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Hey!

Me and my friends have recently stopped using cardboard counters to play WHFB and have all bought nearly 2k worth of models.
That was a big step finance-wise (we're still just poor-ass students) and we won't have the time to paint/convert them and the money to even buy the paint before spring/summer.

The problem is, we ended up with a lot of lovely models, we already have a great gaming board and we would like to play using the models - not cardboard/paper squares.

Problems I see:
- you can't assemble an entire army without gluing it together.
- when you glue your army - it's nearly impossible to basecoat some of the models, not mentioning actually painting the bastards (2h weaps., shields, etc getting in the way)
- pre-basecoating will wear itself off until we get to painting them too

I figured we don't have to glue the shields, but what about hands/arms wielding great weapons, cloaks, shoulderpads?
Same with assembling warmachines.

So would you please help? Any ideas on how to assemble the miniatures and play with them so that they can be taken apart in few months and properly painted?
Perhaps plasticine or two-sided scotch-tape? Maybe some really weak glue?


Please feel free to contribute - we really wanna play, but we also want to be able to pro paint the miniatures after we've aquired the paints and the time.

Thanks a lot in advance,
E.

I have been collecting and gaming for over 20 years now and rarely paint my miniatures in seperate pieces (only if they are very large). Most of the time you will be seeing them at arms length or further, so all those bits obscured by shields and weapons can't be seen.

When you do get round to painting your figures, undercoat them with a black spray can, this will get the undercoat into all those hard to reach areas that a brush can't find. It is also very forgiving to an inexperienced painter as it will make any parts you can't reach look as though they are merely in shade.

Clever posing of the arms can help keeping the centre of the model "open" for ease of painting.

If you do decide to paint your miniatures in seperate bits make sure you scrape the paint off the areas which will be glued, before adding the glue, otherwise the paint will hinder the different parts bonding and leave your figures prone to coming appart more easily.

I hope that some of this is helpful.

1) Which army did you and your friends buy?
2) I think you can safely assemble then paint. Most models are open to a degree and allow for paint to be applied to the entire surface. Exceptions for me are that I paint shields separately and some large war machines/crew are painted in sections. I'm thinking corpse carts, plague furnaces...etc.

Magnetize your minis, it takes longer but , you cna paint them alot easier. and you can switch out parts if you need to.....

Hey, thanks for a lot of great replies - I really needed a second opinion.

@jgemrich - I'm collecting WoC, mostly cav. - my biggest concerns are marauder horsemen with flails, my converted tz champion on disc (originaly a chosen with 2h weapon) and a bit about the knights.
One mate is collecting VC, so apart form the corpse cart he shouldn't be worried I guess, other is geting DE's, but he has paints already so not his problem. And the last one is getting an o&g horde, so I think his biggest concern are the warmachines.

Magnetising is a great idea as well, but I think by the time we're done with that, we'll get to painting ; p

So as an addition, any ideas how to soft-assemble some features that would otherwise cover some painting areas? (like 2h weapons on my metal chosen or flails on marauders)?

Again, cheers in advance ; ],
E.

If you want to be able to take them apart later, there's two options:

Poster tack / blue tack / sticky tack. All the same stuff, just different names. This will work short term but not long term (eg a game or two)

For plastic models, if you use super glue (cynacrholite) rather than plastic (model) glue, you'll be able to pop arms and the like off with a little bit of pressure. Then you'll need to scrape off the glue but it'll be much easier than with plastic glue.

But doesn't super glue melt the plastic together, just like the plastic/model glue does?

/E.

What you need is blu-tak, lots and LOTS of blu-tak.

My other advice would be test-models and a well-thought-out assembly line. From the armies you described, assemble the any mounts, but keep the riders un-glued and don't glue any arms/weapons/etc on until they are painted.

Believe me as long as everyone is vaguely clear on the kit your units have I don't see the issue, I used ork boyz with no arms in it for about a year and no-one complained

Leigen_Zero wrote: I used ork boyz with no arms in it for about a year and no-one complained

Didn't the boyz mind tho? : >

As for the blue-tack - great idea king88mob/Leigen, I can use it to glue on all the 2h weapons, shields and cloaks
Oh my, hope it comes in big boxes...

I know you're looking for a "soft-assembly" plan, but I agree with squilverine about just assembling them completely and painting them later with all parts attached.

As a noob to the hobby (started last March) I have learned a lot of things the hard way. One thing I thought was a great idea was to prime and paint entire sprues of units before assembling them. I would highly advise against that option. When the plastic glue comes into contact with painted sections of the model, you'll get a gobby mess that will be much more obvious then a missed brush stroke under a two-handed weapon. And lets face it - if you don't think you'll be steady with a fine-detail brush, how will you fair with a bulbous bottle of plastic glue? Believe it or not, painting those hard-to-reach places isn't as hard as it seems. It's more of a confidence problem than a steady-hand issue. The first couple will be messy, but the strokes will be in very hard to see places anyway.

As far as base coating goes - you're going to have to repaint many if not all of the models (especially if their armor is black) after you prime them anyway. In my short-lived experience, there is very little you can do to avoid this. You'll end up spraying too little or too much. You'll never get it just right. Plus - who wants to waste all that expensive base coat to get the underside of that guys ass anyway? Just run a quick brush of Chaos Black over it.

I say have confidence. Assemble them with plastic glue so you don't end up losing pieces or effing up your models with some crappy puddy. When the time comes, tackle the painting project with confidence and you'll do fine.

Hope that helps!

Edvin wrote:But doesn't super glue melt the plastic together, just like the plastic/model glue does?

/E.

No. Super-glue is an adhesive. Plastic/model 'glue' is actually a solvent.