My name is Paul Baker, and Editor in Chief Bill asked me if I would not mind doing a Workbench article for TMP. I said "yes," and from a long list of possibilities, I chose 3 female adventurers from Hasslefree.
The figures were true 25mm - which is unusual, as most 25mm figures come up a lot bigger. The castings were clean, with fine mold lines - but on Suzi, I noticed the nose had been miscast. In fact, she did not have one! Ordinarily I would have returned the figure back to the manufacturer for a replacement (most manufacturers will oblige by replacing miscast figures at no cost), but as this was a painting exercise, I did not pursue the issue.
The first stage is to clean up the figures This is done by lightly using a needle file, and removing the mold lines and any tabs left by the casting process.
The only figure that had to be assembled was Kat, who had separate arms. Care had to be given to make sure that they fitted together well. I did a dry run first to check the fit. I would normally pin the arms but - as the figure was so fine - it would have been impossible, so I had to rely on the strength of the superglue for the hold. I used a glue called Hot Flash which bonds in 5 seconds (so beware of your fingers!). The glue was applied with a cocktail stick. Once this was set, I gave the whole area a coating of my normal high strength superglue for insurance.
The figures were then attached to their slottabase, and glued onto a scrap of card for handling purposes. All three figures were given a Humbrol Matt Black undercoat and left to dry.