From Ron Lizorty:Needless to say, I haven't had any time to wargame, but am finally getting around to "properly" mounting my British Colonial figures. I'm basing them on magnetic tape to metal stands, which are then taped (double-stick type) to 3/16 and 1/8" basswood. The wood stands give me something to grab hold of as well as the room to rubber cement xeroxed name tabs of troop types (taken from lists in the Courier and Osprey publications and run off on light tan paper to match the spray painted bases) to the side (rear).

This looks like it'll serve ME well during gaming. My infantry is mounted eight to a stand, not counting a sgt. (with individually based officer with name tag). This makes up a company stand. I would love to have 12 man--or even 10 man companies, but like so many of us, just can't afford it! The basing allows me to either remove entire stands or individuals--depending on what rules I'm using at the time.

I forgot to mention that I cut the magnetic tape to overlap the figure's lead base slightly. This is then painted and dusted with sand or gravel (the paint being gel medium - a kind of thinned out Elmer's Glue). This groundwork is then painted in various shades of acrylic. I doubt if the above differs much from what others have done?

First, a heartfelt thank you for working on a new masthead, while not yet complete I have included a part The Heliograph in this issue.

Most of my bases are painted with various shades of light brown to simulate sand and/or earth I have started using Lifelike's Brown and Green flock (colored sawdust) available at most train hobby shops) and the results are very pleasing. lfirst paint the base with a ground color to cover the either black, dark brown or white base coat. Then I paint on either gel medium or diluted, slightly, Elmer's Glue dip the base in the flock, which I put in a small box, and let dry briefly, then blow off the loose material back into the bax to use again. I bought three colors of flock, green, light green and brown and made up four small jars with various mixes of color they range from almost all green to almost all brown for desert. Sometimes I will add a piece or two of gravel or something else to spice up a not so well animated figure. --Editor

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