"28mm Plastic Heft" Topic

I've used most of these at various times. I don't know what I prefer.

x42

I tried adding the concrete patch material to bases. While it gave decent results, it was messy, and tedious -- gloves required, more time and effort than I wanted. I switched to laser cut MDF rectangular bases. Best basing option so far, in 26+ years of experimenting. Cheers!

I remember my good old days in Ancients, when metal 28mm elephants, scythed chariots or 4-figure stands of SHC didn't need to be weighted down to keep from blowing away. Nor did a 2 figure stand of Cretan archers.

With the growing availability of high quality 3D resin printed figures, this could seem to be a broadening issue.

By far, most of us grognards started when white metal castings were what the hobby was about (Airfix and other plastic figures aside), so we tend to be shocked when picking up a cannon or other piece we rather expect to have a lot more "heft."

But such materials are the wave of the future, already in the present, so using some additional weights might be a good idea.

Then again, I've yet to play any miniatures game that was disrupted by high winds--in a wargames room!

TVAG

I bought 2 sets of plastic figures and tried to weight them to my satisfaction. When this failed plastic figs wee deleted from my further purchases. Resin is not on the menu either.

I've used cardstock buildings in my games. A hand-wave sometimes knocked them over! I started by mounting them to bases, slathered in concrete patch mix: worked, but the cardstock buildings could still be easily damaged, while the base remained intact. That was a problem…

I experimented with printing on full sheet (8.5"x11") label paper, applying that to 2mm-thick cardboard. It required some changes to the assembly routine/methods, but it worked, superbly, overall. The contstructs made with this approach, have plenty of heft, and they do not get blown around, unless there is a 20+ MPH wind that blows across my table during a game in my basement. I have built plenty of them, to date. Love them.

There are options, if you wish to pursue them. Cheers!

PS:

I started out with lead mini's. "White Metal" came into the picture during the great lead scare of the late 1990's? Not really an issue, but the white metal (pewter alloys) do give better definition, IMO, to the metal castings…

I add a small magnet to GW-type round bases. Mainly for robust storage in steel drawers, but it does add weight.

Other plastics are not weighted, I have yet to see if they will be OK on the field !

I don't usually add weight. I do often base on fender washers, but that is just adding a base. As often as not, I base on a plastic tiddlywink. I have some based on magnets to stick to magnetic terrain at steep angles and verticals – this would be the anthesis of adding heft.

I usually use Litko bases and add a metal base to the bottom for weight.

I add washers to the bases of standard bearers so they don't fall over.

I normally don't, but I've sometimes glued a bit of spare metal to the underside of the base of standard bearers and other types especially liable to fall over.

Sometimes I also add a bit of weight to the bases, especially if the figure is a little off balance – I was adding bbs to my 15mm tanks to give them more heft for a while

I do add weight to plastics where it is simple and attractive to do so … but whilst I do like some plastics, I really don't like the 28mm kit type hard plastics that seem so popular these days.

Phil

I've never added weights to plastic figures, but I've done so for 15mm Vehicles.