When to cut off?

[Spidey]

Hello gentlemen. I don't know if anyone asked this question already or maybe its never been asked before because its such a dumb question but here goes:

When should I cut the base off my plastic soldiers or horses if I want to place them on a better base/vignette?

a. After painting?
b. Before painting?
c. none of the above?



Thanks in advance

[Paul]

You can do either.
If you cut off before painting...then you pin the figure before painting.
If you paint and then remove the base...just use a sharp enough blade, supporting the figure on a towel or something similar as you free it from the base.

I use the second method..mostly.

[Maurice]

You could also leave the base on and build it into the new base.

[ModernKiwi]

I tend to build the base into whatever I am placing the figure on. If I'm not doing that, then I definitely remove the figure before painting the feet. No matter how sharp the blade, the paint on the feet/boots always gets destroyed.

[Paul]

I virtually never have any problem with the feet/boots being ruined. The waterloo RHA dio for example...on one I had to repaint the boots..the rest went fine. It does happen that the paint comes off and I think maybe to cut from the toe to the heel helps to stop this, also with a see-saw cutting action, not with force straight down.
Horses tend to be worse for loosing paint, but I´ve found that laying the nag on it´s side on some soft material (towel or similar) then cutting out from the middle (under the belly) out works without too much loss.
I also use the "build the base in" method as well. Saves having to prop up "unbalanced" bods and horses.

[Spidey]

Thank you for your answers. I thought there was an unwritten rule somewhere. Glad to know there isn't any and it all depends on our individual preference. I am mostly worried about ruining the paint job if I cut off after painting. So i'll be cutting of them feet first in my next projects. I've not cut figs off their bases before. Just painted and played...I mean displayed, my figures on their original bases.


Thanks for the tips.



Btw, ModernKiwi, you place the old base on the new one. That would mean you would make the ground work surround the original base. Kewl. Didn't think of doing that. I might try that too.

[ModernKiwi]

I do it like this:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3720

Cheers

[Spidey]

Oh yeah. I remember reading through this tutorial several times in the past. My 4mb memory is really showing



Thank you. This looks a lot easier than having to shave the feet off the base.