"Basing Question: How should I base 1000 minis?" Topic

OK< I've acquired about 1000 various microarmor models from GHQ, C&C and H&R at various flea markets over the past five years.

Now, I want to base them.

I am thinking of 1" squares for the guns and tanks, and .5" squares or circles for the infantry.

Any thoughts on basing material? There are so many choices, and storage will obviously be an issue after they are based. (Right now they are in storage drawers…. for small parts…

Please state your thoughts, and reasons behind those thoughts.. Ie: Plasticard because it is cheap, balsa wood, cardboard, MDF, metal, magnetic, etc. Right now I am LEANING towards metal, but I have not finalized yet.

P.S. Hope to do a diorama of Prokhorovka when I am finished, although I'll have a lot more tigers than Adolph ever did!

Thanks,

Daniel

I've used both steel bases (Wargames Accessories) and 1/32" ply wood from a hobby store. Anything as flat (thin) as possible.

I like the 3mm wooden bases, as they are easier to pick up, and don't get snagged on the mat. For size, I go with a minimum of 1" wide (larger if the model needs it), and a minimum of 1" long (larger if the gun barrel projects off the base).

Pretty much with Bill. Thick enough to be picked up without handling the troops, which for me is 3mm or 1/8". As for length and width--well, obviously not too small to be readily handled--say at least 1"--but I'd think about ground scale and representation before I made the base too big. Do you want your companies to be able to vary the positions of the platoons, or to put crew-served weapons in particular places? And you don't want to have to place supporting armor ON the infantry stand.
In microscale, I use 1" stands, stand=platoon and 1"=100 yds, figuring that even in assault the platoon won't take up less frontage than that, but you may see things differently.

Hi Daniel:

I've been doing the same thing with my collection, you can see all the gory details here:

TMP link

I use steel. It allows my collection to then be stored and transported in magnet lined boxes. I can hold a box sideways and not lose so much as a sausage. I dropped a box once and despite minor damage to the corner of the box, not a single tank so much as budged.

For size, I go semi-custom. A tiny PzII looks lost on a 1x1, while a Panther won't fit. A couple things to think about:

Do you want the length to be long enough to protect the gun barrel? Practical but perhaps less attractive.

Do you need room at the back for a unit ID? If you use thick plywood you can paint it on the rear edge (though good luck reading it during a game). If you go on top that's more space at the back you need. I go with on top, using colored beads as unit ID.

As for thickness – even when mounted on 3mm thick bases every gamer I know still grabs by the mini. It's just natural, and easier when things are tight in BUAs, during assaults, etc. I hate the look of troops up on soapboxes myself.

Recent work:

Awesome responses so far. Thanks! Curious, though as to why a Panther won't fit on a 1" by 1" square. Or a Tiger. They are both about .5 inches wide at 1/285. and 1 inch long as well. Those, and SU-152s. would probably be my largest vehicles.

Also: I appreciate the comments regarding easy of pick up. But I've always been reluctant to base small scale miniatures (say 10mm on down) on thick bases. IMHO, they look like they are mounted on huge plateaus! Anyone else feel that way? Or does ease of use (i.e. pick-up-ability) trump aesthetic concerns?

Cheers,

P.s. Extra Crispy: Love your models! I wonder if the camouflage of either Russians or Germans was as good as yours?

Daniel

Daniel:

If your base is 1" long, and you need room at the rear for a unit ID of some sort, the bigger tanks look cramped and the barrels extend over the front edge.

I originally based with plain steel small enough you couldn't see it – magnetized the tanks without any excess base. With the re-do I decided for full bases.

I'm with you on the plateaus – that's why I use steel for everything.

For 6mm stuff, I find standard base sizes help an awful lot with storage as they tesselate together neatly. I use 30x30 which is big enough for most WW2 stuff (including infantry). Smaller tanks/vehicles may get multi based.

Artists mounting board is cheap. durable, easy to work with and has a degree of friction to stop elements sliding off hills (something which is a real problem with plastic and too a lesser extent, metal).

So I put everything on mount board, with just simple Terrain Scenics flock.

Steel for me. No bouncing around in the carry case.

I'm basing mine on 30mm x 30 mm which is, I think, standard for Spearhead and means they can be used for other rules I play, like battlegroup. Using the 3mm mdf, but I always add an underbase of self adhesive magnetic strip, as my figures are stored iin metal filing trays.

I use two sizes for micro: 1-inch squares for infantry, engineers, and all smaller vehicles, from a Kettenkrad to a Bradley; and 1 x 1.5-inch bases for all MBTs, larger engineering vehicles, heavy trucks, most ARVs, and so forth. The larger bases protect gun barrels better and allow some basing to be seen. I use super-thin Litko wood bases for both, glued to magnetic sheet, which creates less of a pedestal-effect for the miniature. I snagged a large pile of such sheet from a company that was going out of business years ago, and so have a pretty good supply of large 2 foot-by-3 foot sheets; otherwise, I would just have ordered magnetic backing from Litko.

This stuff does not warp, even with the basing material applied.

I glue the stands to a sheet of magnet with contact cement (which is stinky, so do it outside) or spray adhesive. If you go the latter route, work in small quantities as the adhesive dries quickly. I work in maybe 5 x 8 inch sheets of magnet/stands at a time, and then cut out the stands with a Stanley knife. This is a fast, one-cut per side affair.

For basing material, I use artist's natural sand, or resin sand in some cases, depending on the desired effect. There are many similar products, all of them excellent for terrain effects. I buy this in jars at the art supply store, put it on with a small artist's tool, and leave it to dry overnight. It is not expensive and a single jar lasts for months. It dries very hard but can be sanded if necessary. You can also model terrain features with ease, or embed rocks or trees, etc. On recce stands or for M577s, for example, I usually model a small berm or depression in which the requisite vehicle looks a bit hidden. I paint it all brown (usually Delta Ceramcoat Autumn Brown), give it a thick black wash, then highlight lightly at least once in a tan- or sand-coloured paint, and do the rocks and so forth, if you've added them, in a grey, with a light drybrush. Then some white glue, slightly thinned, to apply flock or static grass or rocks, in patches or as a full treatment, or the occasional fence, followed by a spray of Dullcoat to hold it all together. I also run a black Sharpie around the edge of the base to create a better visual link to the table, and to hide any colour variation or paint that has slopped onto the magnet/wooden base around the edges.

Glue the miniature to the base (I use Gorilla Glue for this, which has a nice, thin applying nozzle), and that's it.

I don't use vehicle markers per se, but I write on the black magnetic sheet beneath the base with a white paint pen the unit's ID, so something like "3-5 A/Cmd" might be Command track of A company of the 3/5th mechanized battalion. The ink is removable with a light scrubbing, even after it sets. It lets me ID the thing if I turn it over, but doesn't clutter the table with tags/labels.

In the storage drawer, battalions sit on MDF boards with 1.5-inch square labels identifying each battalion in the upper left. I made those from an Avery online template, printed them on Avery adhesive, and then mounted them on thin Litko bases which are then mounted to the 'battalion board'. This was a bit of bother, but useful. The drawers themselves are large metal map cabinets.

I hope this is helpful. Have fun with the basing, and congratulations on all those flea market finds!

I hope this is helpful.
YEP!
Have fun with the basing, and congratulations on all those flea market finds!

There are plenty more, especially at the three HMGS-East conventions.
It's like people are getting out of 1:285 …

I base my infantry on pennies.

Advantages: Cheap, available, and rugged. And available. Did I mention availability? See I just HATE it when I'm 2 stands away from completing a unit, and I run out of stands. I can always find a couple pennies laying about.

Disadvantages: Not responsive to magnetized sheets. Heavy.
Well, any metal base will add weight to your storage/collection. But alas pennies don't stick to magnets.

I don't base my vehicles.

Except in cases where I need a base to keep the pieces together (like a vehicle towing a trailer or a horse-wagon team). For those cases I use sheet plastic.

For my guns, I base the gun crews but leave the guns themselves loose. In this way I can base a battery of gun crews, but have the chose of 2 or 3 different guns depending on the unit/year I am gaming.

Here you see Romanian AT gun crews, using Bofors 37mm AT guns. The same crews can also man Bohler 47mm guns or Pak 97/38 AT guns. The Melaxa (UE Chenilette) gun tows with trailer are based, those without are not.

A game table pic. US M3 Tank Destroyers taking position in front of a battery of French Armee d'Afrique 75mm guns. I much prefer not to base if I don't have to. I prefer the look of the game table. In this case the gun crews and infantry are on plastic sheet … they were based before I settled on pennies.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

For UK readers, British pennies dated after 2004 are magnetic, pre 2004 aren't.

I'm with Mark I. I have over 200 micro armor and like to play them for desert and European scenarios. But I do base AT guns on a thin sheet of clear non-painted plastic because they are so small. Basing them will make them look out of place in one environment or the other. I only spend a couple of minutes painting them so they are not a work of art I need to preserve. For infantry units I use counters from board games.

Wolfhag