For some time I have had problems with my minis tipping over during play. In an attempt to correct this I have settled on using steel shot, glued into the underside of my WoW/G aircraft bases. Since I use a modified altitude system where four standard pegs equals one level of elevation, the maximum height above table top can exceed 40 pegs in total. Even with permanently gluing my flight pegs into groups of four can make for some unstable moments.
Standard base without modifications
I first paint the underside with a white enamel model paint (mainly because this is what I have)
The steel shot is 4.5mm (.177cal). This enough to fill approx. 15-20 bases depending on amount used.
I use a simple and inexpensive white glue to set the steel shot in place. The bonus is that if I ever need to replace any pellets it is easy to pry apart.
A completed base viewed from the upper side. As this base is for a DH4 there is a red stripe painted on the rear most inner edge first as a visual reminder there is a blind spot in the rear firing arc. Here the maximum altitude is 11, or 44 flight pegs in height.
Once the undercoat is fully dried I start filling bases with steel shot.
Adding glue, and lots of it. The glue will settle between the shot and adhere to the enamel paint underneath.
Once filled with glue, the bases are smoothed with a disposable plastic straw. Any gaps are filled in with additional glue, taking care to ensure the edges are completely filled.
The standard base comes in at 5 grams.
The average filled base comes in at 53 grams.
The 4.5mm steel shot is slightly higher that the interior of the aircraft base, however with the coating of glue covering the shot I have not had any problems with the shot getting snagged on any playing surface to date. I know many prefer the maintain their minis and accompanying parts in a collectible form. But since I am collecting the WGF for gaming I have no problems in modifying things to improve my gaming experience. I wanted to share my approach in case there is anyone else that might benefit from my experiment. The additional benefit to painting the aircraft bases is with my nearsightedness I find that I can read the aircraft data printed easier than with a clear base by itself.
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