Making WIP Figure Mounts (Pic Update)
Intermediate | Rating: 8.80 Votes: 5
Views: 6775 | By: rorulmesp  |
| Category: General Subcategory: Misc | Date: 2007-08-08 22:56:48 |
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MAKING WIP FIGURE MOUNTS 
I recently put a couple of these together as an experiment, and I've found them to be quite handy. Thought I might share how to do so with you folks.
The construction is really easy, as you can see in the picture, but here are the specifics-
The ingredients are whatever you use for a base material, and two alligator clips. Simple.
For the base material I used solid wood, but if you don't have access to that you could use Plywood, Masonite, or anything else with a flat side and a bit of weight to it so it provides a solid anchor when you put your model down.
The alligator clips shouldn't be hard to find unless you live on an iceberg, I picked mine up at the local hardware store for about $2.50 USD for a package of four. I'm sure they come in various sizes, but the ones I have are about 2 inches long and the bite tension is really firm. (I noticed that they had a package available with little rubber nubs on the bottom segments of the clips, these aren't the ones you want, because that part is going to be embedded in the wood.)
So, to assemble them you need to cut the base material into a rectanglish cube, whatever looks like a good size. Mine are 1.5" tall and 1" wide and deep. The only surface that really needs to be flat is the bottom, and it's easier later if the top surface is parallel to the bottom. Power tools are really helpful here, but if you don't have access to them you can just use something flat as a guide and saw by hand. Next you need to drill two holes in the top surface of the cube with a drill bit that is the same diameter as your alligator clamps' base segments. Mine ended up fitting snugly into a 3/16" hole. I used a drill press to do these, but an electric driver will work just as well if you keep the angle straight down and the holes parallel. Also, the holes want to be deep enough to bury the base part of your alligator clip, but not so deep that the little moving tab that opens the clip is dragging on the surface. If the hole ends up being too big, you could use greenstuff or wood glue or whatever adhesive you have around to make your clips stay put. The only thing left to do is wedge the clips in the holes next to each other.
If you find that your clips can wedge nicely into the holes and come back out without damaging them, you could drill a few more holes to accommodate larger or smaller models. I found that the clips are strong enough to hold a normal pewter GW human-sized figure perfectly well by either the little tab under the figure's feet or the two plastic bits on either side of said tab if the model is attached to a base. If the model stands on a base with a flat surface underneath, you could just superglue a bit of sprue onto the bottom for the alligator clips to grab and just leave it (if it's small enough) or pull it off when the model's ready to leave the safety of the mount and venture out on its own.
Feel free to comment if you have any kind of feedback or additional ideas or anything like that. Or if I left out something vital, like where the flange adapter goes. 
-RM
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Thunderhawker
13 August 07 |  |
Rating: 10
@Gilvan Blight: Well if you put a pin in the foot/claw/wheel/whatever it may work. Great and simple solution!
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Tahn
13 August 07 |  |
Rating: 9
This one looks better than the circular dowel handles i have used before, and the components for these are easy for even me to get my hands on, nice idea and tutorial. The only thing keeping it from a 10 is that not all the differently based models could be used with it..
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Gilvan Blight
12 August 07 |  |
Rating: 7
The one problem with this is it really only works for minis with a 'slotta' base. Cool idea none the less.
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DaN
12 August 07 |  |
Rating: 8
Another alternative is to glue the base to one end of a bottle cork, and weight the other end with a 2p piece (or equivalent)
Nice idea
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demonelf3
10 August 07 |  |
Rating: 10
Handy!
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