A practical guide to defying gravity.

That final batch of painted miniatures for 2011 would have been a little larger but I decided it was time to get round to a task I had been putting off for a while - magnetising the bases for my Mantic elf army.

The method I chose, using magnetic tape and steel paper works well for Mantic miniatures as the Mantic bases are solid and have flat bottoms.

To save on materials and therefore money I chose not to cover the whole of the bases and for this reason I chose to put the steel paper on the bottom of the bases rather than the magnetic tape which is the more usual way round. The steel paper is so thin that it doesn't affect the stability of the model when you only cover part of the base.

Anyway, enough prattling.

What you'll need is some steel paper and some 15mm magnetic tape (both bought from Magnetic Displays). The steel paper is self adhesive (as is the tape) and behaves just like thin card so can be cut with normal scissors and you don't get any nasty sharp edges.



Cut the steel paper into 15mm squares and stick to the bottom of the Mantic bases.



Cut 15mm sections from the roll of tape and place one square on the tray for each miniature.



For plastic miniatures the grip is strong enough to allow you to turn your miniatures upside-down. This doesn't work quite as well for heavier metal miniatures (but then I'm only using part of the surface area of the base) although its still adequate for the kind of handling the unit is likely to get on the tabletop and the degree of tilt you are likely to experience when fighting up or down hills.



For my cavalry I've used wider tape (20mm) which seems to work well. Hopefully I won't lose by a time out next time I use this army in a tournament.