Russ has recently sprung for some metal bases for his 6mm Greeks and suggested I do the same for my Renaissance Spanish armies. They are much thinner than normal mdf bases, are less likely to move on the table and stick nicely to the magnetised sheets in my A4 box folders.
Of course they're not cheap and finding the right size is tricky. The Spanish need to be based for Principles of War - 3cm x 9cm. A non-standard size. Enquiries into a couple of companies who say they do these has revealed that they don't. So I need to look at extending the search or making my own.
I've seen some companies that provide metal sheet in 0.4mm thickness. Easy to cut but is it too thin? Perhaps a trial sheet needs to be purchased to give it a go.
Alternatively, thin plywood gives the thinness required (as I'm using Heroics and Ros figures, 2mm and 3mm mdf makes them look like they're hovering above the battlefield). But this may be prone to warping.
Decisions, decisions!
Update: http://www.freewebs.com/pwsltd/steelbases.htm These chaps do them in PoW sizes! 61p a pop.
Of course they're not cheap and finding the right size is tricky. The Spanish need to be based for Principles of War - 3cm x 9cm. A non-standard size. Enquiries into a couple of companies who say they do these has revealed that they don't. So I need to look at extending the search or making my own.
I've seen some companies that provide metal sheet in 0.4mm thickness. Easy to cut but is it too thin? Perhaps a trial sheet needs to be purchased to give it a go.
Alternatively, thin plywood gives the thinness required (as I'm using Heroics and Ros figures, 2mm and 3mm mdf makes them look like they're hovering above the battlefield). But this may be prone to warping.
Decisions, decisions!
Update: http://www.freewebs.com/pwsltd/steelbases.htm These chaps do them in PoW sizes! 61p a pop.
6 comments:
You'll need around 10-12 90 x 30mm bases so £7.32 is not too bad plus you do not need to magnetise them like you would with ply / mdf. I have spent a lot of dosh on that magnetic basing stuff and now I have discovered the steel bases I'm convinced regardless of the cost.
I love my steel bases and Ian carbutt at precision steel will do any
Size base required. I like the solid feel that they give to my figures and when sat on a magnetic sheet in my boxes they don't slide around..I have now started basing my 6 mm fences on long steel stands to give them a lot more support.
Plasticard is about £1.50 for an A4 sheet. You can cut it really easily into any straight sided size you want. You can stick magnetic paper underneath it. You don't have to order it as it is readily available from model shops. It comes in a variety of depths; I use 40 thou. You can stick metal figures to it with plastic cement, slide it around, change your mind where you want to put the figure, ping it, and stick it again. I could go on but I don't think anything else beats it's!
Papier-mâché is excellent,you use the newspaper from your fish and chips shop mix a bit of PVA and water and can make anything including camels that you can paint yellow. You can get the PVA from Tesco which is an excellent excuse if you want to go wargaming
I do like plasticard and its suitably thin enough to be a winner.
I don't like cutting it though as no matter how careful I am I never seem to get 100% square cuts.
I get my bases from Fenris games, they do 2mm ply, I will bring some in to show you
They will do any size
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