"Basing Tanks & Vehicles" Topic

I'm just about to complete painting my first 15mm armies of 40 German tanks & 30 Russian. Now it comes to the decision on whether to base them or not.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the need (or not) for putting them on bases, pros & cons, does it depend on the rules you use, what about sizing, most of the pics I see seem to show vehicle bases about the same size as the model.
What bases do you use?

I don't base vehicles.

I base for the reasons below…

1) To protect the fine detail tracks on miniatures, especially if the miniature is not on level ground terrain. The tank tracks on some models are individual track components.
2) Give a player the base edge to grasp vs. the hull of the miniature.
3) Allows minor terrain decoration on base.
4) Basing material is cheap…. floor tile. Cut to size of miniature with bandsaw, pliers to round corners, and file to clean up edge.
5) Keeps the miniatures from rubbing miniature hulls together in storage box.
6) Match the same height as the based infantry so no height distortion.
7) Allows for base unit labeling, identifying vehicle type, or command structure marking off the actual miniature vehicle. Not all player known what a Vickers VIIb is for example.
8) Gives some weight to the lighter plastic miniatures vs. the metal variant.
9) Increases the stability of the miniature.
10)…..

Miniatures in collection are 20mm or 1/72, based for FOW gaming, but generally could be used for any rule set. Acknowledge not 15mm but the same reasons above can apply for the topic question. Approximately extra 1/th or 1/4" overlap around the miniature. Same for artillery batteries, anti-tank cannon etc for gun and crew basing.

Many examples on blog showing miniatures in FOW gaming situations:
link

Michael aka WR

For 15's base them, if for no other reason than to diminish the "tank parking lot" syndrome.

I glue a steel base underneath for storage and transport in magnet lined boxes. But I choose a size you can't see.

Agreed. The smaller the tank, the more important is labelling and magnetic basing for protection, but it can be useful even in the larger scales. I just wish the "issue" FOW bases weren't sloped. It defeats a lot of the purpose.

I base all vehicles, normally on thin plywood slightly larger than the vehicle. Main reasons from TMPWargamerabbit's list are 1, 2 and 10 – it allows the use of magnabase which protects the models in storage and transit (and I fix turrets with a blob of white tac to reduce the risk of them falling off and getting damaged in transit whilst still allowing them to turn).

I strongly dislike the look of based vehicles.

It is a matter of taste.
I have based to protect the guns that project off the tank, or if the model is too small or delicate to handle otherwise.
The group I play with, generally does not base.

Based vehicles are the work of Shaitan.

Well, TMPWargamerabbit has convinced me.

Does anyone make FOW sized bases without the fiddly sloped edges?

Litko.

I do as Extra Crispy does. And for the same reason.

I do not base vehicles.

I don't base vehicles in 15mm. Aesthetics for me, but with my storage boxes I don't need to magnetize anyhow. I tend to color code the rear fenders for ID purposes.

I base all my vehicles for the same reasons listed above, be they 2mm or 20mm.

They are much easier to safely store and transport based too, even if they take up more room.

I'm with Mako

John T

I dislike based vehicles artisticaly. More importantly it restricts the ability for the vehicels to sit well on roads where you may need them to overtake on roads that are not out of place by being too wide.

I base all my vehicles…

It helps with storage, transport, use, durability and I also like the look it offers and the ability to build small vignettes on some.

It also matched them to my figures… which are also based.

I base them.
My pet hate though is overly thick bases. Most commercially available bases are horribly thick, and make the vehicle / figures look a bit daft.
So, I make my own (really not hard) using 1.5 mm skin ply for 20mm and 0.5 marine ply for smaller

If you go back to the pioneers H G Wells, Don Featherstone, Charles Grant etc. no one based anything. Even ancient and horse and musket armies the figures are all singles. Basing seems to have come in with WRG and the 70's. In general I have never bothered to base my vehicles except motorcycles, although my 1/56 scale stuff is, mainly as I have a lot of the early AGNM which were supplied based and it was easier to base the others than remove the AGNM bases. I get round the bashing issue in transit by using foam inserts to seperate the models. Works well. One of the problems with basing is that whatever way you base them at some point a tank will be driving down a road dragging half a field with them or vice versa depending on your choice of base. Have never found the height of based figures vs unbased tanks a problem, particularly with 15mm as the tanks at 1/100 were already over scale compared with the infantry to allow for the infantry figures basing. Which is why some of the Battlefront stuff looks odd as they stretched the height of the tanks to allow for infantry bases.

"I'm just about to complete painting my first 15mm armies of 40 German tanks & 30 Russian"

You're gonna need more Russians . . .

I also don't base vehicles until I get down to motorcycles. . . well for most games. But I do have a growing collection of 15mm for Megablitz rules (each base=battalion) and then I use thin clear acrylic. Clear stand lets the terrain show through and the bases are needed as some stands have multiple vehicles or mixed vehicle/infantry.

Kelly do you base the infantry on clear bases too or just vehicles?

Well currently it is a makeshift arrangement for megablitz. All vehicles are on clear bases. Infantry is usually on flocked wooden base that I have lightly glued onto the clear base. Some of my later bases I do have the infantry glued right to the clear base.

BTW, not sure if this is a FOW-only topic or not, but I don't do FOW.

I intend to base all my vehicles but often just do not bother!

martin

Based my 10 mm and 6 mm vehicles in a vain attempt to have them moved by holding bases rather than the vehicle. My 20mm vehicles are not based. Not sure what I would do with 15mm, would depend on how robust the model is, but I do agree with some of the points against basing- they look wrong if based for "open country" and you have them on roads.

Thanks very much guys, lots of info to mull over.

Kelly, you mentioned needing more Russians, funny you should say that, I ordered some SU 100s & 152s last week, the 152s arrived and have been undercoated, got a refund on the 152s as he was out of stock on them, the 30 & 40 are just the ones I'm completing.

Any links to pics from those of you who base them so I can have a gander?

Well I think TMPWargamingrabbit said it all…I do base my vehicles as I use 1:48 scale models.

P.

The other point is that it helps wheels stay in place – attached to the model – especially if dropped… not that any of us will ever have dropped a kit :-)

Based on many years in the hobby I find that at conventions, at least, no matter how thick the bases, the players will inevitably pick up the stand by the figure or vehicle. For those who do use a magnetic storage/transportation system then the metal stand spanning the width of the treads but not visible is a nice touch. As for myself I do base my infantry and infantry weapons on metal stands but choose to go au naturale as it were on my vehicles. I find the foam compartments in the various Army Transport type cases work fine for transporting.

I don't base my vehicles except for bipedal walker tanks which have to be based to stand properly. I only play games around the 28mm scale so I don't see much of point to it. My plastic tanks are large enough that I can glue in all the spare metal sprue pieces I have in the hull making them considerably heavier. Each vehicle is clear coated has their own foam compartment to protect them. I use very thin bases for infantry that at 28mm doesn't really make the troops see that much bigger (at least height wise).

Additionally, I view basing as a necessary practicality when it comes to troops. If I could play with no effect without basing I would. I understand some player's desire to make mini dioramas, and many of them are quite excellent. I am in the camp of not wanting my units dragging half the battlefield with them everywhere they go or to clash with the table as much as possible. I try to go as generic and boring as possible with my bases as to not clash too much for what ever table setup is chosen be forested, urban, or deep winter. The lack of any base, of course, means that the vehicle matches any table quite well with the exception of the dark mud I cover the tracks/wheels with but I try to not over do the mud so it isn't so noticeable.

I strongly dislike the look of unbased tanks and vehicles … (go for unbased or based for both figures and vehicles not one without the other – and as unbased figures are impractical … )

I like the aesthetic.

Anyway, I prefer games with a groundscale (indeed I generally find games without groundscale a bit of a nonsense) so I like the idea of defining the real estate the vehicle (or indeed, figures) take up.

I dislike 1:1 games, and having the vehicles on a base helps break the idea that is, actually, literally, just the vehicle as shown.

In fact, I can't think of a single reason for not basing vehicles.

Indeed, haven't played in games with unbase vehicles since I was at school …

Phil

In fact, I can't think of a single reason for not basing vehicles.

Oh come on Phil you aren't trying hard enough! :-) Cost and time would be a couple of good reasons.

You're gonna need more Russians . . .

Well that's pretty much always the case, isn't it?

I've based my 15mm vehicles to fit with the infantry, plus transport damage is less likely. Larger stuff I leave unbased because it looks wrong, but that's probably because I never based my Airfix vehicles when I was a kid!

I base figures to make the little s stay upright, and to make the task of moving hundreds of them less laborious. They also have a specific role in gameplay, eg. they may delineate units or sub-units; casualty figures can be used to denote some element of a unit's state; etc.

These bases are the absolute bare minimum in size and conspicuousness that's consistent with this. I have a deep aesthetic aversion to grossly overbased figures wherein the bit of the unit the owner is proudest of is apparently the base rather than the unit.

The fashion for piling two bases on top of each other is even more mystifying. I suppose it's necessary if your table is so big you can't reach the middle, and you have to move units with a croupier's rake. Otherwise it reminds me of that odd thing in gyms of blokes wearing two pairs of shorts at the same time.

Can't think of any good reason to base vehicles unless they'd fall over if you didn't. Motorbikes etc need bases; tanks and trucks don't fall over if unbased so they don't. I can see the argument for basing to equalise height off the ground but this is not that much of an issue in my preferred 1/32 scale. The figures are correctly proportioned to begin with so you don't start with the problems you have in smaller scales of the metal figures being morbidly obese alongside the resin or plastic tanks and making them look small.

If the bases were that important in the rules I used, I think I'd just play with empty bases with no figures on. Otherwise where does it stop? Maybe buildings should be based, with big intrusive in-yer-face labels giving their hit points etc. Hedges, hills, tress and other terrain features should be based wit their gameplay values noted. Shell holes should be based with their depth and value as cover noted.

I see every such bit of extraneous clutter added to the table as a constant reminder that you're not looking at reality. You want to suspend disbelief and the stuff that wasn't there in real life interferes with that and obstructs my fantasy.

At one time, in HO and Micro Armor we based only the MicroArmor infantry. Then we decided to base everything. Because of practicality in storage and carrying around.

The company-per-stand ruleset like Great Battles of WWII has different sized bases for different unit types. This means you could use any scale miniature(s) that will fit on that base. But for the condensed ground scale probably 15mm is the maximum scale. So I made magnet facing-up company stands that received my steel-based GHQ for platoon-per-stand Command Decision with minimum fuss and could be re-used for CD easily.

A plus of having varied stand sizes representing units is that you can test the game rules initially with the stands that are "sabots"… with minimal set-up. Cut up cardboard in a few hours and play a game. Although if you just cannot stand to game without figures, spray paint and Pico Armor (or OO from European sources) can get a game going in little time.

Another point to bases…

Having a uniform platoon sized stand simulates the tactical footprint of tactical distances between vehicles in a platoon which would not vary for a Panzer II versus a Tiger II. However without bases, gamers tend to bunch tanks together otherwise and so can fit Pz IIs than Tiger IIs. But the real commanders would avoid this "Chevy Car Lot" formation seen in many games because of artillery barrages that would immobilize masses of vehicles quickly when packed together so tight.

I like Wargame Accessories steel stands because they are thin and strong. Otherwise thick bases becomes too apparent for my taste. As others have said the steel is sturdy even when thin and adhere to magnet lined boxes.

If you think that you may use a given vehicle on different terrain, you could paint the reverse of the steel stand a different terrain color* and attach a strong Neodymium magnet to the bottom of the vehicle. This might work with Micro armor but might need 2-4 such magnets for 15mm. Like from link

PS to 4th Cuirassier: I agree with your point about clutter (counters and other abstract markers). I prefer "naturalistic" markers. E.g. I used rubble on Skirmish stands and differnt brick colors represent squad affiliations. Similarly, I have added various colored bushes as company and its position (left, right, center) as which platoon. I particularly don't like flags, colors and if feel I must have text, it's very small so not so noticeable in a panoramic view. I was using boulders to represent the company commander in a desert theater game. Actually they were bits of kitty litter! But logs (twigs)and their positioning could work too.

*My stands are green on one side and sand on the other but this is mainly for Volley & Bayonet and ranks of troops mounted on business card magnet material. The ranks each represent a strength point (about a regiment) and easily removed when hit and so avoiding "roster" record-keeping.