C3G Tutorial for Dummies

[Griffin]

A C3G TUTORIAL

I realize that not everyone is as comfortable or familiar with custom Heroscape projects as they would like to be, and it can be a daunting task to try and re-base a figure or print an Army Card that is an official size if you have little to no experience.
This tutorial is specifically designed to help just about anyone get into playing with C3G customs, but there is also plenty of information here to help out with the sizing, cutting, basing, gluing, and techniques that are needed for other custom projects as well. Please feel free to take what you can from this tutorial, offer some other customizing suggestions, and as always, feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

From the Desk of the
C3G V.P. of Development
Griffin

1) Army/Glyph Cards

Spoiler Alert!

-Materials needed: Printer, Card stock, Scissors or hobby razor knife (recommended), suitable work surface for cutting.

-Saving: Download any one of our PDFs of an Army/Glyph Card and click the save icon at the top on the toolbar. Then choose the location you wish to store it in and click save.

-Printing with Microsoft: Open the PDF on your computer. Load your card stock into your printer and then click the print button on the tool bar at the top of the screen.
If you wish to print another card on the backside of your card (like the comic style), you will need to immediately load this page back into the printer the exact same way as before, only this time you will need to turn the page over to its other side. After you have opened the next PDF image, print it off once more. Your product page now should be two custom cards on either side of the page and be perfectly lined up with each other. To check and see it the two images are aligned, hold the page up to a light source.

-Cutting: Take your printed page with the Army/Glyph card on it, and place it on a suitable and stable surface that you don’t mind scratching with a razor or scissors. Try to avoid slick or smooth surfaces that could cause you to slip as you are cutting. I have found that an old computer mouse pad works great, as long as you don’t mind cutting it a bit. When cutting with a knife, it is important to keep your fingers away from the blade and always cut away from yourself, never towards you. Place the razor tip on the line around the border of the card and make singular smooth cuts one line/edge at a time. In other words, don’t try to cut around the corners or the paper may tear and you could end up with round or jagged corners on your card.

2) Glyphs

Spoiler Alert!

- Materials Needed: Sticker Paper, Poker Chips (Bicycle Poker Chips, found at Wal-Mart), Hobby Razor Knife, Suitable Work Surface For Cutting.

- Saving Images: Save the PDF Glyph image the same way you saved the Army/Glyph Card.

- Printing: Open the PDF Glyph image the same way you saved the Army/Glyph Card.

- Cutting: Now that you have your Glyphs printed on the Sticker Paper, you will need to cut the glyphs out. To do this, place the Sticker Paper on a suitable and stable surface that you don’t mind scratching with a razor or scissors. Try to avoid slick or smooth surfaces that could cause you to slip as you are cutting. I have found that an old computer mouse pad works great, as long as you don’t mind cutting it a bit. When cutting with a knife, it is important to keep your fingers away from the blade and always cut away from yourself, never towards you. Place the razor tip on the line around the border of the Glyph and make singular smooth cuts one line/edge at a time. In other words, don’t try to cut around the corners or the paper may tear and you could end up with round or jagged corners on your Glyph.

- Basing: Remove the backing of the cut-out Glyph and place it in the center of a Poker Chip or extra official Glyph if you have one. Be sure that each Glyph/Poker chip will have the same symbol side so that it will be impossible to identify unrevealed Glyphs. Once the cut-out is on the Poker Chip or Glyph, press the Sticker down firmly onto the plastic, smoothing out the surface starting from the center and working your way outwards.

You can also simply glue the power side of the glyph you print out over extras of any official glyphs you have. But if you don't want to mess with your official stuff, Poker Chips make a nice custom option.

3) Figures and Bases.

Spoiler Alert!

- List of Stores: Trollandtoad.com, Miniature Market.com, Ebay.com, Cavalier's Store, Impact Miniatures.com

- Materials: Hobby Razor Knife, Super Glue or Mechanics Goop, Bases, Base Stickers, Needle-Nose Pliers, Drill, Drill Bits, and Cotton Swabs.

- Debasing: Before taking a HeroClix figure or any other figure off of a base for Heroscape, first consider if it is even necessary for you to do so. Some figures may already have a suitable base. There are really only two criteria for a suitable Heroscape base: 1) the base is small enough to fit on a terrain Hex without overlapping, and 2) the base can fit snugly into a ladder rung from the Fortress of the Archkyrie Terrain Expansion.
I would like for you to know, that though it is not my preference, some HeroClix bases work well enough for Heroscape, with a slight modification. To modify a HeroClix base, you need to know that there are two functioning parts in the base. You have a shell that fits around the base and you have a wheel that fits into the base. If the figure is mounted on the “shell”, you may modify this base for Heroscape by popping out the wheel inside. Once the wheel is out, the base can now fit into a ladder rung. *NOTE* You should know that not every side of the base will fit into the ladder rung.
If you want to place your figures on a more suitable base for Heroscape, you will need to remove the figure from its current base. To do this, you will need to grab the base with a sturdy pair of needle-nose pliers and then use the razor knife to cut the feet or any other parts of the figure away from the base. Please remember to keep your fingers away from the edge of the knife and to always cut away from yourself.
Sometimes you may find it difficult to remove a figure form its base without risking braking the figure. If this is the case, you may want to try separating the the two separate components of the Clix base (the inner wheel and the outer shell). Once separated, you can grab either side of the base that the figure is on, and snap the base in half, freeing up the mounted figure.
Some HeroClix figures come mounted on a clear stand that represents them flying, I recommend not using the entire stand, as it will change the height of the figure during game play. However, there are some figures like Hawk Girl from our C3G “World’s Finest” DC Master Set, that have only one foot mounted on this clear stand. Fortunately, the figure is easily removed from this stand by tugging the figure away from it. There is a small peg in the figure’s foot that slides into the stand, you will want to cut the end of that stand off just below where the peg stops inside of the stand. You can now glue that piece that you cut, on to the figure's peg for a more stable surface when you base the figure. If you choose to base the figure directly onto the base without the clear stand, but the figure is glued onto the clear stand, you can help to brake the bonded seal with a pair of pliers by simply crushing, snapping, and snipping away at the clear stand until the figure can be freed.

- Basing: The first thing you need to grab now is a new base. If you have some extra figures from a Master Set for example, you may decide to remove those figures from their bases by pulling them off or cutting them away from the base as is mentioned in the Debasing part of this tutorial. However, the “official C3G” bases are found in the link at the start of this section. These bases are durable, affordable, and almost identical to the size and shape of a Heroscape base.
Once you have your base, you will need to finish off its official look with some professional base stickers, designed and distributed by our very own Heroscaper Cavalier. Cavalier’s store can be found in that group of links as well.
Now all that’s left is gluing the figure to the base. There are two things you will need to do to prep the figure and the base.
First you need to cut a small portion of the sticker away from the base where the figure will be connected to the base with your hobby knife, if you intend to stand the figure's feet directly on top of the base. You need to do this so that the applied glue latter on will be binding the plastic figure to the plastic base, as oppose to bonding with sticker paper that will tear over time. Be careful not to cut the holes on the sticker larger than the feet or contact surface of the figure, you do not want any of that cut away sticker being revealed beside a foot in the end. One way to achieve this, is to follow A3N's suggestion.

Originally Posted by A3n

I have just (about 30 minutes ago) thought of a step that makes the re-basing slightly easier. Instead of drawing around the foot I pinched my sons stamp pad & press the feet into it & stamp the sticker. Because the stickers have a semi-gloss finish the ink actually forms at the edges of the feet, clearly defining where I should cut. Now it doesn't save a truck load of time but when you are doing a few, it sure makes it just that little bit easier.

Cheers

As always, use extreme caution with the knife. Keep your fingers away from the blade by grabbing the base with needle-nose pliers. You may place cotton swabs between the pliers and the base to avoid scratches.
Now you need to prep the contact surface for some “Custom Figure Bonding” You will need to score the surface area of both the figure and the base. You only need to score the portions that will be in contact with each other. To score, you will need to carefully cut a grid of intersecting vertical and horizontal lines into the contact surface. This is the most dangerous part of this tutorial, dangerous to the figure and especially dangerous to you. To help keep your fingers away from the edge of the knife, you may grab the figure or the base with the needle-nose pliers and cotton swabs between the pliers and the plastic to avoid any scratching.
Once your prop work is done, you are ready to apply the glue. There are two really good glues that are widely available, Super Glue and Mechanic’s Goop. Super Glue has a very nice and strong bond, but I find that it is expensive for how little amount of it you get, it is hard to pull off at times because you have to hold the joints in place while it dries, it doesn’t bond well with all plastics, and is annoying when it gets on your skin. Mechanics Goop however, cleans off of your skin easily, comes in a large tube for the same price as Super Glue ($2-$3), it bonds to just about everything (even glass), and it is a bit putty-like while it dries. Having putty consistency is nice, especially for beginners, because it allows you to play with it some and even mold it a tad. Mainly though, its texture and slower bonding qualities allows you to mess up some before it sets permanently.
Whichever product you choose, it is important not to goop it on too thick. If you do, you could end up with a small unsightly mound of excess glue piled up around the contact surface. Be sure to apply the glue to the figure, not the Base. Apply the glue evenly to all parts of the contact surface on the figure.
Now place the figure in the correct location of the base and hold it there until the glue sets enough to where it will hold it there on its own.
It is OK if the glue on the contact surface of the figure is touching the sticker paper on the base, this will not weaken the hold because the figure is bonded to the base.
On the other hand, if you are basing a figure with a peg in its foot, what you can do is get a small drill bit slightly smaller than the peg and drill the hole through the base at the precise location and angle that you want the figure to be placed. Once the hole is drilled, you should be able to snugly fit the peg in. If the hole is too small, you can go back in with the drill and rock it around boring the hole ever so slightly until it is big enough for the peg to fit into. Now you need to put a thin layer of glue around that peg, push it in, and drop a couple of drops of glue above and below the base where the peg is.

Let these finished products sit for 24 hours before playing with it or throwing it in with the rest of your figures.



Here is a link to a post with some pictures by Hahma demonstrating how to use the tutorial. Thank you Hahma.

[IAmBatman]

Reserved for future comment on future tutorial.

[Griffin]

Top post edited , all I need for sure is some great links to the appropriate stores. Any help Bats?

[IAmBatman]

I'm going to have to read through this one at a later date. Not sure my brain can handle it right now with all these student papers.

[GreyOwl]

Good job, Griffin!

I'll add a note on resizing my templates. They are scanned and created at 300 DPI, and if you use a program that is graphic-aware of that fact (like Photoshop) then you shouldn't have to do any resizing. They come out an exact match. It's only if you use other programs that try to "help" you by autosizing images that you will have to manually resize it back to where it should be.

[EternalThanos86]

I think that the instructions for re-basing a flying Heroclix figure (like Superman or Hawkgirl) are unclear. I propose devoting a larger section with some visuals to that area in particular, but likewise for the entire tutorial.

[IAmBatman]

And no ... I don't want to take any for you ...

[GreyOwl]

Once you get this finalized and get pics, I can format this just like a rulebook Griffin, and we can make it into a PDF.

[IAmBatman]

Cool idea, GO! Sure you're not getting burned out with all these edits on the rulebook?

[GreyOwl]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Cool idea, GO! Sure you're not getting burned out with all these edits on the rulebook?

Uh, well...it is getting kind of boring revising the same rulebook over and over again, but I don't want to put something out there that isn't good, either. So we'll do what we have to do. Besides, I've been working on that side project I've been talking to you about, and that keeps it interesting.

[IAmBatman]

Good stuff. I think the transition to more ala cart will be good for all of us, though, when the time comes. After that, you'll only be doing PDF editing of that degree when someone decides to pass through new rules additions.

[GreyOwl]

And, unfortunately, I may be the first to put through a new rules addition (vehicles).