On to the work. My magnets arrived yesterday and I picked up the drill bit (A Forstner Bit) to make the cut outs for the magnets. I purchased both 3/8" diameter and 1/2" diameter magnets, still haven't decided which ones I'm going to use. Tonight I opted to try out the 1/2" magnets.
The first thing I learned after trying this out is that the holes have to be cut more precisely than I did it. Otherwise the sides are actually held out of alignment, kind of ugly looking. I figured I may as well keep going tonight and I decided to build the background for the Trophy Hunter just to see how things might go together with some thing other than matte board.
Here are the pictures from tonight:
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| A Forstner bit is designed to cut into the wood and leave a flat bottom. |
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| The drill press with the bench set at 45 degrees so that I was actually cutting into a flat surface |
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| 1/2" x 1/16" Rare Earth Magnets. The self adhesive on these isn't even close to be strong enough for my purposes, I'll have to go with epoxy to hold them in place. |
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| Marking the back for the holes |
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| Holes drilled, I think I missed getting everything lined up properly |
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| Magnets in place |
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| Gluing wood strips for the floor. These are coffee stirrers. |
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| And the otherside |
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| Planking going on for the display base portion |
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| The floor is in, looks pretty good |
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| Trimming it out. I may need to apply a second coat of Danish oil to the bottom as well as the back (to seal it). |
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| Baseboards in place |
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| Putting the scene back together |
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| Adding some color. I used a brush I should have used an airbrush to get a nice even coat. I do like that green though. |
Glad to see I am not the only one spending a Friday night with miniatures.
ReplyDeleteThe large magnets should do the job nicely, and the wood planking looks good as well.
If you like the green, could you airbrush a thin coat on top to smooth it out, but retain the color?
I don't always spend Fridays working on miniatures! I had my doubts about the planking at first. I used coffee stirrer sticks and they are not exactly uniform. But the overall effect is quite nice. I do like the green and I think if I pull out the airbrush I can smooth the whole thing out. I may not go much farther at this point as this is really a proof of concept piece.
DeleteOverall I feel like the design is very successful, it works the way I envisioned and I have learned exactly where the critical points are and how to make them work. I think I can start looking at wood and making decisions about what to use for the actual competition bases.