Errhile’s Scratchbuild Deployables

Don’t get me wrong – I like tokens. I routinely use MAS tokens for my games – they’re colourful, durable, generally fun.

But, in my eyes, they are fine for status things. Wounds, Orders, Spent Ammo, Burnt Camouflage – things that happen to my models. When something of consequence is deployed on the board, I want something more… three-dimensional. More realistic.

Not to mention I find it helps establishing lines-of-sight. My Camo Markers are figures painted in a camouflage pattern (granted, cheap plastic models). Seems the Corvus Belli likes that attempt, too – so the Crazy Koalas, Fast Pandas and even Drop Bears (as it seems) have the form of miniatures.

So, what about the more common deployables, like Mines, E-Maulers and Repeaters? I considered that idea for a while, and decided to start with Mines. It went pretty easy from there.

As you can see, I used basic electronic components – they can be obtained from your local electronics parts stores for neglible cost.

Okay, let’s roll:

Mines

The first and easiest are mines. I took some spare round bases (since I use scenic MAS bases for my minis, I have loads of spare regular bases), glue some cheap transistors onto them. Given the nature of Infinity mines, I assumed they are capable of turning around and generating a Claymore-like effect. Well, the transistor seems to just fit the bill… just bend the legs and put them through holes drilled in the base:

Note:  should anyone try to go a shorter way and simply superglue the transistors on top of the bases – that’s how I did it the first time. Bad idea, as time has shown. Contact area was too small, and the “mines” broke off the bases leaving me with that:

And painted, ready to be deployed.

As you can see, simply altering paint scheme and label can turn them into different mine type (I don’t have Mono mines available for any of my armies, therefore I didn’t made them, but I guess they’d be blue).

E/Maulers

Next were the E/Maulers. I hope N3 will make these a practical weapon!

I took 3mm LEDs (cheapest, no matter the specs) from an electronics store (actually the same I bought my mines, I mean – transistors at ). Also, nails (1,4 x 40mm, brass-coated). I considered using tailoring pins, as they are 0,7mm thick so half as much as my nails, but they bend way too easily.

And naturally, spare regular bases. As you can see, these are actually old slotted bases. Oh well, with modern ones you’d have a more flat top, but still some epoxy putty would be a good idea to keep the nail stable in the base! Plus Superglue and green stuff.

I compared the nails against a miniature and cut them down. I cut the legs off the LEDs (I figured they’d be too delicate to use). Unfortunately couldn’t have cut them flat at the base, so some needle-file work was required. Then LEDs were attached to the nail heads with greenstuff and glue. I filled slots in the bases with green stuff too (not shown).And allowed it to cure.

Yes, those are laundry clips, I use them as general hold-em-all.

Finally, I drilled holes in the green stuff and glued the nails in. Important thing – since these deployables are defined by the rules as being “as high as a model”, I measured them against one of my figures to get appropriate height. That’s how high these are.

Primed and ready to be painted!

Deployable Repeaters.

As you can see, I used exactly the same technique as E/Maulers, and found it a bit easier this time.

The only difference in the component list is that I used small condensers instead of LEDs (they lack legs, because I scavenged them from a dead computer mouse, and had to clip the legs in the process).

The condensers got glued onto the nails. I hadn’t cut the nails down yet at this stage, because I needed to compare them against a miniature’s height as complete devices.

I drilled the holes in the bases and glued the Repeaters in. If you are to use old-style bases with slots for figure tabs (like I did), they should be filled with green stuff and allowed to cure first.

Keep in mind to cut the nails / masts to size before gluing them into the holes – doing it afterwards will cause more problems than it solves!

Bang, ready for painting!

Afterword

Well, with some inspiration, it wasn’t as difficult as I initially thought. The mines, E-Maulers and Deployable Repeaters cover the basic types of deployables most of us need (and the CB don’t supply as models).

Shasvastii players would likely love to see some Seed-Embryo models (Pierzasty once suggested using acorns or acorn caps for that). I didn’t got to that yet – not playing Shasvastii myself, and having no active Shasvastii player in my meta, I lack the proper motivation to do that.

Similar technique – using nails for masts and some extra electronic bits for parts – could be used to create things like Netrods. But since these were released as normal models, it would be kinda like stepping on CB’s toes.