"Single basing for 6mm skirmish" Topic

I am intrigued by the notion of 6mm skirmish. Not sure I will do it yet, but I am thinking on it.

Somewhere I saw someone using a hole punch to punch out magnetic sheet to make disks suitable for basing 6mm figures individually. I suppose they allow ease of storage, and maybe allow figs to be easily grouped on larger metal bases/trays for movement.

It seems a sensible way to handle it. Anyone want to comment on the likely problems with this scheme?

I originally intended to use small metal washers, but the magnet idea rekindled the topic in my mind. I'd welcome any basing ideas, any recommendation on tools to use, etc.

Jim

I've thought about this as well. The scrapbooking hobby has hole punches of different shapes, which I thought could be used to help identify different troop types. e.g. circles for riflemen, stars for commanders, etc.

I imagine it can be done.

Not sure on the basing though, since the figs are so small, relative to the base. Might still try small fender washers.

The GHQ figs are a bit oversize, so more like 8mm scale. I don't think I would want to use anything smaller than them, individually.

12mm scale minis by Minifigs are nice too, as are 15mm scale figs.

6mm can be an interesting skirmish scale, particularly in terms of the size of the playing area and the size of the miniatures. Check these TMP threads for more useful comments:

TMP link

One idea I was thinking of, was this.. Say you are going to do ACW skirmish using the popular Brother Against Brother (BAB) rules. In that rule set (normally for 25mm figs), 1 figure represents 1-2 men. So for 6mm, mount 2 figures on, say, a 15mm-20mm washer but all firing and casualties is done by base (so a unit consists of 10 bases = 20 figures. If you take a hit, you lose a whole base). A 6' x 4' playing surface should be more than enough.

I use 9mm thin washers for basing and use magnetic cards for storing figures on. 30cm X 30cm cork backed table mat as the base board, with cork tile hills and buildings based 2 or 3 to a group on 2mm thick cork matting to stop them moving around during play. So far so good – it all seems to work. I am enjoying modelling the terrain and gaming is good fun. Cheap too!!

Go to the Ambush Alley site

link

and look for whoa mohamed ? . He frequents TMP also. He is looking into doing Ambush Alley in 6mm. It sounds as if you two are kindred spirits.

Mike

I was thinking to use this as bases:
link

I've done it with GW's epic figures. Last time we had some trouble quickly telling who had what. I think I'm going to add a bit of color to bases.

I love the idea of sitting down to what turns out to be a large play area in a small section. I made what would be a large elaborate table on a piece of foamboard.

andy

I just cut bases from card and put magnabase on the bottom like any other fig. For 6mm figs, 10mm or 7.5mm bases seem to work OK.

Making the bases quite thick means you can colour code the base edges easily.

Thanks for the comments, all. I had actually seen the one thread Acharnement referenced.

There are photos of a wonderful 6mm skirmish Wild West setup, using small washers and sometimes small hex-nuts for bases so he can color code the sides as recommended by Martin.

link

The host of that yahoogroup is a fellow named Skipper, who is now working on 6mm vietnam skirmish.

Great idea, Barsoom, with the different shaped punches. That was just the sort of insight I was looking for in posting here.

Jim

Thorfin, you are doing what I plan on; small games, easily crafted terrain given the relative small size.

jim