Sunday 25 October 2009

Sunday Update...and a Review.

Hello and welcome to a rather dull Sunday afternoon in Inso's World. I hope that our British viewers have remembered to put their clocks back...far be it for us to have natural body clocks after all...we'd have nothing to moan about then!

So, what has been going on? Not a lot I'm afraid. It has most certainly been a slow week on the hobby front. I know I finished the little robot for the Starship Crew earlier in the week but I have been a little bit too tired for much else and have been driving my wife mad by digging things out and putting them away again...and digging them out...and putting them away...etc...

I did, however, manage to prepare a set of resin bases from Fenris Games...so here is a review.

Fenris Games produce a range of resin bases and scenery for 28mm wargaming. They have an E-Bay shop here:

http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Fenris-Games__W0QQ_armrsZ1

This review is focused on the Sulaco SF, chamfered edge, 25mm bases shown here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/25mm-round-Sulaco-SF-chamfer-profile-resin-bases_W0QQitemZ380158718104QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Toys_Wargames_RL?hash=item588339b098

When my order arrived I was pleased to see that there were twelve resin bases packed nicely in a zip-lock bag, inside the jiffy bag. They were made from a light grey resin and there was minimal flash to remove from the edges. Before I thought about painting them I sanded a small amount of resin off the bottom of the bases to remove the meniscus and any flash and to make sure they sat happily on a flat surface. For all twelve bases it took a total of 5 minutes preparation time.

Next, I washed them in warm water with plenty of washing-up liquid to remove any mould-release oil (something that resin casting always has); using a gentle scrubbing action with a toothbrush. After drying them thoroughly with kitchen towels, I let them sit overnight to make sure they were completely dry.

To start the painting I gave them a coat of GW foundation paint to act as an undercoat and then painted them in GW Chaos Black paint. This was followed by a dry-brush of GW Chainmail and a couple of washes of GW Devlan Mud. After I painted the rims in GW Chaos Black again, the bases looked like this:

Click the Pic!

One thing to mention at this point is that I wanted to keep the painting really simple...I have upwards of a hundred of these to paint and I will be adding as little flair as I can get away with. That said, these bases do have enough details to add a bit of colour and weathering to so don't take my basic paint job as a rule...just a simple demonstration!

If you look at the above picture, you will see that the base edges are just like standard GW slotta base edges...something that isn't immediately apparent on the Fenris site. Also, all of the detail is below the rim of the base.

So...the bases were prepared and painted and now they needed to be put to use. After I removed the slotta bases from some of my Urban Grymn and removed their basing tabs, I filed their feet flush and drilled a single hole in one of their feet. A pin was glued in place. While this was drying a single pin hole was drilled in each of the bases. The miniatures were then glued in place. This was the end result:

Click the Pic!

As a result of removing them from their original bases, I have to tidy up the paint on thier feet but apart from that...job's a good 'un!

I really like the look of these and it certainly suits the miniatures better than the desert bases I originally had them based on. If I didn't have an entire army to base, I would probably paint some of the more solid floor panels in different colours but I am happy with the simple metallic look of these for a whole army.

So...any negatives? Yes.

These particular bases have a gridded floor (which can easily be seen from the pics) and because of that, it is quite difficult to remove the Mould release from the depths of the grid. That meant that when painting them, it was often fairly difficult to get the paint into all of the corners in the gaps between the grid. If you have an air-brush or used a spray primer/under-coat, this won't be a problem but I don't...so I had to spend extra time making sure that everything was coated. I reckon that a spirit based primer would make the job easier.

Apart from that I am extremely happy with the bases and would heartily recommend them to anyone who was looking for a good resin base supplier.

Well, that will be it for today I'm afraid. I doubt if I will get much more done today because the change in the time here has completely thrown me out!

Have a great Sunday and enjoy the sun that is out there...Winter is on the way and with it comes less light and shorter days...the bane of the painter!

See you through the falling leaves!

2 comments:

geronimo said...

Quick tip for shifting mould release in hard-to-reach places: scrub the resin in a meths or white spirit bath. Old jam jar with a couple of inches of the relevant solvent, an old toothbrush, and a vigorous scrubbing action - job done.

Inso said...

Thanks! I wasn't sure if standard de-greasers (white spirit/meths) would be injurious to the resin so just used good old fashioned Fairy.

I'll get some white spirit for future endeavors!