Figure Flats For Wargaming and RPGs

Like every gamer I like having metal or plastic miniatures on the table when doing grid-based combat¹, but am increasing less enthused when it comes to the job of basing them³, prepping them⁴ and painting them, as this takes time I'd rather use to be playing.

So I've fallen back on an old idea, made new again first by Stephen Jackson (or GURPS fame) and later by several others, of cardboard representations of the figures mounted in some sort of base.

The disadvantages boil down to "not a three dimensional figure" and "can easily blow over if clods abound". The advantages are that the artwork is often superb and large collections can be transported with a fraction of the time and trouble three-d minis cause.

Steve Jackson's Cardboard Heroes were assembled as "tents", so the figures resembled upside-down letter Vs with a base that could be stuck to a coin for heft.

Pathfinder sells collections of high quality thick card "Figure Flats" to match their printed products⁵ that are sort of like cardboard tombstones in shape. They are designed to slip into a grooved set of jaws of the special bases they sell. These bases are not cheap either, because they are quite complex mouldings made, unless I miss my guess, by injection moulding. Dies represent a hefty investment - they have to be fabricated using machine tools, which is why small companies don't do plastic injection very often.

Precis Intermedia make a series of figures that can be assembled as triangular prisms, flats and counters, and also sell a rather nice base to take the flats. These are the bases I prefer to use as they are much less expensive than the Pathfinder ones and actually grip the thinner card likely to be used to make them. Precis Intremedia actually sell PDFs of these figures for download and print-at-home..

Pinnacle Entertainment Group, the company that puts out my favorite RPG system Savage Worlds also make a range of settings for the basic system, most of which (but not all) also have an available line of figure flats for purchase. These are intended to be assembled as triangular prisms and so have three faces, one of which is a black silhouette and the other two a full-color depiction of whatever it is.

I have extensive collections of both Pinnacle's and Precis Intermedia's product lines, but I prefer the figures to be presented as simple two-sided flats, with a rear and front depiction. I also prefer the figures to be slightly larger than either company chooses to make them so that the detail prints properly on inexpensive home printers that cannot get anywhere near the resolution of a professional printing press. So, to get a usable figure collection I have to do a bit of work.

Job one is to import a page of figures into a program like Photoshop or GIMP so they can be re-engineered. The Pinnacle figures are usually presented in a tight matrix that makes good use of the card available but is not suitable for flats to be mounted in a clip-base. I pick out the figure I want, and carefully extract two of the three panels from the original (one side image and the rear silhouette).

Using the rulers and guides in the graphics program I carefully scale the image appropriately. With Necessary Evil, for example, the PC Villains were scaled to be larger than the NPC aliens, which in turn were scaled up slightly so they would print cleanly. For Deadlands I made the figures, which started life at about 1.25 inches tall (including whitespace) 1.5 inches tall. I then carefully added a half-inch tab to the bottom of the character. This is what got printed, on high quality matte paper.

The printed figure art was then stuck to card using rubber cement. This is a decent bond for the duration of the preparation, but won't last long in play as the glue gradually loses its grip.

The figure was then carefully cut out using a sharp Xacto knife, the fold line scored and the figure folded and glued into a flat. It was now a two-sided cardboard affair of decent thickness⁶ with a tab. This I wrapped with heavy duty clear Scotch brand wrapping tape. I started about halfway down the tab on the rear side of the flat, wrapping the tape over the back of the figure, across the top, back down the front and cutting enough to fold over the bottom and cover the initial start point of the tape. The sides of the tape wre then trimmed flush with the sides of the flat.

The wrapping was done for several reasons, starting with the fact that rubber cement does not form a durable bond with the card. Wrapping over the top and bottom not only made sure the paper would not come away from the card backing, it formed a durable point at which the base attached - slipping the figure into the base posed no threat that the paper would be torn away from the card by the jaws of the base itself.

The glossy tape also made the card figure durable vs greasy dimwit player fingers, and gave me a nice erasable surface on which to write with wet- or dry-erase pens to indicate special status or wounds or whatever.

So not quick as far as preparation goes, but oodles quicker than painting.

1. In which the RPG sort of strays into board game territory in the name of clarity and fun. Some hate it and prefer Theater of the Mind², but I see useful applications of both techniques↑
2. In which all combat scenarios are enacted in the players' heads and no miniatures a re needed. All RPG combat was like this at first↑
3. i.e. gluing them to a base and then dressing the base to look nice↑
4. An endless process of removing the casting lines and flash, changing out patrs for others in order to make the figure unique, bending or cutting/regluing to change the pose etc↑
5. Bestiaries and Adventure Modules↑
6. Because two layers of card, yes?↑