There's nothing too complicated involved in assembling Chee-Chee's base but the trick was always going to be achieving a seamless finish. To make life a little simpler I cut a back plate from 2mm plasticard. This helped to hide a multitude of sins and gave me a stable foundation for the wall. I popped the polymer clay cobblestones off of the wooden cube and carved out an indent where Chee-Chee's fist makes contact with the ground. I then used Extra thick superglue to fix the elements together making sure the cobblestones were pressed down into the indentation. Next I set the base aside so the glue could set overnight
The next day I used milliput to fill in all the gaps and seams and left it to set (once again overnight). Then came the start of what turned into a Christmas sanding marathon. First I used flat files and then increasingly fine grades of emery paper to level off the surfaces. Even after sanding there were a lot of little dinks and dents and the wooden cube would required a lot of work to get the smooth seamless surfaces I wanted.
To help achieve this I've used Mr. Dissolved Putty. This is a thick liquid putty that can be painted on with a brush and, once dry, sanded to a smooth finish. I've never used this product before but I'm now really impressed with it. I built up a few solid coats on the wooden plinth and spot applied over the dinks and dents. Sanding needs a light touch but results in a very pleasing satin smooth finish. The only drawback is that the putty dries slightly translucent so it can be tricky to see the surface clearly.
With the base assembled it was time to drill the holes for pinning Chee-Chee and the lampost in position.
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