Claudio's ConfessionsHow Claudio Berni does things...Ok, these are a collection of tips and techniques derived by 20 years first-hand experience with 20mm plastics, hope there will be something interesting for all... Let's begin with basing: 25mm basing as for rule book IMHO [In My Humble Opinion] is by far the best option if nothing else because is the most common, and suits 1/72 perfectly. I own still only DBA armies (actually I can put together a couple of 300+ DBM's...) but I do (and suggest to) always think of your elements as DBM's, that is consider them as to be graded (S), (O), (I), (F) or (X) and base them accordingly: this will come very handy when you'll get near to retirement and will finally find time to finish to paint all those figures you've been collecting... :) Choosing the figures for your elements using 20mm plastic figures means that you will often have to make some compromise. My suggestion is to always put plausibility first and don't be obsessed by fidelity to established "historical" icons. If you do a minimum of research on your army of choice you'll find that most of the time even the most basic details are uncertain, add to that the cost of armor and weapons and the fact that old equipment remained normally in use long after the elite was issued with new state-of-the-art equipment, and that captured weapons made up always at least a part of the army equipment and you have a solid historical base for flexibility and open-mindness. That said, try always to get the best possible historical match and clarity: using same pose figures lined up for regulars and mix posed more evenly distributed for irregulars as suggested by the Phil Himself does help. My approach in general is to try to minimize the number of figures and elements required, and concentrate instead on having the best possible looking elements, but this is only a personal choice... For example similar equipped troops appear often in different armies and as different troops types, a good example are Greek spearmen, which are classified as Sp as often as Aux. Given that you have to paint 4 figures for each element here is the first tip - base ALL of them as SP, then make an "extension" Aux base that fit underneath, if you put on the Aux base a 10mm strip of flocking on one side, when you fit the Sp on top you can hardly see it. I use magnetic tape to keep them in place and it works great. Other than that, all my other Aux are 3 figures per base, which makes it easier to recognize them, it looks correctly more close formation than PS and less than heavy inf., and saves you a figure per element to paint, 25% of work less... ;). Same goes for Kn, 3 per base regardless, apart from the fact that is really hard to get 4x20mm mounted figures in a 60mm frontage, it makes easy to use the same figures as Kn or Cv (ancient German mounted troops are good example of identical figures that work well as Kn or Cv depending in which army they appear). Along the same logic, two Cv size bases with a couple of horses and a foot guard each are excellent for dismounted elements, but can also be put together to make a good baggage element. If you want to push it (like me) this concept can arrive to include a normal Artillery based as (O) or (S), and with the addition of one of the riderless mounts above happens to be just the right size of Artillery (F)... ;) The first thing all figures should be checked for is flash around the mold junction lines. This may be tricky to remove, the best way is using a very sharp surgical blade. Sometimes it may be difficult to find enough different poses - there are a couple of very easy things you can do:
A good rule when scratchbuilding is don't take nothing for granted! What works well in one situation may be completely wrong in another. Always try to find the best technique for you and for the particular things you want to do, never do it "that way" because someone has told you that's right... :) That said most Gaul, German and many other contemporary barbarian types used flat shields, and it's easy enough cut them out of cardboard of the right thickness. A perfect central boss can be easily made with a small amount of milliput or another epoxy putty. Roll it between the finger and then squash it on. A little water will help to stick it, but if it doesn't don't worry, just let it dry and then superglue it on later. All Esci shields really need a boss like this to close the hole they have in the middle! Another way to make "large" shield bosses is by slicing sections of the plastic sprue of the figures, or plastic wall plugs for screws (lots of different size and shapes!) and smaller nailhead style ones can be made with tiny drops of very thick PVA applied with a pin. A thin (max 2mm) strip of paper (just cut it off the edge of a A4 sheet with the help of a ruler) is perfect to make shields strap when they are visible, the secret to do them quickly is like in most cases to work "industrially". Cut loads of paper strips, then hold them in a bunch and using scissors chop them in oversize lengths easy to manipulate (for example roughly 40mm). Take a strip and dip one end in superglue, then position it just over the arm, and... let it dry. Once it's dry is very easy to push the other end around and under the arm, cut to size and superglue it in with the help of a pin. Store the surplus strips for use again in the years to come... :) For the best source of shields and weapons - cannibalize those old spare figures! Chop lances and swords off Napoleonics with no fear...! Small toygun cartridges shaped like tiny buckets (usually yellow) are still sometimes available in the shops. These make great X/XI century bucket helms... and so on... ;) You can turn a rifle into a good crossbow by chopping the end of the barrel and adding a curved bow made of a thin paper strip. Once fixed in place soak it in superglue and it will become rigid. If you want details, you can add a quarrel using half pins and even a string made with a thin cotton thread. Again the trick is glue a side and let it dry, then it's very easy to pull it across and glue it on the other end. This way you can convert Esci's Muslim warriors riflemen to Saracens x-bows for example. Something that I found very useful is to assemble elements before painting the figures. These end up lying around for a fair while and often made their way into a game or two anyway, and it is not rare at all that they get re-arranged a couple of times before they assume their final composition. This is also particularly handy if you want to give a good "single line" effect to multiple elements of the same type when side by side, like a shieldwall for example. Once you're positive, detach as many figures as needed and accurately paint each one. Usually PS don't need that, but 4 figures infantry elements in general need the middle two figures to be removed. LH need to remove one and other mounted the 2 wing figures, but the advantage of pre-mounting the figures is that it will be very easy to re-position them back on their original base once painted. If you use PVA to glue the plastic figures to the base you'll find it extremely easy to remove them at any time, and yet still well fixed; use PVA also to glue the removed figures to a small coin or another suitable support for painting to be able to remove them clean and easy. The main problem when painting plastics is that color don't stick very well to it, but it's easy to solve once you know how. Wash the figures well with soap, to remove any detaching agent from the mold, then undercoat the figures with nitro-based spray primer for cars (NOT the filling-in type mind you!) it has a fantastic grip on the plastic, it's very easy to apply and it's cheap. You can paint directly over the primer with any acrylic water or solvent based color without problem, or spray again with a black or white base which can save a lot of time, but be careful not to overdo with spray colors, use very thin layers spraying from a distance and let them dry well, and check often you're not filling up any detail! Once you're happy with your paintwork glue back the figures in place on their bases, using superglue this time. This works very well with cardboard bases since the first PVA glue will now be perfectly attached to the cardboard and should have left a smooth plastic-like surface on the top (where the figure base was) which it's ideal for superglue to stick. I recommend using magnetic sheet under all bases, not only because it's great for storing and transport figures, but it also makes it very easy to double base elements or mount several elements on "tray sheets" to move them together. If you do decide for magnetic sheets make sure you glue the whole sheet (usually in A4 size) to strong cardboard first. Then cut out the individual element bases. You can remove the corners of the magnetic sheet underneath each element to reduce the risk of them starting to peel off and make it easier for the bases to fit closely together. I suggest you to use a transparent matt spray at this point to protect the figures and the paint. The spray can is a bit expensive but it will last forever and it will help a lot your figures to survive though battlefield condition, such as the odd beer/coffee shower, and may help the paintwork to survive even a quick pet incursion... it also makes it easy and safe to dust the figures when you'll take them out again after 10 years...;) The excess spray varnish that will deposit on the base top and sides will only help to make it tougher and leave it flexible. Several clear protective spray varnish are also available which are usually cheaper and tougher then the matt ones, but gives figures a shiny polished look which I personally don't like. Once you've got all your beautifully converted and painted figures glued to your cool magnetic bases and sprayed with a protective varnish you'll notice there are still two things that are not quite right: first the individual figures bases stand out a lot, and second, the whole thing is quite light, which may be handy to carry but may make it hard to keep it in place. To solve both problems at once I suggest you to use a bathroom tiles filler kind-of-stuff (like polyfilla). It's cheap, though, relatively flexible, sticks to everything, completely waterproofs the bases (an extra bonus) and it's easy to apply and paint over. Begin in the space between the figures with a fair amount of filler and push it down using a sculpting knife or an oil color mixing tool, this will ensure a good hold. Leave just enough thickness to disguise the plastic bases paying attention not to cover the feet, then keep pushing the filler down and toward the edge of the base where it is very easy to squeeze out the excess. You can use an old paintbrush with some water to work the surface around details and eventually clean off the filler from the figures, the nitro primer will be covering the base of the figures too and the filler will stick on it, but before it sets it's easy to wash it away with water. When the filler is still soft you can press in it sand or very fine gravel if you like, or glue it later on with PVA, or do both. Once hardened the filler can be sanded if necessary and then painted. And now is time for flocking. Of course the paint you just applied to the base was merely an undercoat, you can't possibly ever want to skip flocking... that's the best fun of all! ;) You can still use undiluted PVA on top of the varnished base, but keep well off the figure's feet and don't use too much. If you want an uniform look the best thing is to drop the whole element in a soft plastic container (like a clean 500ml yogurt vase for example) half full with sand, grass or whatever flocking you like, replace the cap and swirl it around gently. If you want a more varied look use the same technique apply glue only to some areas, then flock with say fine gravel, and once well dried apply the glue to the remaining part of the base and repeat with say, grass. You can also make a very convincing mud by preparing a very thick mud color with acrylic colors, dilute it slightly with a 50/50 solution of PVA and water and stir in just a little bit of plaster (any will do). Don't mix it too much and apply it with a old paintbrush. It works especially well in conjunction with the other flocking technique - mud trail under chariot wheels and horse legs for instance looks great. You may also add some scenic like small rocks, bushes or fallen tree branches to the bases of light troops, this'll help remind them that they're at home in bad terrain, and anyway it looks nice... ;) I guess that's all for the moment, have fun and send me feedback! Cheers, Claudio Back to Nick's Plastic Pages... 
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