What's your secret for clipping off bases?

[R2ED]

I'm a big fan of making my bases for the minis I paint, or utilizing the Bones Base Boss stuff I bought waaaaaay to much of. I try to avoid the premade base on the mini because I can't add to them well or they are off balance. I have tried cutting off bases on reaper minis with clippers and then filing or cutting away with an hobby knife, but it's not as clean as I'd like. Not too mention some of the Bones Black are hard as rock and the hobby knife struggles to get through. 

 

My question: do any of you have a secret way I'm not aware of in how you get a mini cut away from a base it was molded with?  I don't want to stain so hard that the bits or knife I'm holding splinter off or ricochet because of the force applied.  I'm hoping someone will say just do xxx thing to easily part them from the base or make it easy to cut away.

 

I've thought about heating up the blade and melting through, likely melting a foot or part of the mini.  I've thought about hot water to soften before cutting.  

 

Tried a hobby saw... Mixed results.

Tried a wider edge hobby knife and leveraging it on a cutting mat.  Meh.

Used sprue clippers to get most of the big stuff off then using an xacto to get the last bits, but angle and area to work in the small area is tough (not to mention easy to poke yourself).

 

What's the secret I don't know about?

Edited November 3 by R2ED

[Chaoswolf]

There isn't one. You're doing the right things, you just need to keep going, and keep experimenting until you get the results you're after.

 

The thing to remember is that there isn't a sure fire way to do this. You'll have to combine tools and techniques to get the best results. 

Bones white--a regular ol' knife should do just fine. You can also use sprue clippers to cut away huge chunks and then switch to the xacto knife to do the precision cutting.

 

( A quick word on sprue clippers: go to a hardware store and spend the money to get yourself a GOOD pair of diagonal cutters. Since they're designed for use cutting electrical cable and whatnot, they're going to be strong enough to withstand doing that. Using them for our hobby purposes is slightly overkill, but they'll handle anything you throw at them and you'll never to replace them unless you lose them. )

 

Other Bones formulations require more trial and error to determine the best way to deal with them. ( I'm still doing this myself right now ) Bones Black can be really hard , but it's also somewhat brittle. I recently tried to clip big chunks off the base of one of them in order to remove it, and I ended up breaking one of the figures legs. A saw is probably your best bet,

 

Metal figures I use clippers to remove big chunks of the base and then files to clean up the rest and flatten the feet if necessary.

 

 

Alternately, you need MOAR POWER!!!!!!!

 

Get a Dremel tool and use that to cut/grind/carve/file away the base of your figure. ( Be careful with this, it's VERY easy to accidentally remove part of the models foot. )

 

I hope this helps a little bit.

[haldir]

 

Jeweler's saw is a great option for cutting off bases. Just note, you will snap blades, but they come a bunch per package.

[Inarah]

Nippers on plastic, jeweler's saw for metal.  If your hobby knife isn't going through the plastic you need a new blade.  I buy them 6-10 at a time so I always have a fresh one ready. 

 

[crowsandbones]

I wonder if you boiled the plastic to soften it like we do when we need to straighten a sword or something, the tools might have an easier time getting through the warmed material...

[zemjw]

I have been taking a different approach for a while. I've been 3d-printing slottabases with a recess, gluing the old base in (making sure it's level with the top of the slottabase), and filling in the gap with Milliput/filler etc. The advantage I find is that I don't have to cut away as much of the old base (generally just enough to make it fit), and it gets rid of the "every figure standing on a mound" look.

 

The recesses are generally about 1.5mm deep, but as the slottabase is 3.5mm tall, I can go down to 3mm if I have to.

 

I believe someone is making this sort of thing commercially, so a search should turn up something.

 

This shows the sort of thing. I think the filler was a mix of hard moulding paste and sand, but I'm using Milliput more for a cleaner finish. The figure on the right is a Frostgrave female figure, still on her integral base.

 

 

[Chaoswolf]

That's a really neat idea!

[zemjw]

I've been really happy with it. I've never had much success building up around integral bases, It always ends up with a slope, and that's on top of the slottabase height as well.

 

Clipping away I've hit the problems others have. I wasn't aware of the Bones Black issue, so thanks for the warning on that. Even when I have clipped everything away, I can never get the soles of the feet flat!!!

 

This way, all those problems go away, while leaving the figure with its original base, making for a much stronger join.

[Inarah]

On 11/4/2023 at 1:40 PM, zemjw said:

I have been taking a different approach for a while. I've been 3d-printing slottabases with a recess,.....

 

I believe someone is making this sort of thing commercially, so a search should turn up something.

 

 

IIRC Reaper's straight sided rpg bases can be flipped upside down and used this way.  They are 4mm high, so that would give you about a 3mm depth when upside down.  I re-based a bunch of plastic clicky figures a few years ago using them. (https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/81029-calling-all-cars/&tab=comments#comment-1718939)

 

1" Round Plastic RPG Base (20) SKU: 74035

 

2" Round Plastic RPG Base (10) SKU: 74036

 

3" Round Plastic RPG Base (10) SKU: 74037

[kristof65]

2 minutes ago, Inarah said:

IIRC Reaper's straight sided rpg bases can be flipped upside down and used this way. 

I do this all the time. Here is one w/o putty yet, and one with: