pennies. I've found most impact adhesives work fine, these days I use UHU.

Yup. Same here.

I use pennies or self adhesive vinyl floor tiles. The floor tiles being cheaper I go with them a good bit now.

Thanks for the great responses everyone!!!

Living in Canada, we've phased out the penny and they aren't in circulation anymore. Sure there are some lying around, but every year there are less and less.

I like the idea of fender washers.

How do the floor tiles work? How many figures do you put on each base? Are they round? Rectangular? Square?

Does anyone have photos?

The floor tiles are available here in the states at Home Depot. I'm sure Canada has something similar. The tiles are 1 foot squares. What I do is spray paint the vinyl side green or sand color using textured spray paint. On the self adhesive side I attach a paper with a grid of centimeters on it (inches, half inches, whatever works). The tiles can be easily cut with heavy scissors to whatever size you want.

I glue the figures to magnets and use metal bases. Were there a 'rewind' button I'd glue them to steel washers and use magnetic bases. C'est la vie.

Steel washers, especially handy for plastic figs and magnets.

I use thick card, bang it with a 20mm diameter holepunch, cover the base with PVA, dip it in a pot of dust and grit swept off the garage floor and then dab a little bit of PVA and add some flock. Check out the results here: link