Magnetic Tows

Most GHQ guns - artillery and anti-tank guns - come packed in a standard way. There are two guns modeled in firing position, two in towing mode and two towing vehicles. This makes sense, but it has always left me with a problem of how to base everything. I want to have the vehicle towing the guns for transit mode, but also have them available alongside or near the guns when firing.
My recent discovery of small cheap powerful magnets has given me an idea which I have put into action with some Italian guns - 75mm Cannone (artillery) and 45mm anti-tank guns. I painted up the guns and tows, but before doing so I glued a magnet under each of the vehicles. One type was wide enough that the magnets are entirely out of sight, with a little drilling to make a recess underneath. On the other vehicle the magnet is visible, but it's not a problem for me - they are not very prominent, and could easily be taken for a spare wheel under the chassis.
Once painted I based the guns - on steel bases, as are all my 6mm models. The firing models were on landscaped bases with crews as normal, though I tried to make sure there was a bit of flat space available. The guns in towed format I put on longer thinner bases, landscaped as rough tracks, and the guns were glued on their wheels, so that the towhooks are at the height of the towbars on the vehicles. I left plenty of space ahead of the guns for the vehicles to sit in place.
The magnets hold the tows very securely on the bases - I can easily pick up the whole thing by lifting the vehicle, though it comes off simply enough when you need to separate them. So now I put the towing vehicle on the transit base while the guns are moving around in my battle. When they un-limber I substitute the firing base, and I can pop to vehicle on there as well if I wish, to show it is available to move the gun again if needed. In practie I probably wouldn't do that with the ATGs, as it looks odd to have a truck so close to a gun which is presumably about to come into action against enemy armour, or is supposed to be hidden in ambush.
The pictures should give the idea - four images for each gun. First in traveling mode, and then a shot with the tow removed to show how the gun is glued to the base. Then the gun in action, and finally the same but with the tow on the base as if about to hitch up.

Here comes a chopper

One of my Christmas presents from the wife (how did she know?) was a Chopper II from NorthWest Short Line. I saw this in a YouTube video by Allen Rockwell in one of his series of Tool Tips - a channel well worth watching https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_zjLdVqHHYiDYJvjSARV9Q 

The Chopper is essentially simple, a guillotine arm with a razor blade underneath, cutting down onto a platen made from modelling mat material. It comes with a couple of mitre guides - one with 90 and 30 degree angles, the other with 45 and 60. In the first two pictures below the 30/90 guide is in use, on the 90 degree side, which is probably the most common usage - it allows you to cut linear items such as posts to a consistent length. The other mitres allow you to cut sheet material at fixed angles.

Storing the mitre which is not in use was my concern - it would be very easy to lose it. There is also a tiny envelope of spare screws, the ones which are used to hold the blades in - again, very easy to misplace. After my experiments with magnets recently, and finding how cheap they are, I hatched a cunning plan. I glued three magnets under the platen, as shown in the third picture. Then the packet of steel screws, and the steel mitre, simply lock on and sit out of sight but safe until needed. Simples.

 

    

 

 

Base metal

A couple of weeks ago I received a model I had ordered on eBay, a GHQ Nashorn, nicely painted. It came in an old metal cigarette case, along with a couple of free 3mm tanks. All three had magnets mounted underneath, which held them to the case. It occurred to me that this was an idea I could use, given that I already mount all my 6mm troops and vehicles on 1" square steel bases. If I put a magnet under a tank, then I can put it onto a base for games where I want that, but I can also remove it for games in which unbased vehicles are preferred. 

I tried this out on some GHQ Pz IVH which I had painted but not based, and some magnets I had lying around - I think from Flames of War days. I used Das air-drying putty to fill in the cavity under the tank, and then embedded a magnet in it, at ground level as it were. As it turned out the Das isn't all that sticky once dried - most if the carcasses dropped out of the tanks, and most of the magnets popped out of their holes when I offered them to a steel base. However that was not a big problem - I glued the magnets back in with superglue, and the carcasses into the hulls with Uhu or similar. The first picture here show how it works.

I then modelled some bases in my normal way - green Basetex to give some shape and texture, a bit of Flat Earth paint and then a variety of flocks and other bits. The difference was that instead of gluing a model I simply left a fairly flat area in the centre. The tanks then sit nicely on the bases - the magnets hold them securely, but come off easily enough when needed. The next few pictures show the effect - I later did the same with some Chieftains which can be seen in the last two pics, with and without bases.

This opens up several other possibilities. I can use the same bases for different tanks, so I do not need to have a base for every vehicle, just enough for the biggest battle I am likely to fight. And I can use different bases for the same model - so a Tiger could have a desert sand base to fight in Tunisia, and then switch to a temperate base for Italy, or even a snow scene in Russia. All in all, I think a successful experiment.

The magnets, by the way, turn out to be very cheap, only about 12p each for the size I used, and there is a huge range and choice.