The $5 or so Do it yourself base

[007-vf1]

I have been thinking about purchasing a base for some of my 1/72 star wars models. The only good alternative known to me is to buy a base made by an X company and paint it myself; or pay some more and purchase one already painted. The problem starts when you need more than 1. I might be doing for a whole squadron of models relatively soon, but Having to pay $8 to $20 for each base become a burden on the wallet, let alone the cost of shipping because of the weight issues.

I went to the hardware store and found a piece of trim corner block which is already nicely cut. I am sure many of you have found this but the plain looking piece of wood leaves a lot to be desired. At $ 2.65 I couldn't let it go and had to take a few home and figure out how to make it functional and improve it.

So i gave it a little lift...

[misterryno]

007-vf1,

Nice idea mate. I have been wanting a "custom" stand myself and need to make a trip to the hardware store anyways. I'll look into somethings and post here when I make my own stand.

[007-vf1]

I cut off a piece of styrene I have laying around; one thick for the base top and one thin for the template that I was going to paint on the top. The proceeded to paint the base with a can of spray paint I had left form a few years back. At this point I was left with a nice base but I wanted a log to go on the top.Since I wanted the template logo to be of a lighter color than the base. I painted that first and when dried I painted the wooden base color on top. Let it dry, glue the top to the base with a multi-purpose cement; drill a hole, glue a rod and you are done.

[misterryno]

Heh.....right on.....this info helps alot.....THANKS!!!

[MechTech]

That's a great idea! I might "brow" it! - MT

[jardann]

That's a great method to get the design on the base. You should be able to get a lot of use out of that template.

To get it even cheaper, you can check out craft stores (Michaels, Hobby Lobby etc.) They always have small unfinished wood plaques or bases that would work great with your idea. They do not have any carved designs on the top, but they have different styles of fancy edges for whatever you want and the small ones usually start at around 50 cents!

[big F]

I was doing something similar except that I managed to get the bases cut for me by the Cabinet makers that are next door to where I used to work. They were made out of scrap MDF that they had in the scrap bin that they give to the recyclers. they just band sawed them and then mitred them up for me at the same time. I just sanded them really smooth and them painted them. All in all FOC except fo the paint. I will return to them for some more I think.

I used Plasticote Graphite as its shinny and looks nice. add some Acrylic rod and the Valk or plane etc looks great.

I may well just do all mine like this to keep them looking like a set.