chrisswim wrote:I know one person who has stated because of barrels bending or breaking, that he snips them off ...
If that is the case, use colored counters and have them in your pocket....
The figure and the aesthics is the reason most of us game with minatures and not (or not only) board games or use counters, we like the visual effect.
Well said.
The figure and the aesthetics are also important to me. I like wargaming with counters well enough too. And I like games like chess. But there is something more in a chess game with a beautiful ornate chess set. The rules may be the same, but the game is more delightful to me.
So with my micro armor -- I can (and do) game with folks who don't even paint some of their tanks or infantry. And in truth my own terrain has been modest at best for many years. But there is so much extra delight in the game if it looks good. Good looking models, terrain that just strikes you as realistic... it is all stimulating to my imagination, and for me that's the fun of gaming with miniatures.
I don't base my miniatures (except when necessary to hold them together, like infantry squads, jeeps or trucks with trailors, or horses with wagons).
Barrels get bent from time to time. So also infantry figures get squashed down, or pop off of their bases, or trailors come off of their tows.
For bent barrels I use flat-headed tweezers. With these I can straighten barrels by squeezing them (between two flat surfaces) rather than by re-bending them. I find the squeezing is a less stressful approach on the metal, producing a straighter barrel with less likelyhood of causing the metal to break at the bend.
Here are a couple pictures to illustrate the magnitude of barrel-straightening I can achieve with the simple technique of squeezing with flat-headed tweezers.
About a year ago I bought some used micro armor. Met a fellow at a local gaming club who, for whatever reasons, wanted to sell off his collection. It was a "micro armor by the pound" kind of deal. I bought a large quantity of mixed material -- GHQ and other vendors' product all jumbled together.
My first "upgrading" was on BT-7s. I went through and pulled out all the BT-7 hulls and turrets, for refurbishing and repairs. Here you see some of the turrets. This was absolutely characterisistic of the condition of the gun barrels.
Here you see a battalion of BT-7s half-way through my refurbishing. All the barrels have been straightened, the vehicles have been re-base-coated, and in the pic they await detailing. I did not loose a single barrel in this process.
I often do a repair cycle, the day before a game, on troops I plan to use. Or I do a repair cycle on troops that I observed having troubles, the day after a game. In truth, while I don't find the repair efforts to be the best form of entertainment, any excuse to take out my micro armor and fawn over them a bit is OK in my book.
But still they do occasionally break. And when they do, they need to be replaced.
My favorite replacement material for barrels is nylon line. The advantage of a nylon line barrel is that it snaps back to shape after bending. So once you have replaced the barrel with nylon line, it won't need further repairs over time.
I used to use fishing line. But it always comes on a role, and you just can't get rid of that little bit of a bow shape to the line, no matter how large the role vs. how short the barrel.
So now I have found another source -- the nylon tag holders that come on new clothes. Seriously. We all know these things -- they have t-jointed anchors that are punched through the cloth on one side and run through a hole in the tag on the other. When you bring home some new clothes you snip these things off (they are the devil to try to break) and you throw them away. But next time, look at them. Very straight mono-filament nylon cord. Many even have a telescoping thicker-to-thinner portion that you can use for the really big multi-part barrels. And the t-joint at one end, with a little work, can serve as a pivot-mounted HMG. Over time you will find that they come in a variety of thicknesses (weights) on differing items of clothing.
I don't know where to go to deliberately buy this stuff. So it isn't something you can just determine you need, and go and get. You have to plan in advance. But after a couple months of deliberate collecting after every shopping spree, you will have enough saved up to handle any repairs that you may need. At least you will if you have a wife and four children, like me. If you don't have quite so many consumers in your home, you may need a bit more time to collect your treasure.
