Making swappable Coryphee

[Sholto]

What do I mean by "swappable Coryphee"? I mean being a cheapskate and not wanting to buy another blister of the killer mannequins just to make the Coryphee Duet version on the super-sized, 50mm base.

Plus, I love a modelling challenge

I thought about magnets, but while the crouching Coryphee (Crouching Coryphee, Hidden Colette?) could be dealt with in this way, the other is standing on only a single foot. Tough to magnetise that at all, let alone securely.

I have seen some pinning approaches, but this one is a little different. Pics will explain it best:-

Apologies, but my camera is still on its last legs, and I haven't got a new one yet.

Pinning this model was easy - there are two 0.8mm paperclips in her base.

The base is wooden-textured plasticard from Wills Models.

This model was trickier to pin. I got one 0.8mm paperclip into her forefoot, but had to settle for a 0.5mm length of brass rod in her heel. She is very secure

But that is not the whole story - I had to find a way to combine them on a single 50mm base.

Here is the 50mm base, along with a doughnut of the Wills plasticard added. The middle is exactly the right size to allow me to do this:-

Turn around, girls, let's get a good look at you:

And, if it's not obvious from those pics, here is how it's all done:

Each of the 40mm base inserts has been cut in half. One half is glued solidly to the 40mm base, but the other (the one with the model pinned and glued to it) is doubled in thickness and has three 0.8mm paperclip pins inserted in the bottom. Then, three matching holes are drilled in the 40mm base. The pins sit in these very snugly and securely.

But it is quick and easy to lift the models out with their half-bases attached and plug them into the matching holes in the 50mm base.

It took a long time to make, but I think it's worth it, if only to save me buying and painting another two Coryphee (and, to be honest, the painting is the bit that takes me forever!). The cutting of the bases and the pinning had to very precise. For anyone interested in trying this, I recommend getting a circular cutter. Make sure the join of two 'boards' on the textured plasticard runs down the centre of your bases - it makes everything symmetrical. For making the holes for the pins, make a jig and use it for the 40mm and 50mm bases. That way, either model will fit on either base, and on either side of the 50mm base.

Lastly, test out your pose, since you wouldn't want to pin those arms in place only to find that your models will no longer fit on the 50mm base face to face. And no, this didn't happen to me, but I can imagine the horror I would have felt if it had

C&C welcome.

Edited September 25, 2010 by Sholto

[Omenbringer]

Nice solution, now to get them painted.

[Ciaran]

That was a brilliant solution. I like it!

[mriverakc]

That is great. It looks really good.

[Werecat]

You magnificent bastard....

I would have magnetized them though

[Murray]

Very nice!

[AvatarForm]

Clever. My solution only includes pins so you can remove them from their single bases and stick them into the larger.

[Shukitty]

That is very nearly what I had in mind for my coryphees, similar reason. They're a bit pricey, I don't want to have to buy two boxes, since it's not like I can field two singles and a duet at the same time, in a normal game. I don't really do pinning through, so I'd probably just try to find some middle-range magnets to put on the bottom of each half-circle base. thanks for the post and pics!

[Yazza]

you gave me an idea, but only using magnets...

[popg0estheworld]

Thanks for posting this- I was going to go a much stupider direction with mine, and your concept is working out swimmingly (though I admit I did add magnets). I'll post when I finish mine too, with proper citations.

[mattraptor]

you gave me an idea, but only using magnets...

I was going to suggest the same

[Sholto]

As much as I am a fan of magnets (and I loves me some rare-earth action), I am a bit wary about using them with metal models. I could have put 6mm magnets on the - let's call them half-bases - but I would play in mortal fear of wobblyness and falling over on inclines and such.

Maybe use magnetic card/ metal sheet for the half-base and embed the rare-earth magnets in the plastic base? That'd probably work.

[DangerousBeans]

Great solution and it worked really well while your duet systematically minced my crew tonight!

The pins in the base made me wonder though, over time that's probably going to suffer from wear and tear and I'm wondering if pinning the mannequins to the "half base" and then magnetising the half-bases to the 50mm might make it a bit easier to remove during the game.

[HRE Joseph III]

That's really ingenious and really concealable! I love it.

[Miglo]

Thanks for inspiration... realy nice solution :clap: