Flintloque - Movement Trays

Flintloque is a skirmish wargame that mixes Fantasy and Napoleonic backgrounds, Orcs as British, Elves as French, Undead as Russians etc. As a skirmish game, I have always mounted my Flintloque miniatures on to 2p coins.

Over the last couple of months I have been playing with the idea of using the Flintloque figures to wargame a Dwarven Civil War - The Dwarf Sauerkraut Wars, see earlier posts. In addition I have now seen the new multiple bases that Games Workshop have launched for Lord of the Rings. The thought struck me that a multiple figure movement tray may be the answer for the Sauerkraut Wars - see below.

Photo One - The finished 'test' movement tray, this one holding eight Undead Ghosts, each mounted on to a 2p coin.

Photo Two - Some of the tools involved in this project. The drill bit will cut a hole 26mm across, which is just larger than the UK 2p coin. The drawing was done in some detail, making sure that the holes were equal distance apart and 'square'. The holes are spaces 5mm apart. The modified dart is a modelling tool that my father used to build model ships in bottles. I am proud to say, that well over thirty years later, I still use this very useful tool.

Photo Three - Instead of producing detailed drawings for each base (I intend making many more) I used the dart to 'prick' through on to 3mm thick plastic card. I then used a 1.5mm drill bit to make a pilot hole for the larger hole cutter.

Photo Four - The electric drill made the job of cutting the 26mm holes very easy (and messy). I used a scrap piece of MDF under the plastic card.

Photo Five - The eight holes drilled and cleaned up and a couple of 2p coins test fitted. The whole base was made over-size and was later trimmed back. I smoothed the 26mm holes with some fine sandpaper wrapped around a short piece of dowel.

Photo Six - The 3mm thick plastic card (with the holes) was superglued on to the 2mm thick plastic card (without holes).

Photo Seven - Once the glue had set, I checked for squareness of the base and trimmed it to size. The base is 130mm wide by 67mm deep.

Photo Eight - As above.

Photo Nine - As with the Games Workshop movement trays, I chamfered the edges, by cutting with a 'snap-off' bladed knife, held at a 45' angle and later sanded the edges smooth. This was the most difficult part of the operation and needed to be done with some care.

The figure I have used is a very large model of an Ostarian Dog called Digby. It was one of the largest Flintloque miniatures I had to hand and I thought that if this miniature works, then the smaller Dwarves would fit easily!

Photo Ten - uPVA glue was spread on the top of the movement tray.

Photo Eleven - Sharp sand and small pieces of grit were added.

Photo Twelve - The movement tray was first painted black.

Photo Thirteen - As above.

Photo Fourteen - Then painted Snakebite Leather.

Photo Fifteen - Then drybrushed with Snakebite Leather and Skull White.

Photo Sixteen - Individual stones were picked out in grey and the whole base washed with brown, sepia and black washes.

Photo Seventeen - Once dry the whole base was varnished and small patches of static grass were added. I painted the frame of the movement tray in a darker brown colour to add some contrast.

Photo Eighteen - As above, the finished movement tray.

Photo Nineteen - With Digby, the test miniature.

Photo Twenty and Twenty One - With a regiment of eight miniatures, six Dwarves and two Dogs.

Photo Twenty Two and Twenty Three - A regiment of eight un-dead Ghosts.

The movement tray has worked. One lesson I have learnt is that although a 2p coin will fit comfortably in to the 26mm hole, later movement trays will have slightly larger holes, so that the painted and varnished coins will fit a little more easily. I will use the same cutter, but sand the holes to make them larger.

Secondly, I am still not sure that the dark brown framing works, and may re-paint it black.

Tony

PS. The cost of this project: The plastic card sheets were free, either picked up from tradeshows or at the side of the road (I am always on the lookout for scrap plastic), the hole cutter was bought in Ross-on-Wye earlier this week for just over £2,00. The whole test piece has taken less than a day to produce.