"The Joy of Re-Basing" Topic

I'd rather shave with a belt sander.

Good topic.

Rebasing is a good opportunity to rebase tatty figures and/or buy and redo parts of an existing collection.

It is also a pain in the **** if it happens to become necessary and the troops affected are ones you cherish as amongst your best.

So it varies a lot according to which little guys are affected. I usually make the best of it and end up quite enjoying fiddling around and renovating.

Phil
soawargamesteam.blogspot.com

Re-basing is for girls……..

(runs away and hides)

The true joy is is going to rebase figures you bought at the flea market, only to discover the figures have been epoxied or superglued on to their current bases. There's nothing like having to use a dremel tool to free several dozen figures from their old bases. That's why I always base with white glue when possible, so if there's a need to rebase, at least the un-basing will go quickly.

Chris, soak the figures in VERY HOT WATER™ up to their knees. That is great for degrading epoxy or superglue bonds.

I had to rebase all my old AWI figures because the newer figures were too big to fit on the old size bases.

Before that, my WRG Ancients went from small, individual bases (sometimes) to "elements".

Ah, good times. The pads on my thumbs have healed so well you can hardly see the scars.

Wait, wait, wait… Re-base figs for a new rules set?

If THAT'S not a reason to buy new armies, I don't know what is.

all my troops are on single bases and placed on movement trays as needed.

It can be a curse.

The secret is not to base yourself into a corner in the first place but to consider something which gives you flexibility.

As a home based gamer providing both sides for games making the basing of opposing armies is compatible, there aren't many rules that can't be tweaked to fit what one has. Most of my stuff is to a DBx/FoG 40mm norm for 15mm

The only "error" I ever made was to be too fascinated by the Principles of War single unit basing on a 90 x 30 frontage for pike and shot, 80 x 90 for tercios and 90 x 30 for horse. I'm now in the middle of re-basing here to the norm I mentioed asbove.

And just following J the O's point. When re basing take the base off the figure and not the figure off the base. I've had my share of broken ankles over the years.

Its not that I hate re-basing, its just I am worried about messing with my paint job getting it off of the base!

I use clippers and put them at the bottom of the figure base and just clip. It is rare that they don't come off pretty easily.

Having finished rebasing the SYW some time ago, I am looking speculatively at my FoG Gallic army's Warriors.

Medium or heavy infantry? Faster or tougher in combat?

Hmmm. 5 Battle groups of 8 bases each.

Why not?

I am in the process of rebasing my entire collection of Indians (from India) for FoGR. This may not be the best time to ask my opinion on rebasing.

Like the guy who was asked why he was hitting himself on the head with a hammer: "Because it feels so good when I stop."

My reaction is, and I qoute, 'AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH"!!

All my figures are individually based, as I collect for and run games that require it: space fleets, giant stompy robots, and 28mm skirmish.

Al | ravenfeastsmeadhall.blogspot.com

Wait, wait, wait… Re-base figs for a new rules set?

If THAT'S not a reason to buy new armies, I don't know what is.

I'm not as rich as you…
I usually use RTV gasket sealer, as it comes off the easiest.

I base my miniatures individually in my chosen system. I do not change that to accommodate rules, but I do put them on sabots.

The rebasing horror stories that one has accumulated over the decades of wargaming… Ooooh!

From Chainmail to WRG 3rd to DBA to Warhammer… The tings I've put my men through, it's a wonder they've never gotten tetched with me. (And yes, I still play with figures from the 70's. They're old friends. Some new paint, an occasional dab of flocking, they're good to go)

I only do it if I absolutely have to. Few rules are so inflexible that you can't use the stuff you've already got with a bit of imagination (and rosters, hit markers etc).

Rules which absolutely, positively need rebasing will generally go in the bin unless they are really good.

Rules come and go but figures last forever.

I based some recent medieval figures the DBx way almost without thinking about it since it is a de facto standard. Now I'm rebasing them as I find DBx basing unsatisfactory now. Its a bit of a chore as the figs were attached with superglue and miliput used to texture the bases. Fortunately the bases themsleves are MDF so I'm soaking them off but care still has to be taken.

I did toy with rebasing my FoG based 15mm Yorkists for Bloody Barons as I seldom play FoG now and it wouldn't take too much time or money to get Lancastrians as opposition. Then I remembered that they were superglued onto steel bases, I couldn't have made it harder to do. Leaving them alone was a good decision, FoG basing works perfectly for Impetus, you just put the bases together to make units.

I avoided re-basing for years but over the past two years I have been doing a ton of re-basing – I finally figured out that a SYW battle with 15 battalions or so per side moves a lot faster when a battalion has six four-fig stands rather than 24 individual figs – while I have used movement stands, I find that the re-based units look better (I have also taken the advantage of new materials to make much, much better looking bases, which make my mediocre painting jobs look better)

That being said, while the new units are more convenient and look better, the time spent re-basing would be better spent painting!

I prefer indivisual bases for modern--post WWII--I find it easier to maneuver individual troops. OFM, Connard cover me I'm going to slipa around their left.

Agree with Frederick … multiple basing works better and looks better than individual basing (it also gives a unit a clear footprint that become important in the ground scale/troop scale equation) ..

Phil

I never do any real "basing"

just put the figs on a magnetic ruber stand, individually, and put a coat of sand color enamel on it