"A quick question about basing 10mm ACW" Topic

Hey everyone, first time posting on the forums and I'm new to the hobby and I just had some questions about basing some 10mm figures. I just bought some Old Glory figures that should be arriving soon and I wasn't sure what size bases I should use and where to even get them from because I don't have the tools to make them myself.(or room for them for that matter) If my research is correct Old Glory figures come in 5 man strips and I think I want to put 2 of those strips back to back per base. The plan is to use 4 bases to represent a regiment so I can move the bases around to show different unit formations. Any help would be much appreciated.

Basing will depend on the rules you intend to use.
I make all my bases from artist's mount board. Cheap and easy – just cut to size.

I would go with 1" X 1" bases.

Bryan

Hi Mike.

I use 4 on a 60mm x 30mm with room for a couple of skirmishers singles in front of the first rank – so you might want to go with 30mm squares or 20 x 30s. Mine are based for grand tactical kind of games like Altar of Freedom or Volley and Bayonet in which each base is a regiment (or larger).

I used to cut my own but gave up on that – I now buy them in bulk from a laser cutting mdf shop like Litko or others you can find on ebay. I buy mine from Minibits/Pendraken in the UK minibits.net because they well priced and their shipping to Canada is better than postage from the US from Litko.

Have fun – I really like this scale.

Way back when I was very into 10mm, I discovered mini dominos. They are/were off white, dense plastic. I don't recall the exact size now, but I was able to easily put 4 x 10mm figures on one. The thickness gave you something to grab besides the figures. I've never been a slave to exact base sizes, but then I was also providing both armies. We were playing Advance the Colors for ACW, ad Principals of War for Franco Prussian.

Second the recommendation of artist's mount board, and a paper cutter to go with it is a good investment. Alternatively, I understand Litko will now sell you a 1.5mm thick base, any dimensions you want.

But yes, basing depends on rules, and rules depend on size of battle and table space. I can make three suggestions.

First, take a look at the battles you want to be able to refight, and the size of table you have available. This gives you your ground scale. If those 5-man strips take up an inch, and you want 8 of them in two ranks for a line formation, you have a 4" frontage. If you want to fight Gettysburg, that had better be a brigade. If you want to fight Ball's Bluff, it can be a regiment. It CAN be both--if you're careful to use rules with different ground scales but compatible basing.

Second, if you're going with those Old Glory 10's--and they are nice figures--be sure your rules are either a roster system or a stand/unit removal, because you don't want to try marking which castings on that stand are dead and which ones alive.

Third, experiment a little with rules and basing both before you invest a lot of time. Some of us like to paint more than we like to play--but NONE of us likes to rebase, and "it seemed like a good idea at the time" is a frequent and sad lament.

And welcome to the hobby! It's great. Don't mistake my caution for discouragement.

Welcome to the Crazyhouse,Mike!

If you do a TMP search for "10mm Basing",you'll get more suggestions than you can shake a bounce stick at(plus links to pics and blogs). Here's one such thread:

TMP link

I don't have any of the ACW line(yet),but since the strips are already "terrained", for my 18th century stuff I decided to try "no basing"--I simply glue two strips,one behind the other,on a piece of steel paper,trimmed to match the strip footprint. I keep them in boxes lined with magnetic sheeting,which holds them securely. When I run out of the steel paper, I suppose I'll have to switch to thin flexible steel,as that is more available in the US,but it shouldn't be a problem.
The drawback is having to pick up stands by the figures,which is abhorrent to some people. You'll have to decide if you can live with that. I'm willing to make the tradeoff,as I really like the look in 10mm.

One advantage of this is that you can make multiple-stand shadow bases topped with magnetic sheeting in various configurations for various rule systems,without having "double-thick" bases,thus giving you some flexibility in basing from the beginning.

Good luck,and let us know how your project goes.

The first priority must be to make your bases compatible with your rules, but having said that I have found one inch square bases very flexible. I mount infantry in 2 ranks of 3 and use magnetic movement trays. The spacing looks OK and not squashed or uniform. The square bases mean I can use the same movement trays for columns and lines merely by turning individual bases through 90 degrees (OK I also move the position of the command base). With regiments of 5 bases, a 3X10 figure column is easily transformed into a 15x2 line.

I use wargameacessories.com #24 1" x 7/8" galvanized metal bases. Fits 8 men in formation in 2 ranks of 4. In march column it is the proper 4 men wide. In line, it is the proper 2 ranks and dense like a period battle line. I also make all the figures have the same pose on the base. Each their own, but I don't like the free for all non-disciplined open order look. Just doesn't feel CW to me. Like grahambeyrout I generally use magnetic movement trays. The same base also fits a cannon and crew and 4 horsemen in a single rank line.

Addendum to my earlier post:

I saw on another thread that the advancing strips are slightly longer(possibly up to 1/4 inch) than the marching strips, which would make my method difficult to do,especially if you want to mix them. Why this was done,I don't know,unless the advancing poses simply take up more room(the bases were not done by the sculptor).

That said, the French infantry in the WSS line are on slightly wider bases than the other infantry,but a bit of base clipping allows them to fit fairly well with my nominal one-inch frontage per strip.

Whether this would work for the ACW line,I don't know. I hope to be able to see them at Historicon.

BTW, I second Wargame Accessories.

I got Black Powder for my ruleset. I was looking at Volley & Bayonet and Altar of Freedom because I wanted to fight large scale battles where you could out maneuver your opponent but after seeing some demos of Black Powder I kind of fell in love with its lightness in rules and the command and control aspects. I will probably try other rulesets eventually but that's where i'm gonna start.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Much appreciated.