How to: Attaching Malifaux figs to bases

[moody628]

I fell in love with a lot of the Ten Thunders models 3 or maybe close to 4 years ago, now, when I got an advert for the pre-sale of Masters of the Path box set.  I bought it, and since then have picked up a few other figs along the way.  At the time, my paint table was already in disarray... and we finally made the expected move.  I am finishing up a unit from another game now that my paint table is reconstructed, and decided now would be the time to tackle some of the Malifaux MotP stuff.

And I find myself stymied by a very simple question... How the heck should I go about attaching these things to the bases?  Everything I've worked with in conscious memory has been slotta bases.  I saw one video where someone was putting dabs of epoxy on the feet and just gluing them down... but that leaves me a bit nervous about them getting dinged and popping off the bases.  In a video or two I've seen on the painting of Malifaux figs, it looks like they've put pins in the feet.  That seems like a good, if not necessary, idea to me.  Any suggestions or cautions about this?  Or is there some better practice?

Thanks for any assistance. 

[Bengt]

If you hade built your base decorations from plastic, just glue the model to the base with plastic glue. If you decorated the bases with something else you can glue it with super glue or epoxy. Alternatively drill a hole in the base and plastic glue a piece of plastic rod of the same diameter to the model, then super glue the rod into the hole.

I only use pins for models that are flying over the base as I think steel wire is less noticeable than your typical flight stand. Though if you want to paint the model before attaching it to the base you can put it on a long pin, I only do this occasionally when it looks like it will be really hard to paint otherwise, but some people do it for all models. Unless the model is a flyer I'll remove the pin before attaching the model to the base.

[moody628]

Thanks.  In the past, I've used metal rod for pinning.  I'll be on the look-out for some plastic rod to work with.

[DrEvilmonki]

Personally I pin all of mine now. The first few I just glued and they do certainly have a tendency to pop off since they often have such tiny contact points. Thats a pretty good idea about adding your own plastic slot for them though.

I found a .508mm drill bit for pinning, and thats what I currently use. Well I actually found a 12 pack of them and have broken 7 of those, they are pretty delicate)

[moody628]

3 hours ago, DrEvilmonki said:

I found a .508mm drill bit for pinning, and thats what I currently use. Well I actually found a 12 pack of them and have broken 7 of those, they are pretty delicate)

I think I have the same set...

[lusciousmccabe]

Alternatively you can glue a bit of sprue to the base with superglue to make a kind of reverse slot and plastic glue the model to it. Then cover the sprue up with whatever you use for basing.

[silicon_dioxide]

For me, pinning seems a bit too tricky with the tiny feet on most of these models. I do something similar to what lusciousmccabe does. The round vents on the sprues are 3 mm in diameter. I drill a 3 mm hole into the base (after getting my basing done, cork, or epoxy, or bark, or whatever), then I superglue the peg into the hole, and shave the peg flush with the surface of the basing. Using plastic cement, the figure is glued to the peg. This makes a pretty tight and secure joint. 

[Burnin' Coal]

I am learning as I go along and so far I use steel or brass pins where there is absolute minimal contact with the base but also,like Silicon Dioxide,I use the sprue the model is attached to...slightly different from Silicon Dioxide in that I cut a chunk of sprue from the runner with the leg attached...then I shave down the piece of sprue that is still attached to the foot until it becomes a spike that I can super glue into Green Stuff or modelling clay or whatever I am making the base from.